A $358,000 grant from the office of U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) has funded the past and ongoing logging of treasured Jefferson County Open Space parks, Elk Meadow and Alderfer/Three Sisters, including mature and old-growth trees up to 211 years old (see photo from Denver Post).
A second $600,000 grant would finance the construction of a road, potentially through some of the most pristine old growth forest in Boulder County, Colorado.
Contact Rep. Neguse at https://neguse.house.gov/contact
On episode 72 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—host Josh Schlossberg proposes a tried-and-true strategy for an environmental movement that has literally been losing ground for decades in what is perhaps its darkest hour.
Evidence in a study funded by U.S. Forest Service, and co-authored by Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and the Colorado Field Office for The Nature Conservancy, shows that 122 acres of public forest outside Nederland “thinned” in 2015 in the name of “wildfire fuel reduction” burned at “high severity” during the 2016 Cold Springs Fire, destroying five homes, while the unlogged forest feet away didn’t burn at all.
Videos and photos taken in October within the Cold Springs Fire area in the Boulder Ranger District of Roosevelt National Forest show a sparsely treed landscape with blackened stumps directly behind a U.S. Forest Service sign, which, despite Forest Service replanting in 2018, has still not recovered. Meanwhile, the adjacent unlogged forest on private land, remains lush, green, and completely intact.
The U.S. Forest Service has opened its public comment period until December 4 for the largest logging operation in Colorado history, the “Lower North South Vegetation Management” in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest in the Front Range mountains of Jefferson and Douglas Counties.
The 116,000 acres of scientifically-contested “wildfire fuel reduction” logging includes 18,500 acres in protected Colorado Roadless Areas, with clearcuts up to 40 acres in size. Despite multiple press releases sent to every media outlet in the Front Range since February, not a single article has informed the public as to the existence of this project.
Fast moving fires are the most deadly, according to a new study out of University of Colorado Boulder, published in the journal Science.
These findings dovetail with other peer reviewed studies showing how “wildfire fuel reduction” logging opens forests to wind which can spread flames more rapidly to communities.
Colorado State Rep. Tammy Story admits that Jefferson County Parks are being “devastated” in the name of “Wildfire Fuels” Logging (clip from Save JeffCo Parks! Public Forum on October 10 in Evergreen, Colorado.)
A standing room only crowd of around eighty local residents attended the “Save JeffCo Parks!” public forum at Evergreen Library on Thursday evening to oppose the aggressive logging decimating Jefferson County Open Space Parks.
Video of audience segment and presentations.
Outdated land management practices in Utah’s Salt Lake and Summit Counties ignore a large and growing body of peer-reviewed scientific papers disputing claims that “thinning” trees protects communities from wildfires.
On episode 71 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—host Josh Schlossberg talks with Darrell Luebbe, former Park Patroller for Jefferson County Open Space in Colorado, about the logging decimating his beloved parks under the guise of so-called “wildfire mitigation.”
Eco-Integrity Alliance, a national advocacy group with organizing members in Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, and Montana, calls on elected officials to allocate additional funds and updated guidance to federal, state, and county agencies to better prevent human-caused wildfires, instead of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on ineffective and destructive “fuel reduction” logging.
Eco-Integrity Alliance 