After the fires, our Northern California oak woodlands and forests need our protections more than ever. Much is known about how forests recover from fire; we need our governing officials to rely on the experts and not on political agendas. Our forests are integral to the health of our watersheds and to our water supply.
But Congress is ignoring this scientific information, favoring the logging industry over the environment and the public trust. On November 1, the House voted 232-188 to pass a bill deceptively named “Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017.” House Speaker Paul Ryan asserted that bill HR2936 is needed to protect national forests “from the kind of devastation that California experienced.” The California fires were not in national forests. Furthermore, analysis shows that this bill not only takes money away from programs helping homeowners fireproof their homes, but it also sideswipes public involvement and oversight under the National Environmental Policy Act by creating an array of waivers of environmental review and eliminates the opportunity for citizens to hold the government accountable in the courts.
D-Representative Raúl Grijalva, the Ranking Member on the House Natural Resources Committee, describes the bill as a “shameful giveaway” to the logging business.
The bill flies in the face of current scientific studies that show that reducing environmental protections and increasing logging actually increases the intensity of fire when it comes, and that “snag forest habitat” is some of the most biodiverse and healthy wildlife habitat in the West.
Your voice needs to be heard! For more information, visit Forests Forever.
Call and write your senators. Ask them to not pass this bill that is a give away to the logging industry and sabotages the health of our forests.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
District: US Senator
Phone:(202) 224-3841
Fax:(202) 228-3954
Sen. Kamala Devi Harris
District: US Senator
Phone:(202) 224-3553
Fax:(202) 224-2200