Only YOU Can Prevent Logging Old Growth on Federal Lands! Take Action By June 20th
06/13/23 • 28 min
As regular listeners may know, the Coast Range Association is a member of the Forest Climate Coalition, which is pushing for strong and durable protections of mature and old growth forests on our federal lands.
As you probably also know, mature and old growth forests are absolute superstars for preserving biodiversity and sequestering carbon. Both of those ecosystem services are desperately needed in the face of the twin crises of climate chaos and ongoing mass species extinction.
As an added bonus, they generously offer these services free of charge, and give us cold clean drinking water to boot! What’s not to love??
Well, the timber industry has long viewed our public lands as an extension of their own fiefdoms, and many of our public lands managers remain fully bought into an outdated and destructive model of "forest management" that prioritizes plantation style tree stands and harvest quotas above all other values.
And that’s where we come in!
After years of pressure from the conservation community and in the face of mountains of scientific research, the Biden administration issued an executive order on earth day on 2022(*) aimed at inventorying and protecting mature and old growth trees and forests on federal lands.
This could, and I am underlining could with a giant metaphorical sharpie here, be an absolute game changer, and everyone listening should be incredibly excited about the potential of that executive order.
Buuut - the devil is in the details, and the only way to get from Biden’s well meaning but vague executive order to actual lasting protections for our most important forests is massive public pressure and engagement towards the federal agencies tasked with implementing that order.
Enjoy the show, get inspired, and take action at https://coastrange.org/blmaction/
Show Notes:
Coast Range Association BLM Comment Page: https://coastrange.org/blmaction/
Climate-Forests Action Page (for both the Forest Service and the BLM: https://www.climate-forests.org/take-action
CRR #45- “Fighting for Mature and Growth With Lauren Anderson”: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1046044/11295389
White House fact sheet on President Biden's Executive Order on Forests: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-to-strengthen-americas-forests-boost-wildfire-resilience-and-combat-global-deforestation/
(*) Note: I incorrectly stated the year of the executive order in the episode, sorry!
As regular listeners may know, the Coast Range Association is a member of the Forest Climate Coalition, which is pushing for strong and durable protections of mature and old growth forests on our federal lands.
As you probably also know, mature and old growth forests are absolute superstars for preserving biodiversity and sequestering carbon. Both of those ecosystem services are desperately needed in the face of the twin crises of climate chaos and ongoing mass species extinction.
As an added bonus, they generously offer these services free of charge, and give us cold clean drinking water to boot! What’s not to love??
Well, the timber industry has long viewed our public lands as an extension of their own fiefdoms, and many of our public lands managers remain fully bought into an outdated and destructive model of "forest management" that prioritizes plantation style tree stands and harvest quotas above all other values.
And that’s where we come in!
After years of pressure from the conservation community and in the face of mountains of scientific research, the Biden administration issued an executive order on earth day on 2022(*) aimed at inventorying and protecting mature and old growth trees and forests on federal lands.
This could, and I am underlining could with a giant metaphorical sharpie here, be an absolute game changer, and everyone listening should be incredibly excited about the potential of that executive order.
Buuut - the devil is in the details, and the only way to get from Biden’s well meaning but vague executive order to actual lasting protections for our most important forests is massive public pressure and engagement towards the federal agencies tasked with implementing that order.
Enjoy the show, get inspired, and take action at https://coastrange.org/blmaction/
Show Notes:
Coast Range Association BLM Comment Page: https://coastrange.org/blmaction/
Climate-Forests Action Page (for both the Forest Service and the BLM: https://www.climate-forests.org/take-action
CRR #45- “Fighting for Mature and Growth With Lauren Anderson”: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1046044/11295389
White House fact sheet on President Biden's Executive Order on Forests: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-to-strengthen-americas-forests-boost-wildfire-resilience-and-combat-global-deforestation/
(*) Note: I incorrectly stated the year of the executive order in the episode, sorry!
Previous Episode
Is the Forest Service "Falsifying the Scientific Record" on Wildfires? With Chad Hanson, PhD
Wildfires are a fact of life in the American west. They have played a major role in our western ecosystems for millenia. But as the climate crisis deepens, and more people move into wildfire country, fires loom larger and larger in the public consciousness. Wildfires are reshaping everything from our landscapes to our politics, and the implications of how we respond to them will play a huge role in shaping our future.
In the midst of this, a scientific debate is raging over what the science tells us about how to protect communities and live with fire. At the heart of that debate is the Forest Service. As the manager of almost 200 million acres of land, there is a tremendous amount at stake in how the US Forest Service interprets that science and implements management policy.
So I’m excited to be joined by one of the authors of a new scientific paper alleging that the forest service has been falsifying the scientific record around wildfires in order to justify more logging on federal lands.
Chad Hanson is the director and principal ecologist for the California based John Muir Project, which he co-founded in the 90s.
Show Notes:
Countering Omitted Evidence of Variable Historical Forests and Fire Regime in Western USA Dry Forests: The Low-Severity-Fire Model Rejected
Chad's book, Smokescreen: https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813181073/smokescreen/
https://johnmuirproject.org/
Protect Mature and Old Growth Forests on Federal Land: https://www.climate-forests.org/take-action
Protect Oregon's State Forests: https://coastrange.org/stateforests/
Next Episode
(Updates!) "Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire", with Oregon Filmaker Trip Jennings
As we head into fire season, I wanted to revisit an episode from last year about an amazing documentary film called Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire.
After a nationwide theatrical release and over a dozen awards, Elemental has just come out on streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, Google play, and Vimeo.
Fire is, and always has been, a permanent part of our western landscapes and ecosystems, but the debate and policy prescriptions around how to protect our communities is shockingly disconnected from the science and and on the ground reality.
On this episode, we spoke with the director of “Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire” to learn about the realities of how we can co-exist with wildfires.
Trip Jennings is the Principal & Founder of Balance Media, a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and has won dozens of awards for his past films. His new film, ‘Elemental’, has been met with rave reviews, and is changing the narrative around wildfires.
“Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire” is available to stream on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vimeo, or at Elementalfilm.com
Show Notes:
Elemental: https://www.elementalfilm.com/
https://www.elementalfilm.com/streaming
Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology: https://fusee.org/
Oregon Department of Forestry Risk Assessment Explorer: https://tools.oregonexplorer.info/oe_htmlviewer/index.html?viewer=wildfire
ODF Senate Bill 762 Homepage: https://www.oregon.gov/odf/Pages/sb762.aspx
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