The so-called "Fix Our Forests" Act is a giveaway to the timber and technology industries.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the bill would "boost logging in national forests while gutting protections for Canada lynx, spotted owls, and more than 100 other imperiled species that depend on forests for survival."
The John Muir Project calls it "an extreme logging bill masquerading as a 'forest health' measure. It would eviscerate environmental laws on public forests in order to dramatically increase logging of mature and old-growth trees, and clearcutting, on public lands, at taxpayer expense."
Maureen Steele of the American Made Foundation says it's like "putting Alexa in the woods": "The premise sounds noble: early wildfire detection, faster response, safer forests. The reality? A nationwide surveillance grid dressed up in green camouflage. Cameras on towers, drones overhead, mesh networks buried in the soil, all feeding into proprietary artificial intelligence run by private companies and subsidized by federal tax dollars. ... Colorado has already become a test case. Xcel Energy partnered with Pano AI to install 21 surveillance towers across the state, claiming to cover more than 1.5 million acres."
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Vote Down the So-Called "Fix Our Forests" Act!
The timber industry has figured out a way to get paid to log. In the name of "fireshed management" the government pays companies to thin-out the forests. It's a great get-rich-quick scheme for them, but the trouble for us is that forest thinning hasn't been proven to reduce wildfire risk. (See "'Fuel Reduction' Logging Exacerbates Wildfire Effects and Puts Communities at Greater Risk.")
The "Fix Our Forest" Act would require forest thinning, what it calls "fireshed management projects,” in all "fireshed management areas." The John Muir Project warns, "This mandatory language is an override of all other environmental laws. There are no caveats in this mandatory language. There are no limits on the size or age of the trees that this mandate covers, and no requirements to retain any trees where mandated logging occurs, so clearcutting and logging of mature and old-growth trees would certainly occur on a large scale on public lands, at taxpayer expense."
The "Fix Our Forests" Act contains far-reaching so-called "emergency" exemptions that would let most logging projects circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act, nixing environmental analysis, consideration of science, and public participation. If somehow, NEPA still applied, the "Fix Our Forests" Act would make enforcing it even harder, preventing legal advocates and judges from upholding environmental laws when agencies break them. Plus, it hugely expands the acreage of logging projects that would be exempt from environmental analysis and normal public participation, under “categorical exclusions,” from 3,000 acres to 10,000 acres each.
The "Fix Our Forests" Act also eliminates Endangered Species Act requirements, letting the gigantic logging projects it mandates continue even when they cause the extinction of rare wildlife species.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Vote Down the So-Called "Fix Our Forests" Act!
Personal Information
*SAMPLE TEXT TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS*
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Dear [Member of Congress],
Oppose the “Fix Our Forests Act.” This legislation is a giveaway to the timber and tech industries and does nothing to prevent wildfires.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the bill would "boost logging in national forests while gutting protections for Canada lynx, spotted owls, and more than 100 other imperiled species that depend on forests for survival."
The John Muir Project calls it "an extreme logging bill masquerading as a 'forest health' measure. It would eviscerate environmental laws on public forests in order to dramatically increase logging of mature and old-growth trees, and clearcutting, on public lands, at taxpayer expense."
Maureen Steele of the American Made Foundation says it's like "putting Alexa in the woods": "The premise sounds noble: early wildfire detection, faster response, safer forests. The reality? A nationwide surveillance grid dressed up in green camouflage. Cameras on towers, drones overhead, mesh networks buried in the soil, all feeding into proprietary artificial intelligence run by private companies and subsidized by federal tax dollars. ... Colorado has already become a test case. Xcel Energy partnered with Pano AI to install 21 surveillance towers across the state, claiming to cover more than 1.5 million acres."
Please reject the big business subsidies and deregulation of the "Fix Our Forests" Act and instead support the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act which helps communities safeguard their homes to stall the spread of fire.
Thank you.
[Your Name]