Your Voice Matters! How your public involvement helps protect public lands.
Advocates rallying against the Medford District BLM's Late Mungers timber sale. Credit: Haleigh Martin
Have you ever wondered if civic engagement is even worth it when it comes to protecting the forests and rivers you love? The extractive industries are so powerful, the land management agencies are so bureaucratic, the court system is so difficult to navigate, and climate change is so daunting that submitting a heartfelt public comment about a timber sale can feel like an act of futility. Yet it is persistent involvement from everyday people that makes a real difference for wildlife and watersheds.
Look What You Made Me Do (as Taylor Swift has been known say)
In just this past year, public involvement has made an immense difference in public lands management throughout the region. A few examples right here in the Klamath Siskiyou are:
At Lake of the Woods, an avalanche of public comments got a developer and the US Forest Service to drop plans to turn native forests near the lake into an expansive new RV parking lot and to instead focus on improving the existing recreation infrastructure. Better not bigger!
In striking down the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) old-growth logging program located in the Late Successional Reserves (LSRs), Federal Judge Clark specifically and repeatedly referenced the numerous public comments that BLM had received from the public about their concerns and opposition to the timber sales. Your letters saved the day!
The Shasta-Trinity National Forest improved the South Sacramento project by retaining additional forest canopy and being more mindful of watershed values in response to voluminous public comments. Things get better when you participate!
The Klamath National Forest has significantly reduced the footprint of its River Complex LSR salvage logging timber sale adjacent to the Trinity-Alps Wilderness in response to the dogged groundtruthing, commenting, and advocacy of its rural neighbors in Cecilville, California. Good neighbors are good to have!
The Butte Falls Resource Area of the BLM recently dropped all of the proposed clearcutting (aka regeneration harvesting) in the Wildland Urban Interface zone for the town of Butte Falls, Oregon in response to public outcry asking the agency to work with stakeholders to reduce rather than increase fire hazard around homes and communities. Must be present to win!
Action is the Antidote to Despair
Tree sitters in an old-growth ponderosa pine within the Poor Windy project. Credit: Paul Robert Wolf Wilson
Times may be tough but so are forest defenders. One can’t help but be inspired by the courageous young tree sitters who shined a light on the BLM’s secret old-growth logging program and protected a forest stand older than our country within the Poor Windy timber sale. The volunteers who show up to protect and restore meadows providing rare butterfly habitat from cat- tle grazing and off-road vehicle damage show us what hard work can ac- complish. The attorneys and law clerks who donate their time to protect forests and watersheds put in hours that matter, and they get results. Everyone who dons a snorkel and participates in salmon surveys is an aquatic superhero. The folks who attend town halls, agency hear- ings, and congressional field visits represent the best of democracy. And when you write a letter to the editor, you become a published and widely-read forest advocate.
So the next time you feel isolated, ineffective, or ignored, pick up your pen or your phone and know that you can make a difference and that there are thousands of people just like you taking actions large and small that collectively are making the world a much better place. KS Wild salutes you!
This article was written by our Conservation Director, George, as part of our quarterly Newsletter publication.
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