Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, in a memo distributed to staff of the US Forest Service last month, made clear he views lands under Forest Service management as under-utilized when it comes to energy production and resource extraction. Environmental regulations will be loosened in a bid to emphasize production at the expense of conservation, if Perdue’s blueprints are carried out the way he’s outlined them.
The memo instructs Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen to speed approval for drilling, timber harvests, and mining projects, while also hastening connection of broadband services in deeply rural areas and the construction of communication infrastructure that requires.
“Today, I am announcing a blueprint for reforms to further provide relief from burdensome regulations, improve customer service, and boost the productivity of our National Forests and Grasslands,” he said in the memo.
Environmental groups warily assume this is merely a way to sidestep conservation efforts in order to more quickly harvest timber and fossil fuels and allow far more grazing access in areas that have traditionally focused on conservation. Expediting environmental review typically means something closer to rollbacks of environmental protection.
“This is a roadmap to national forest destruction, and it’s painful to read,” said Randi Spivak, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands program.
“In the midst of the climate and extinction crises, Perdue offers a dystopian vision of expanding mining, fracking, logging and grazing in national forests. This will increase air and water pollution, kill wildlife and increase carbon pollution. It’s the extractive industry’s agenda on steroids.”
Republicans in Congress praised the memo, citing more flexible and streamlined approaches in areas like wildfire management that often requires cutting down trees and the environmental review that typically requires.
“This memorandum is a major step toward better management of our national forests and grasslands,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). “The healthiest forests are ones that are actively managed, not left susceptible to diseases and wildfire. For the past several decades, the Forest Service has not had its priorities straight in terms of proper management. I applaud Secretary Perdue and Chief Christensen for taking another positive step in improving those priorities. I look forward to seeing these new strategies improve the health of our national forests and grasslands, so we can continue to enjoy these special places for generations to come.”
Perdue’s guidance comes on the heels of rule changes at the Forest Service that roll back environmental regulations in order to speed maintenance of the nation’s public forests. The USFS brass say this is to help mitigate wildfire or speed small projects that have little affect on conservation; many environmental groups argue it’s a push to allow industry into public lands with little regulatory oversight.
Some of those rule changes allow for building up to 5 miles of new roads across Forest Service-managed lands before any sort of review is triggered, or the cutting down of up to 1,200 trees, provided habitat restoration projects are undertaken in nearby areas.
“We need modern systems and approaches and less complicated regulations to serve our customers and improve our delivery of the goods and services that the American people want and need,” Perdue said in his memo.
Conservatives conserving.
Welcome to 1984.
OMG – THIS IS TERRIFYING. THE NEW HEAD OF THE BLM IS ALSO ANTI- ENVIRONMENT. OUR POOR ANIMALS AND WE ARE SCREWED
The recommendations of Agraculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to the USFS are a THREATto the wildlands that belong to ALL US citizens, not just to those who aim to increase their wealth by butchering wildlands. Care to see what our wildlands will look like in the years to come? Simply go visit Europe and look at their “wildlands”. You won’t see any true wildlands unless you consider ZOOs to be wildlands. Their wildlands have long since been destroyed. Is that really what you want our beautiful wildlands, forests, wildernesses and grasslands to look like in the near future? We are so unbelievably lucky to live in a relatively young country that has unspoiled wild places. How about protecting it for future generations and for the sake of a healthy environment that we all need to exist.
Sonny Perdue is doing what we want him to do
No, Sonny Purdue is doing what his cuckhold president wants him to do.
well said!
This is sickening truly sickening. If we ever lose our public lands this country is doomed.
Why can’t they leave the forest alone !! The animals have nowhere else to go. Humans are so Selfish and greedy………
Humans are spoiled rats!
might cause a resurrection or even (better yet) a resurgence of the old monkey wrench gang?
Fortunately, it already has. Not enough troops on the ground though. We’ll all be bulldozed out of existence before too terribly long.
Despicable moves to surrender forest land to industrial interests. I’m a small business owner and believe in capitalism, but we need to carefully manage and protect what’s left of our natural resources. How long have we been fighting this tide?
While I am a Republican, yet I also recognize that when you give industry free liberal reign over remaining , uncontaminated wildlands, abuse and overreach ALWAYS results… We NEED fair regulations and a certain degree of restraint as to where the line must be drawn so that there is no over-drilling, over-logging, and over-development.
I’m actually praying for the welfare of all the wildlife after reading this.. because with the unbridled kind of attitude Sonny Perdue seems to have, the picture looks rather bleak for their habitat.
Destroying the world’s ecosystems for greed and profit is what the arrogant and selfish people today want. This is very saddening to read. Claiming it’s for the good is pathetic.
Those pesky regulations…
Land rapists. Hard language, but true. Get these locusts out of office 2020!
I kept waiting for the punchline, but there wasn’t one! Has Trump bribed/forced this guy to write this? At this rate you won’t have to worry about a bear stealing your picnic, it’ll be a hungry oil driller.
The Center for Biological Diversity has done more damage with their dozens if not more, frivolous lawsuits on Nation Forest Lands than even the Sierra Club. They know that not all the suits can be adjudicated in courts because of the unrealistic numbers they file and rely on settlements.
No. No. And no. Is there no end to their greed? Is there no respect for the planet? Willing to sacrifice all for a dollar in the spreadsheet. Just stop.
Aren’t all the citizens of the US their customers? This does not please me…..
I think the voters will use this as another reason to reject the current government’s approach to our wild areas. keep wild areas wild and people will visit them. it’s proven to bring in more money than extracting the energy/natural resources.
“The healthiest forests are ones that are actively managed, not left susceptible to diseases and wildfire” Yeah I mean it’s not like forests have existed for longer than mankind has been around… Does this guy even understand how nature works?
https://www.usda.gov/content/tell-sonny
When we click on this, what are we telling Sonny? I submitted a comment a few days ago that was never posted. I guess it was not inline with the other commenters or what the author claims. Can another view be tolerated?
Remember that you only have a voice if you vote. So vote to save what you love.
Trump’s Ag Dept. has signed agreements with 12 state governments mandating “fuel reduction” and “restoration” treatments on national and state forests. With deceptive semantics, skewed science, and timber town economics, the result will be tree cutting on a broad scale. On the flip side, scientists say forest preservation has a critical role in averting a climate catastrophe. Herein lies a call to action: the new armies of climate activists should direct some attention and support to the work of veteran forest protectors.
Idaho was the first of eight western states and four eastern states to adopt the Trump USDA program called “Shared Stewardship”(see http://www.fs.usda.gov , managing the land). In each state, it’s a collaboration of stake holders, heavily stacked with those favoring expanded logging. Stated goals of this initiative are: “treatments to suppress forest fire, promote forest health, and create jobs”. Administrator of the program, The US Forest Service, has a history of such “treatments”, it’s logging in various forms, and always has a money motive. Idaho’s collaborative initiative includes a token enviro group with a record of being soft on logging, the Idaho Conservation League.
This is another example of Trump reversing everything progressive or green; turning the EPA against the environment, rolling back regulations to protect clean water and public health, choking off the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, our bedrock environmental law. Trump’s base and local economies favor lifting regulations; it saves otherwise obsolete jobs while turning trees into cash.
The UN Climate Panel says: “Preserving standing forests is essential in removing and storing atmospheric carbon. Forests absorb carbon at an accelerating rate as they mature, but if they’re logged, most of this carbon will be released.” Oregon State Univ. and U of Idaho researchers found the wood products industry is Oregon’s largest contributor to carbon pollution, with twice the emissions of the transportation or energy sector. Temperate forests of North America are vital to our climate as are the tropical forests; don’t cry about Brazil if we don’t protect our own. See science based climate solutions, at “Project Drawdown”.
Do forests need human help, or do they flourish over time left alone? After a fire, salvage logging or natural regeneration? Widely respected conservation author George Wuerthner, author of 38 books including “ Wildfire, A Century of Failed Forest Policy” says: “A red flag goes up whenever I read or hear the Forest Service claiming that they are going to thin or log the forest to improve ‘forest health.’ Abundant evidence exists to suggest that periodic mortality—even significant losses—from drought, disease, beetles, fire, and other evolutionary processes create ‘resilience’ and ‘healthy forests.’ Indeed, there is even evidence that logging increases the occurrence of high severity blazes. Thinning opens the
forest to increased wind velocity and the spread of invasive flammable vegetation.”
Forest conservationist’s most effective strategy is legal action to enforce environmental laws. On the ground research and written “appeals” of proposed logging projects (to establish legal standing) is followed by attorneys arguing cases in court. Legislative bills are enticing, but politically challenged.
Cutting to the chase, the battle-scarred work of saving our country’s forests must be recognized for it’s vital role in saving our climate. Burgeoning climate action groups should identify veteran forest protectors and bring some attention and resources to their efforts. Your ideas on this subject, contact me, [email protected] I’m making a list of players.
Greta Thunberg: “There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little, and builds itself. It’s called a tree.”