Protect Our National Forests

An executive order by President Trump directs the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to issue new guidance within the next 30 days to accelerate timber harvesting on federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), with the goal to “fully exploit our domestic timber supply.

Contact Representative Ben Cline to protest cuts of Forest Service employees and the executive order to decimate our national forests.

This executive order would end compliance with the Endangered Species Act, bypassing critical protections for Virginia’s most vulnerable animals and plants. There’s no way to increase timber production without targeting old-growth and mature forest stands that do the crucial work of providing habitat for wildlife, filtering municipal drinking water, providing recreational opportunities, enhancing wildfire resilience, and absorbing and storing the carbon necessary to fight climate change. It’s also unclear how timber sales could be planned, administered, and implemented when the government has just fired thousands of Forest Service employees.

My family has enjoyed camping, hiking, exploring, canoeing in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. We have often explored and camped in other national forests while cross country traveling. My family drinks municipal water from the national forests.

Tell Ben Cline to protect our national forests.

Blowin' In the Wind... not yet!

The Forest Service has taken the wind out of the sails of a proposed wind farm in the George Washington National Forest - for the time being, anyhow. Freedomworks, a Harpers Ferry renewable energy firm, had plans to build 131 wind turbines, each 400 feet tall, along the Virginia/West Virginia line in the GWNF in Shenandoah, Rockingham, and Hardy counties. The system could produce 215 megawats and sold to the state grid. Freedomworks had already received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Forest Service said the plan fell short on three points that are part of the George Washington National Forest Land and Resources Management Plan:

• The turbines would not blend into the landscape,
• Freedomworks failed to prove the project couldn't be done on private land, and
• the project would require building 19 miles of roads in an area where only 2 miles of road should be built.

There is a good chance the decision could be reversed. With the Obama administration and Congress pushing more renewable energy there may be new directives and guidelines coming from D.C. And the Forest Service spokesman added that if Freedomworks can address the issues "in any way" the permit may be revisited. It is hard to see how the turbines can "blend into the landscape," but the other two issues seem ripe for compromise.

Wind turbines, especially large farms like this one, seem to divide environmentalists. Yes, they should be located and designed to minimize impact to wildlife, sensitive plants, and the beauty of the area. But, if we are serious about renewable energy, Americans and environmentalists are going to have to find a middle ground and adjust our NIMBY mentality on these types of projects. Our future depends on it.

There is more in the Daily News-Record.