I cannot “like” this article- but I truly appreciate you bringing this forward. I. Am. So. Angry. About what this administration is doing. Truly an assault on every damn front.
That anger is the correct response. What’s happening right now is the deliberate dismantling of American institutions that took generations to build. The “shining city upon a hill” is being looted from within.
You are being cannibalized from within by the very American greed for land and 💰 that also destroyed Indigenous nations, enslaved black bodies, wiped out millions of bison and polluted water systems with chemical waste - never mind the environmental carnage American companies & armies have carried out world wide. Frankly, america has used "democracy" as a smokescreen to paper over the criminal and unfettered looting of this earth's natural resources. Your nation is not alone in this enterprise -- but the naked greed and corruption is on full display and it is breath taking in its scope and inhumanity. I weep for this planet and thank you for the work you do to protect it.
I’m extremely ashamed of this administration and can’t imagine what they will do next. In a way our forests are the last frontier and hold precious wisdom we may not yet understand. This is a final blow for me. Trump must go. What can we do to save our country from total destruction? Saddest days.
Next is defunding daycare, taking away money from Medicare and Medicaid to pay for a war that would none of us want to kill people that we don’t know they aren’t doing anything to us.
Well said, Jim. I feel quite derailed and distraught most days, as I must continue to show up to work and participate in a system that is increasingly anti-life and so often rewards those with the worst impulses. It’s an inversion of all that is right and good. The vice grip of extractive consumption seems inescapable, yet the closing of the Strait of Hormuz may be a pivot point.
You’re right about what you’re seeing. The mistake would be thinking you’re supposed to quietly endure it. You’re not. Systems don’t correct themselves. People force them to.
So don’t withdraw. Don’t numb out. Don’t play along more than you have to. Push back where you stand. Speak up. Make it harder for this to happen unnoticed. That’s the job now.
While I don't disagree with you my senators and house reps do not give two shits. Calling is useless I fear, it gets logged, maybe, and that's it. No people living around me here in Michigan, privileged people, give a shit. Its exhausting.
Well, my super conservative crusty Senator wrote back and hinted that he wasn't happy about it so give it a try. Plus, privileged people love to go hiking so I think this IS a privileged person issue. I also think you have a couple of good senators.
Maybe, but Slotkin is useless. A centrist & I even call her a republican cosplaying a democrat. Peters is retiring & doesn’t care. And ya, people living around me go about life as normal. 🤷🏻♂️
It is the job. Thanks for your leadership and reminder. Having been an advocate for 40 + years - i am familiar with the draining dance of incremental change. But I am experiencing a new level of overwhelm these days. As a women I am slack-jawed at the rollback of gains, as an environmentalist- I weep for the ways my fellow humans have lost touch with the planet that sustains us. The international mafia of oligarchs have us drinking from a firehose of regressive stupidity and cruelty at every turn, and sometimes you just need to turn your head away to stop from being waterboarded by these monsters in human form.
I sincerely & deeply appreciate your many years of advocacy. I live in the middle of Lincoln National Forest in southern NM & have visited many other of our national forests & parks & I despise this. We humans truly do need these natural spaces for our very souls.
The court cases will come; court just ordered PBS funding restored because Congress legislated and funded it, like it did BLM. Because GOP are very nervous for 2026 with Trump’s lowering poll numbers and inflation. And Americans who aren’t loggers or miners like the forests. Want kids to have memories of them they have.
So please don’t give up! Erin, thank you for your hard work and caring.
*NSFW: search “OSS manual” if you don’t recognize the phrase; there are unofficial updates around, too.
Glad to help. And it’s free. US government clandestine unit (Office of Strategic Services) published & distributed it in WWII for how people in Nazi-occupied countries can resist without getting killed.
How ironic that we can still access it for the same purpose. Spread the word — very carefully.
I’ve been getting gleeful financial alerts that “the largest transfer of wealth in US history is about to happen under Trump’s administration” and suggests “get in early to claim your share before this opportunity ends” and I’ve feared it had to do with gutting our public lands to hand over them over to private extraction industries. Money, money, money and the power it entails is all these people care about and it is their greed that drives their disastrous policies that are actively destroying our earth.
Please act now as Will is advising us to do. Our politicians need to hear from us loudly everyday! They want us to give up! Don’t let them win. Be part of the resistance and forward this story to everyone you know that loves public lands and the natural world they protect.
It’s not just trees. It’s everything. They’ll turn over every rock and kill everything this wild. They’re in the money business, not the human business or the humanitarian business or the environmental business. I never voted for any of this in my entire life. I have spent my entire life, trying to protect the natural world and all that that’s in it.
Genially, might I extend that just like every other social media platform, Substack uses the same "emotional" levers to boost content and help disseminate an author's note or publication—i.e., the more people see it, the more people read it, and the more people engage with it—especially when you have urgent, climactic, and dire rifle reports like this. "Liking"' is simply the vernacular for achieving this aim; it doesn't confer palatability or, not to be glib: "Yes, I enjoy reading about such devious, manifest, and wholesale devastation of our legacy of stewardship to the natural world." It is simply a sensor that reads a response and introduces more people to the post.
You Americans took democracy for granted and stopped protecting and cultivating it, now your country is turning into an authoritarian regime worse than Russia.
I’m not sure I am the intended recipient of your distillation of my exchange with the other commenter. I don’t disagree with your premise, and can only hope for something better to emerge for us all following this not unforeseen political immolation.
We were discussing this yesterday. His poll numbers are tanking, but do you think he cares? He’s a lame duck president anyway, and I believe his acolytes will distance themselves from him when the tide starts turning.
Thank you. I get it - yet there are a few posts that I simply can’t bring myself to hit that little heart button. I do leave a note of support for the author. Doesn’t happen often- but it does occasionally-
I understand, not wanting to click the like button on articles that devastate you or are about something horrible that is happening.
I dealt with this for quite a while in the past feeling like if I hit the heart, it means I like the subject matter.
The way I think about it now is, I’m offering up a heart to the author & thanking him for the very thorough and detailed article. Thanking him for the knowledge he has given me about the subject. Also, making me aware of a situation that needs to be amplified so loud that it breaks through the noise & grabs the attention of all like-minded people. This needs to be done in order for the masses to begin, pushing back hard against the theft of our heritage, we were preserving to pass down to our future generations.
I am so heartbroken I have no understanding how some humans can have such stone, cold hearts. i’ve always been told I’m too emotional. The people that say that don’t understand the empathy I have
for all forms of life, that radiates from my soul.
It is our job to spread the news to every possible person we can.
Clicking the heart does this, it amplifies the authors writing for many more to become aware & help in making the pushback possible & massive.
These vile, wicked, people must be held accountable!
Liking a story of real-time factual information doesn't translate into a solution of reversal in most cases. It's a case of after the fact that should never should of had to be written. The reporting of plans for public lands under this administration was exposed nearly a year ago. The protest for removal of the head of the snake that is allowing the destructive changes in this country never came.
America is that stupid kid that thinks it will never happen to me no matter how many ways you tell them. They have to see it to believe it. Then its too late.
This administration seems to get great satisfaction out of taking the wrecking ball to everything, and better yet for them if they can make a buck from it.
We need to do something about it. Join the general strike US, sign a strike card on their website to add to the number of committed people so the strike can start in full. There is a network, a plan, regional discord servers….stop waiting for someone else to do something and take action yourself.
I’m a Utahn. The anti-land movement here makes me sick. People singing Mike Lee’s and Governor Cox’s praises on this makes me even more sick. This is beyond heartbreaking.
Like red state ballot initiatives, you cannot support a position contrary to the priorities of the politicians you voted for. That's nonsense. Their support may come from indirect ignorance but it's still support.
I started my years with the Forest Service in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. The destruction of public lands will be a scourge upon this country. Total greed and grift without integrity.
As a proud utah RINO I will vote against Mike Lee forever. I need to write a sequel to my previous article about him, 'The Fig Leaf Senator.' This is bad.
You have to actually do something about it. Join the general strike US, sign a strike card on their website to add to the number of committed people so the strike can start in full. There is a network, a plan, regional discord servers….stop waiting for someone else to do something and take action yourself.
We spent our spring break last week in the Dixie National Forest between Grand Staircase Escalante and Capitol Reef. In Utah. On a trail with nothing around us but the waiting-to-bud aspens and melting patches of snow, my 9 year old asked me who takes care of these trails. “The forest service,” I told him. Tonight I am reading him this article and he reminded me of our conversation. “There will be no-one to take care of that trail now,” he realized, almost crying. And he is right. How this can happen is beyond me.
Will & Jim, thank you for this reporting, however bleak it is, and for mobilizing a community who cares about what Roosevelt and Pinchot knew needed protecting over 100 years ago.
Kristi, that’s a gut-wrenching story. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Dixie. It’s one of the best kept secrets on our public lands. It pains me beyond measure to know that it and the rest of Utah’s national forests will now effectively be managed by the snakes in the state capital. And it pains me even more that they’re taking this nationwide now. So many good people will lose their livelihoods and their life’s work. And our forests will be ransacked if this works the way the administration hopes. We’ll fight this with everything we’ve got.
The Forest Service and National Parks fundings have been cut for years and no, they don't always take care of the trails which is why do many of us all around the country have volunteered to maintain them. This will make things worse.
They're like a plague of locusts stripping our forests and ravaging our natural resources until nothing's left. Unlike the locusts, eating to survive, these people are greedy gluttonous grifters. After they've polluted, consumed and destroyed everything for money 💰, it will be too late. Then they will realize they can't eat, drink or breathe the money they hoarded. 🤑 🤑 🤑
Most of us look at a forest and see nature. This administration looks at a forest and sees $$$. I will be calling my senators. It is time to speak for the trees.
These people are cashing out our children’s future. When the living, breathing forest is gone it won’t be possible at any price to bring back what it does for us.
I had a 30 year career as an archaeologist and fire fighter with the Forest Service. I was proud of the work we did. Thank you for this article. I’m calling my senators (Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch) today and sharing this widely.
I’m also a FS retiree of thirty years. As a Lands Program Manager in Wyoming and Montana, I worked to ACQUIRE land. Thank you Jim for so clearly stating the end game here. I will continue to work to inform folks in Montana who love their public lands here how dangerous this is for the places we all love. Too many here and throughout the nation have no idea.
Aha! Will do. My Washington state Rep. and Senators, all Democratic women leaders, are fully in favor of parks and forest lands. Those trees are now our state paid for public education for more than 125 years. My mom's cousin's husband was the head of the Walla Walla Forest Service office for a long time. He was a great human being.
Congress likely didn't know, and Congress's spring break happens every year.
I've seen a pattern of anti-public lands/environment/wildlife announcements coming on a Friday night, around a holiday or an event like the Super Bowl, etc.--whenever people might be distracted. The goal is to exclude Americans from being aware of the announcements and/or from participating in public comments.
Another one: Chaco Culture National Historical Park opened up for drilling--announced April 1, public comments close April 7.
Another one: USFS "amended" (drastically curtailed) the process for public comments; announced Friday night; short comment period; and it worked as only ~2400 people commented.
We've seen Trump admin and Congress gut NEPA, ESA, etc. Bills such as the Fix Our Forests Act and the SPEED Act (currently in Congress...please let your reps know that you're a strong NO!) limit judicial review + ESA and NEPA. And they're going after public input with short comment periods and rule changes.
Does anyone else hear the voice from the grave of Ed Abbey calling for the resurrection of the Monkey Wrench Gang? Is it time to dust off my old Eco-Terrorism 101? I hear the drumbeat…
This is absolutely horrifying, Jim. I can’t say we’re immune from it either - even in New Zealand we have a government that wants to “fast track” approvals that will destroy land and ocean reserves.
I just don’t understand that some people think that way. It’s a tragedy for our next generations.
Hoping so much that the campaign to stop this is successful. Warm regards to you from Aotearoa.
Loud or loudly. Loud. And constant. We need to be loud and constant saying NO. To all those elected people who allowed this happen. These greedy pigs are just stepping right up while the keepers of democracy throw down fragrant rose petals in their paths. I have had it. An outrage too far.
Right you are Keith. This was a hard one to write. I've had the pleasure of working with so many wonderful people at the Forest Service over the years. I've stood in the Chief's office and looked at the painting of TR signing the bill that created the Forest Service. It's hard to contemplate what this will mean for so many good people let alone the public lands we all love and depend on.
I cannot “like” this article- but I truly appreciate you bringing this forward. I. Am. So. Angry. About what this administration is doing. Truly an assault on every damn front.
Thank you for the work you do.
That anger is the correct response. What’s happening right now is the deliberate dismantling of American institutions that took generations to build. The “shining city upon a hill” is being looted from within.
You are being cannibalized from within by the very American greed for land and 💰 that also destroyed Indigenous nations, enslaved black bodies, wiped out millions of bison and polluted water systems with chemical waste - never mind the environmental carnage American companies & armies have carried out world wide. Frankly, america has used "democracy" as a smokescreen to paper over the criminal and unfettered looting of this earth's natural resources. Your nation is not alone in this enterprise -- but the naked greed and corruption is on full display and it is breath taking in its scope and inhumanity. I weep for this planet and thank you for the work you do to protect it.
I’m extremely ashamed of this administration and can’t imagine what they will do next. In a way our forests are the last frontier and hold precious wisdom we may not yet understand. This is a final blow for me. Trump must go. What can we do to save our country from total destruction? Saddest days.
Next is defunding daycare, taking away money from Medicare and Medicaid to pay for a war that would none of us want to kill people that we don’t know they aren’t doing anything to us.
Well said, Jim. I feel quite derailed and distraught most days, as I must continue to show up to work and participate in a system that is increasingly anti-life and so often rewards those with the worst impulses. It’s an inversion of all that is right and good. The vice grip of extractive consumption seems inescapable, yet the closing of the Strait of Hormuz may be a pivot point.
You’re right about what you’re seeing. The mistake would be thinking you’re supposed to quietly endure it. You’re not. Systems don’t correct themselves. People force them to.
So don’t withdraw. Don’t numb out. Don’t play along more than you have to. Push back where you stand. Speak up. Make it harder for this to happen unnoticed. That’s the job now.
While I don't disagree with you my senators and house reps do not give two shits. Calling is useless I fear, it gets logged, maybe, and that's it. No people living around me here in Michigan, privileged people, give a shit. Its exhausting.
It’s literally one battle after another. I feel your pain, but you can’t give up. The aim is to wear all of us down.
Don’t do it…don’t let them get to you
Well, my super conservative crusty Senator wrote back and hinted that he wasn't happy about it so give it a try. Plus, privileged people love to go hiking so I think this IS a privileged person issue. I also think you have a couple of good senators.
Maybe, but Slotkin is useless. A centrist & I even call her a republican cosplaying a democrat. Peters is retiring & doesn’t care. And ya, people living around me go about life as normal. 🤷🏻♂️
It is the job. Thanks for your leadership and reminder. Having been an advocate for 40 + years - i am familiar with the draining dance of incremental change. But I am experiencing a new level of overwhelm these days. As a women I am slack-jawed at the rollback of gains, as an environmentalist- I weep for the ways my fellow humans have lost touch with the planet that sustains us. The international mafia of oligarchs have us drinking from a firehose of regressive stupidity and cruelty at every turn, and sometimes you just need to turn your head away to stop from being waterboarded by these monsters in human form.
I sincerely & deeply appreciate your many years of advocacy. I live in the middle of Lincoln National Forest in southern NM & have visited many other of our national forests & parks & I despise this. We humans truly do need these natural spaces for our very souls.
Unregulated capitalism is destroying the planet.
That’s what it is…being water boarded, and turning away. My heart feels so heavy with this terrible news.
Absolutely, Jim! Thank you for the poignant reminder.
“Sand in the gears” time. *
The court cases will come; court just ordered PBS funding restored because Congress legislated and funded it, like it did BLM. Because GOP are very nervous for 2026 with Trump’s lowering poll numbers and inflation. And Americans who aren’t loggers or miners like the forests. Want kids to have memories of them they have.
So please don’t give up! Erin, thank you for your hard work and caring.
*NSFW: search “OSS manual” if you don’t recognize the phrase; there are unofficial updates around, too.
And it’s easily printed 😄
Going to look up the manual you referenced, friend. 🙏
Glad to help. And it’s free. US government clandestine unit (Office of Strategic Services) published & distributed it in WWII for how people in Nazi-occupied countries can resist without getting killed.
How ironic that we can still access it for the same purpose. Spread the word — very carefully.
I’ve been getting gleeful financial alerts that “the largest transfer of wealth in US history is about to happen under Trump’s administration” and suggests “get in early to claim your share before this opportunity ends” and I’ve feared it had to do with gutting our public lands to hand over them over to private extraction industries. Money, money, money and the power it entails is all these people care about and it is their greed that drives their disastrous policies that are actively destroying our earth.
Please act now as Will is advising us to do. Our politicians need to hear from us loudly everyday! They want us to give up! Don’t let them win. Be part of the resistance and forward this story to everyone you know that loves public lands and the natural world they protect.
Sand in the gears time
Looted is the right word!!!!!
More like raped...like the pedofiles they are protecting 😡
🤬🤬🤬
Me too! 🙉🙊🙈 I cant close my eyes to this atrocity!
https://substack.com/@doughh/note/c-237848705?r=27vwbe
Looted is right.
Took the words from my mouth. Gasping for air here.
Without trees, we all will be soon enough
It’s not just trees. It’s everything. They’ll turn over every rock and kill everything this wild. They’re in the money business, not the human business or the humanitarian business or the environmental business. I never voted for any of this in my entire life. I have spent my entire life, trying to protect the natural world and all that that’s in it.
truth. they are our air and water factories.
Genially, might I extend that just like every other social media platform, Substack uses the same "emotional" levers to boost content and help disseminate an author's note or publication—i.e., the more people see it, the more people read it, and the more people engage with it—especially when you have urgent, climactic, and dire rifle reports like this. "Liking"' is simply the vernacular for achieving this aim; it doesn't confer palatability or, not to be glib: "Yes, I enjoy reading about such devious, manifest, and wholesale devastation of our legacy of stewardship to the natural world." It is simply a sensor that reads a response and introduces more people to the post.
You Americans took democracy for granted and stopped protecting and cultivating it, now your country is turning into an authoritarian regime worse than Russia.
I’m not sure I am the intended recipient of your distillation of my exchange with the other commenter. I don’t disagree with your premise, and can only hope for something better to emerge for us all following this not unforeseen political immolation.
Paul, we did. So now we’re working to fix that. Poland turned itself around, and that gives us hope — along with 47’s tanking poll numbers.
We were discussing this yesterday. His poll numbers are tanking, but do you think he cares? He’s a lame duck president anyway, and I believe his acolytes will distance themselves from him when the tide starts turning.
We know. You don’t have to remind us.
No, I don't think I'd say its turning away that far!
Yes, very sad and tragic. I just hope there's something we can do to change things someday soon!
💙 🫂 ⚖
Thank you. I get it - yet there are a few posts that I simply can’t bring myself to hit that little heart button. I do leave a note of support for the author. Doesn’t happen often- but it does occasionally-
I understand, not wanting to click the like button on articles that devastate you or are about something horrible that is happening.
I dealt with this for quite a while in the past feeling like if I hit the heart, it means I like the subject matter.
The way I think about it now is, I’m offering up a heart to the author & thanking him for the very thorough and detailed article. Thanking him for the knowledge he has given me about the subject. Also, making me aware of a situation that needs to be amplified so loud that it breaks through the noise & grabs the attention of all like-minded people. This needs to be done in order for the masses to begin, pushing back hard against the theft of our heritage, we were preserving to pass down to our future generations.
I am so heartbroken I have no understanding how some humans can have such stone, cold hearts. i’ve always been told I’m too emotional. The people that say that don’t understand the empathy I have
for all forms of life, that radiates from my soul.
It is our job to spread the news to every possible person we can.
Clicking the heart does this, it amplifies the authors writing for many more to become aware & help in making the pushback possible & massive.
These vile, wicked, people must be held accountable!
When that feeling hits, I remind myself that the heart means “I care about this.” Apparently, the algorithm notes it.
Liking a story of real-time factual information doesn't translate into a solution of reversal in most cases. It's a case of after the fact that should never should of had to be written. The reporting of plans for public lands under this administration was exposed nearly a year ago. The protest for removal of the head of the snake that is allowing the destructive changes in this country never came.
America is that stupid kid that thinks it will never happen to me no matter how many ways you tell them. They have to see it to believe it. Then its too late.
🫂 ⚖
This administration seems to get great satisfaction out of taking the wrecking ball to everything, and better yet for them if they can make a buck from it.
I can’t hit that heart either
I am so furious 😡
We need to do something about it. Join the general strike US, sign a strike card on their website to add to the number of committed people so the strike can start in full. There is a network, a plan, regional discord servers….stop waiting for someone else to do something and take action yourself.
Exactly. Angry, furious, appalled, horrified
Power? I thought everything he did was to assert power-🤷♀️ (break things because he can)
I can’t imagine we are important enough to him for him to want us angry.
I believe anger is what Trump is going for with this. What other reason is there?
I’m a Utahn. The anti-land movement here makes me sick. People singing Mike Lee’s and Governor Cox’s praises on this makes me even more sick. This is beyond heartbreaking.
The overwhelming majority of Utahans don't support this either, but they keep voting for them anyway. That's another story of course.
Like red state ballot initiatives, you cannot support a position contrary to the priorities of the politicians you voted for. That's nonsense. Their support may come from indirect ignorance but it's still support.
They *do* support this.
I started my years with the Forest Service in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. The destruction of public lands will be a scourge upon this country. Total greed and grift without integrity.
As a proud utah RINO I will vote against Mike Lee forever. I need to write a sequel to my previous article about him, 'The Fig Leaf Senator.' This is bad.
Seriously? We could do without the inference of violence.
I have no idea what you're talking about. Voting is what we do INSTEAD of violence.
I agree. Utah is one of our most beautiful states. Kiss the beauty and open space goodbye.
You have to actually do something about it. Join the general strike US, sign a strike card on their website to add to the number of committed people so the strike can start in full. There is a network, a plan, regional discord servers….stop waiting for someone else to do something and take action yourself.
I agree with you. I am beyond sick!
So sad that Utah has fallen SO LOW! 🤦🏼♀️💔
We spent our spring break last week in the Dixie National Forest between Grand Staircase Escalante and Capitol Reef. In Utah. On a trail with nothing around us but the waiting-to-bud aspens and melting patches of snow, my 9 year old asked me who takes care of these trails. “The forest service,” I told him. Tonight I am reading him this article and he reminded me of our conversation. “There will be no-one to take care of that trail now,” he realized, almost crying. And he is right. How this can happen is beyond me.
Will & Jim, thank you for this reporting, however bleak it is, and for mobilizing a community who cares about what Roosevelt and Pinchot knew needed protecting over 100 years ago.
Kristi, that’s a gut-wrenching story. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Dixie. It’s one of the best kept secrets on our public lands. It pains me beyond measure to know that it and the rest of Utah’s national forests will now effectively be managed by the snakes in the state capital. And it pains me even more that they’re taking this nationwide now. So many good people will lose their livelihoods and their life’s work. And our forests will be ransacked if this works the way the administration hopes. We’ll fight this with everything we’ve got.
The Forest Service and National Parks fundings have been cut for years and no, they don't always take care of the trails which is why do many of us all around the country have volunteered to maintain them. This will make things worse.
Thank you! I told him 💛Our forests is where we spend all the free time we have. As a family. This matters so much! 🌲
They're like a plague of locusts stripping our forests and ravaging our natural resources until nothing's left. Unlike the locusts, eating to survive, these people are greedy gluttonous grifters. After they've polluted, consumed and destroyed everything for money 💰, it will be too late. Then they will realize they can't eat, drink or breathe the money they hoarded. 🤑 🤑 🤑
Most of us look at a forest and see nature. This administration looks at a forest and sees $$$. I will be calling my senators. It is time to speak for the trees.
Well said.
Thank you for your irreplaceable reporting. Also I shared the Substack link and it is blowing up on Threads.
Thanks a lot Peyton. Tune in tomorrow. This administration has its eyes on another prized piece of our public land unfortunately.
NOT the news I was hoping to hear but it seems to be the trend 😭
These people are cashing out our children’s future. When the living, breathing forest is gone it won’t be possible at any price to bring back what it does for us.
Yep.
Yes, we all need to speak for the trees.
Dr. Seuss prepared us for a moment such as this.
I had a 30 year career as an archaeologist and fire fighter with the Forest Service. I was proud of the work we did. Thank you for this article. I’m calling my senators (Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch) today and sharing this widely.
Thanks Mark! For your service and for helping be the change!
Thank YOU for doing the important work of keeping us informed so we can continue the fight!
Ditto. Botanist here. Everybody: Call your Congress Critters!
I’m also a FS retiree of thirty years. As a Lands Program Manager in Wyoming and Montana, I worked to ACQUIRE land. Thank you Jim for so clearly stating the end game here. I will continue to work to inform folks in Montana who love their public lands here how dangerous this is for the places we all love. Too many here and throughout the nation have no idea.
This makes me ill
And it should I’m afraid. It’s devastating.
And the announcement was made when Congress is on vacation for 2 weeks...
Your rep or senators may be holding a town hall, so a great chance to get not only their attention but everyone in the room.
An excellent point Lyn
Aha! Will do. My Washington state Rep. and Senators, all Democratic women leaders, are fully in favor of parks and forest lands. Those trees are now our state paid for public education for more than 125 years. My mom's cousin's husband was the head of the Walla Walla Forest Service office for a long time. He was a great human being.
Are u kidding? They are vacationing while the rest of America cries..
Congress likely didn't know, and Congress's spring break happens every year.
I've seen a pattern of anti-public lands/environment/wildlife announcements coming on a Friday night, around a holiday or an event like the Super Bowl, etc.--whenever people might be distracted. The goal is to exclude Americans from being aware of the announcements and/or from participating in public comments.
Another one: Chaco Culture National Historical Park opened up for drilling--announced April 1, public comments close April 7.
Another one: USFS "amended" (drastically curtailed) the process for public comments; announced Friday night; short comment period; and it worked as only ~2400 people commented.
We've seen Trump admin and Congress gut NEPA, ESA, etc. Bills such as the Fix Our Forests Act and the SPEED Act (currently in Congress...please let your reps know that you're a strong NO!) limit judicial review + ESA and NEPA. And they're going after public input with short comment periods and rule changes.
Interested in your thoughts...
Grrrrr…😠😡🤬 WTF?!
Does anyone else hear the voice from the grave of Ed Abbey calling for the resurrection of the Monkey Wrench Gang? Is it time to dust off my old Eco-Terrorism 101? I hear the drumbeat…
YES!!! Amen, Bill. It’s definitely time to bang the drum and take action in the name of Edward Abbey!
As reading was thinking we will all have to be Julia Butterfly Hill’s now.
Damn, these people!
They look so self satisfied and arrogant
Corporate power has panted to exploit public lands
They have no conscience
💔💔💔💔💔💔
I just sent emails to all my FL reps and blasted a more refs on X. Here's hoping SOMEONE steps in and helps us fight this.
That sickening little grin on Cox’s face… what a bastard.
These people and their vile plans are ruining everything, everything, all at once, and I despise them on a visceral level. Our poor children.
This is absolutely horrifying, Jim. I can’t say we’re immune from it either - even in New Zealand we have a government that wants to “fast track” approvals that will destroy land and ocean reserves.
I just don’t understand that some people think that way. It’s a tragedy for our next generations.
Hoping so much that the campaign to stop this is successful. Warm regards to you from Aotearoa.
Thanks Sally! We'll fight this tooth and nail.
Loud or loudly. Loud. And constant. We need to be loud and constant saying NO. To all those elected people who allowed this happen. These greedy pigs are just stepping right up while the keepers of democracy throw down fragrant rose petals in their paths. I have had it. An outrage too far.
Hard to put into words.
Right you are Keith. This was a hard one to write. I've had the pleasure of working with so many wonderful people at the Forest Service over the years. I've stood in the Chief's office and looked at the painting of TR signing the bill that created the Forest Service. It's hard to contemplate what this will mean for so many good people let alone the public lands we all love and depend on.