Rocky Smith, a Denver-based forest management analyst and consultant of more than 40 years, is voicing “strong concerns” with the “Lower North-South Vegetation Management” project, 116,600 acres of scientifically-contested “wildfire fuel reduction” logging in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest in the Front Range mountains of Jefferson and Douglas Counties, 18,500 acres within protected Colorado Roadless Areas.
On episode 67 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), host Josh Schlossberg talks with Matt Peters, member of the Heartwood coordinating council, who covers the state of eastern U.S. forests and invites you to the 32nd annual Heartwood Forest Council on May 24-27 in Ohio.
May 24-27, 2024
Memorial Day Weekend
United Plant Savers Land Sactuary
35703 Loop Road, Rutland 45775
Meigs County, Ohio
Since 1991, the annual Heartwood Forest Council has been a forum where activists gather to forge the future of the forest protection movement. Each year we meet over the Memorial Day Weekend in a different part of the Heartwood region, to bring regional focus on local issues. This year we are holding the 32nd annual Heartwood Forest Council in southeast Ohio at the United Plant Savers land sanctuary.
Deanna Meyer, a small organic farmer in Sedalia, Douglas County whose property abuts the Pike National Forest, is sounding the alarm about a massive “emergency” logging scheme that studies show will increase the risk of wildfire burning down her home.
“The proposed North South Vegetation Management Project is making my farm, my family, and my neighbors even more vulnerable to fire,” Meyer says.
The U.S. Forest Service’s “North South Vegetation Management” project features scientifically-contested “wildfire fuel reduction” logging over 116,600 acres of public forest in the Front Range mountains of Jefferson and Douglas Counties, 87,813 acres of which falls inside protected Colorado Roadless Areas, with clearcuts up to 40 acres.
Continue reading “Farmer Bordering National Forest Opposes “Emergency” Logging That Studies Show Will Make Her Home Vulnerable to Wildfire “As of July 15, 2024, 900,368 acres of unscientific “emergency action” logging and burning has been approved or proposed across fifteen National Forests in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Washington.
On episode 66 of the Green Root Podcast, host Josh Schlossberg chats with Melissa Soderston, director of Tahoe Forests Matter, where she reveals a massive logging scheme planned for California’s carbon-storing public forests and how you can help locals planning to stop it.
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colorado) and Val Hoyle (D-Oregon) are co-sponsoring a bill to spend 30 billion in taxpayer dollars to log and clearcut carbon-storing public forests across the West, a scientifically contested scheme that would undermine President Biden’s “commitment to protect old growth forests on National Forest system lands” while ignoring proven strategies for guarding forest-edge communities from wildfire. [1][2]
On top of a scheme to log 3.5 million acres of Front Range forests, the U.S. Forest Service is now proposing to cut nearly 800,000 acres of carbon-storing national forests—including old growth—in western and north-central Colorado.
Continue reading “New Plans to Log Millions of Acres of Colorado’s Carbon-Storing Forests”This spring, Boulder County logged hundreds of large, mature, fire-resistant conifers in Caribou Ranch Open Space 1.5 miles outside of Nederland in violation of its own management plan. [1]
The first logging projects under a new federal “emergency action” loophole that allows cutting of National Forests without customary legal challenges by claiming “threats” from natural wildfires are quickly moving forward in California, Idaho, and Montana.
Eco-Integrity Alliance 