Save our forests

Please act now (deadline Sept. 19) to save our forests and wildlife. Trump wants to gut the Roadless Rule, which would enable his order to log millions of acres of national forest and increase the threat of wildfires, erosion and impacts on wildlife. (To learn more, read Mitch Friedman’s Sept. 4 article in the Telegraph, “Forest for the Trees.”)

Trump’s plan is to log the big trees; however, for fire remediation, one cuts the small pole-size trees. Logging large trees would damage watersheds, increasing erosion and drying out the soils. Forests act as sponges and release moisture through their leaves to cause precipitation. Our national forests are habitat for a multitude of wildlife, which must be protected. One-third of America’s birds are in decline, as are insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. Species extinction on Earth is occurring due to our destruction of forests. In addition, forests are a carbon sink, which combats global warming.

So write your comment by Sept. 19 to protect the Roadless Rule and our forests. Go to: Regulations.gov and search: FS-2025-0001-001. Contact your senators and representatives asking them to oppose increased logging on our national forests.

Also tell them to oppose Boebert’s bill to delist wolves in the Lower 48, the delisting in Colorado of the lesser prairie chicken and greater sage grouse and any weakening of the Endangered Species Act.

To oppose the shooting of 450,000 barred owls in our national forests, contact senators and the Department of Interior.

Endangered polar bears, arctic fox, caribou herds and migrating birds need more protections, not less. Act now and every day. Our voices make a difference.

And last but not least, contact Rep. Hurd to oppose HR 65 which would exempt the Department of Defense from protecting endangered species and adhering to the Endangered Species Act. Military bases are large areas that have many endangered species which must be protected, and this sets a terrible precedent for other landholders having endangered species.

– Margaret Mayer, conservation lead, SW Sierra Club, Durango