Deforestation

Sick to the stomach. That’s how I felt after reading this story. But surprised? No. The USFS and other government agencies commonly ignore regulations and prioritize the economy over the natural world. That’s been their way for more than 150 years. The insanity is clear. Mick Lamar, chief of the local fire crew, defended the line as ’less damaging to the forest’ than a fire would have been. “Nobody wants a vacation home on a blacked-out hillside,” he said. Does he not understand that fire is natural and essential to many forests? That vacation homes are less important than endangered species? That burned forests contain more biodiversity than logged forests? Of the cut, one biologist said that “trees larger than allowed were cut, streamside buffers ignored, and operating just ran all over the place compacting soils.” Another said, “Why don’t we STOP and THINK and PLAN?!” That wasn’t going to happen. We invite you to read this Seattle Times article and come to your own conclusions about the effectiveness of forest policy and the priorities of this culture when it comes to destroying the planet vs. protecting the economy. ...

The Castle Rock Prairie Dogs are Gone: Open Letter from an Exile By Jennifer Murnan, DGR Colorado I wore this shirt, long-sleeved, multi-patterned, funky, well tailored hand-me-down for almost every day I worked on the prairie dog relocation at the “Promenade” site in Castle Rock Colorado. The “Promenade” site was only that in the avaricious life-sucking minds of the capitalist pig developers. The “site” was really a scrap of prairie community, a last survivor already lacerated by monstrous earth movers, surrounded by apartments, highway, box stores, a mall, parking lots—anti-life. ...

Here is a familiar fact to many people across the United States and the world: the Redwoods of Northern California are the tallest trees in the world at nearly 400 feet. This is both true and false. It’s true because right now the redwoods are the tallest trees. But it’s false because not long ago, that wasn’t the case. The tallest known redwood is 379 feet tall. But historical accounts are full of references to Douglas Fir trees 400 feet tall and more. One tree in the lower North Fork of the Nooksack River Valley is thought to have been 465 feet tall, probably the largest known tree ever recorded anywhere on the planet. And it wasn’t alone. ...