FROM KSBW”The order calls for a 25% increase of timber quotas across the country’s national forests. A map that was issued with the order shows large portions of California have been targeted, including the Los Padres national forest.
“We’re aware of the new direction but have not yet received guidance on how to implement it,” wrote an official with the Los Padres National Forest in response to KSBW’s inquiry.
In 2018, during Trump’s first administration, the Forest Service approved a large commercial logging project in the southern region of the Los Padres National Forest – the first of its kind in over a decade.”
Greed and shortsighted. What a travesty.
OMG . . .
Frankly, I don’t see HOW this can happen up here as our roads cannot handle logging trucks and there is really no way to improve them.
This is not a good idea. What are the National Forests for if not for conservation?
I am totally against what this tRUMP administrtion is suggesting.
#MakeTheCall☎️
Call your Members of Congress. Register your concerns with your Boards of Supervisors. Do not be silent!
We must protest with vigor the proposed logging of redwood trees in our national forests, but most particularly in our Ventana Wilderness area. Who remembers Margaret Owings chaining herself to the redwood tree beside the highway when Cal Trans wanted to widen the road? That beautiful shaded part of Highway 1 in Big Sur is precious. The edicts coming out of the White House are short sighted and destructive to our national forests and wildlands.
My heart hurts
Thank you for posting this Kate. The logging that will likely happen in the Los Padres is in the southern part near places like Pine Mountain and Mt Pinos. The image to the public will be “fire protection” but it will really be for the profit of the timber industry executives. Trump made Tom Schultz the head of the USFS and he is a former timber executive at Idaho Forest Group. Here is a link from the Los Padres Forest Watch Campaign that should be shared: https://p2a.co/mIxZW1V
Arguments cut both ways on this one. I am not sufficiently informed to provide a competent opinion. If logging is very selective and targeted, fuel for potential fires is reduced along with economic potential increased. Loss of trees is loss of beauty, decrease in co2 absorption, loss of wildlife habitat. Am trusting in greater good.
Hopefully it will get held up in the courts. Another big issue is losing federal funding for fire mitigation.
The USFS was created to be a timber, mining and road building operation.
The Benson Syndicate 1870’s to 1898 fraudulently surveyed 20% of California which became USFS administered lands . Check it out.
Nothing has changed.
Those last 600 trees in Oklahoma certainly need to come down. There could be a fire.
One major question is to what extent the federal order aims to adhere to regulations around wilderness areas, and to what extent the laws designsting these federally protected areas are upheld. Biodiverse, old growth forests protect watersheds from dessication and therefore protecting them prevents catastrophic fires while also protecting cities and farms usable and reliable water. Selective logging and controlled burns help stabilize the ecosystem. If we view economics and nature as inherently opposed, we risk reinforcing the mindset that abuses nature. To protect our economy, we need to both protect and use the environment. Responsible usage is the key. But yes, it seems rather impractical to log the Santa Lucia Mountains. The Ventana, Silver Peak, Santa Lucia, and Garcia Wildernesses all lie exist within the Santa Lucia Mountains, and should be federally protected as such. However, the USDA map given shows these wilderness areas as included within the range of potential logging. This is surely going to spark a controversy. As a ventanophile, this is a call to action.
Hell, NO! Our trees won’t go!
I think the terrain in the Santa Lucias Silver Peak and Ventana Wilderness areas will protect it. No existing roads are suitable for logging trucks, and building more is difficult, if not impossible. Can’t even keep Highway 1 open all the way thru when it is traveled extensively. It would be even more difficult in the back countryl
Dear God . . . Is there anything else good that man can destroy?
Over my DEAD BODY !!!
Over my dead body! This is a hill I will die on!
It’s crazy to see the comments here. As one who actually goes to the “forest” here, tell me what and where would be logged ,could be logged besides the boy scouts camp area as was being done like 12 years ago? Exactly. No where. There is no trees to cut. Period. This was all logged in the late 1800-1930s the idea of untouched wilderness’s is a myth. No one’s coming for any redwood trees… there arnt any worth taking left… go for a hike. Check out the “forest” you deal so opinionated about. The whole article was and is a scare tactic.
They’re not trees, you’re not human, everything is property to be exploited or a hazard to be warehoused.
The U.S. is a Theocratic Corporation founded in 1601 by 100 wealth landlord proto-capitalists as a Financial Weapon that is designed to see and make the world in its own image, 800 Military bases, 400 wars and Trillions of dollars of Economic State Craft.
You call it freedom, it’s operated like a business, it’s always been war.
https://www.project2025.observer/
https://www.freedomcitiescoalition.com/
https://thirdtermproject.com/
Susan Brown Bulla cutting trees doesn’t mitigate fires. What needs to be done is to clean up fuels fires the most: dry grasses and chaparral. It’s actually more cost effective to bring in goats than it is to chop trees down but don’t count on most Administrations to get it.