24.5 Million Acres Under Threat:
7 National Forest, 6 National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and Department of Defense Lands. Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
30 Years Ago the Northwest Forest Plan was put into place to limit the harms of wanton timber extraction. Now 24.5 million acres of federally-managed lands in western Oregon, Washington, and northwestern California are under threat.
The re-writing of the Northwest Forest Plan is an abandonment of the last three decades of forest stewardship and good faith collaboration between forest advocates and government agencies. While the plan itself was never perfect, this amendment abandons what remains and all that was fought for since 1994.
While proposed changes to support tribal inclusion are better late than never, we cannot help but note the sudden surge in logging efforts under the guise of “fire safety”. Fire ecologies are complex and cultural fire must be returned to the land, but the effort to log to reduce supposed wildfire threat is the same old Smokey Bear that criminalized cultural burns to begin with.
Furthermore, the lack of clarity regarding “dry” or “moist” forests would allow older, previously protected trees to be taken. Coupled with proposed canopy reduction, we are concerned that the new version of the NWFP could increase the risk of uncontrolled fire.
The proposed changes to the NWFP are disastrous to the forest under the best of circumstances, and between the current federal administration and mass cuts to regulatory agencies, the NEC staff has low faith that the forest is going to receive the best, most biocentric application of this proposed nightmare.
Your public comment is needed!
The following key points are important to include:
- No trees over 80 years old should be removed from “moist” OR “dry” climates
- Clear guidelines need to be set, not left to the discretion of the local ranger
- Need to implement regulations that prohibit private leasing of public lands
- prohibit local government manegment of public lands, that would result in a broken mosaic of forest manegment practices that would impede ecosystems across watersheds and undermine processes for avoiding cumulative impacts…
- Avoid compromising habitat resulting in a taking under USFWS terms
- Carbon sequestration loss die to potential increased logging of previously protected areas
- Disguised as fire and fuel reduction, but is in fact logging that will lead to more intense fires and destruction.
WORSE THAN OUR LOWEST EXPECTATIONS
Remember for your comment to be counted…
Submissions of high-volume signatures onto larger org letters are counted as 1 comment, but many unique, personalized comments will be counted as a higher volume of comments—producing greater pressure to respond.
Make sure to include:
• How long you’ve lived in the area, “As a resident of Humboldt County for 30 years…”
• Hobbies, “As an avid birder, I feel that…”
• Credentials, “My experience as a biologist informs me…”
Public Comment is one step in a longer struggle to defend the forest and our Earth. Public comment allows organizations and individuals to challenge proposed plans, o er mitigations, and establish legal standing to sue in the future. However, defending the forest does not begin and end with this comment period.
Keep an eye on EcoNews for the many ways that forest, earth, and water defenders
resist the ever-increasing onslaught against our destabilizing planet!
HOW TO SUBMIT
Online:
Forest Service comment portal for NWFP:
https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=64745
Forest Service how to comment page:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r6/landmanagement/planning/?cid=fseprd1216886
Mail:
Comments may be physically mailed to the following address:
Comments on proposed NWFP amendment
R6 – Pacific Northwest Region All Units
333 SW 1st Avenue PO Box 3623
Portland, OR, 97208-3623