Tag: environment

“Logging that’s what this is about.” Not fire prevention

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.30.2025

Felon Trump’s attempt to open 59M acres of land to logging will severely impact California. There are 20 national forests in the State encompassing 4.4M acres.

The San Francisco Chronicle took a walk through the forest of bureaucratic procedure which will be required. When it’s all over the Felon Trump’s effort to destroy these national irreplaceable treasures may fail.

The powerful environmental lobby is ready.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.26.2025

“Logging, that’s what this is about,” said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “They don’t like anything that puts a stop to commercialization and exploitation. … Stripping protections from these last unfragmented national forests risks our drinking water, plants, animals and some of America’s most beautiful wild places.”

Last updated Dec. 5th, 2014 California inventoried roadless areas
Map: Emma Stiefel • Source: United States Forest Service; PAD-US; California State Parks

In California, 4.4 million acres across 20 national forests are protected by the rule, according to the Forest Service. It’s nearly 5% of the state’s total lands and includes stretches of such heavily visited forests as the Tahoe, Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus and Inyo.

Many of the spots that are protected border wilderness areas and national parks.

The Trump administration is seeking to undo a 25-year-old rule that shields nearly a third of U.S. Forest Service lands from roads and logging, including large swaths of California, notably areas near Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and Giant Sequoia National Monument.

The announcement of the repeal kicks off an administrative process that requires a technical review of what the impact would be as well as inviting public comment. This could take months, a year or even longer. If the rule is changed or eliminated, litigation will almost certainly follow.

Environmentalists insist that little good will come of revoking the rule. They say the Trump administration’s promotion of the action as a fire prevention measure is simply propaganda.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/forest-logging-trump-20392518.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2NsaW1hdGUvYXJ0aWNsZS9mb3Jlc3QtbG9nZ2luZy10cnVtcC0yMDM5MjUxOC5waHA%3D&time=MTc1MTM0ODQxODU3MQ%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=NQ%3D%3D

Felon Trump Ends Protection for 58M Acres of National Forests

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.23.2025

While the Felon President Trump is waging war in the Middle East back home he is busy destroying decades of environmental protections. Protections backed by presidents of both parties.

Callous Trump doesn’t care. As long as his golf courses remain pristine playgrounds for his wealthy corporate bankrollers.

Excerpted from The New York Times 6.23.2025

The Trump administration said on Monday that it would open up 58 million acres of back country in national forests to road construction and development, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century.

The unspoiled land in question includes Tongass National Forest in Alaska, North America’s largest temperate rainforest; Reddish Knob in the Shenandoah Mountains, one of the highest points in Virginia; and millions of acres of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho.

“Most Americans value these pristine backcountry areas for their sense of wildness, for the clean water they provide, for the fishing and hunting and wildlife habitat,” said Chris Wood, the chief executive of Trout Unlimited, an environmental group.

When President Bill Clinton used executive authority to protect the forests weeks before leaving office in 2001, it was hailed by conservationists as the most significant step since President Theodore Roosevelt laid the foundation for the national forest system. It blocked logging, road building and mining and drilling on 58 million acres of the remaining undeveloped national forest lands.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans to repeal the 2001 “roadless rule” that had preserved the wild nature of nearly a third of the land in national forests in the United States. Ms. Rollins said the regulation was outdated.

“Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common-sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,” Ms. Rollins said in a statement. She said the repeal “opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests.”

Environmental groups said the plan could destroy some of America’s untouched landscapes and promised to challenge it in court.

Edvard Grieg memorialized the beautiful Norwegian landscape with his Peer Gynt suites. Trump wants to destroy America’s environmental legacy.