Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
President Trump issued an Executive Order late last year directing the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to increase logging on lands under their agencies’ control by 31% above levels of timber harvest in 2017. The Washington Post reported that the President had been itching to sign this Order — he wanted to do it during his trip to California in mid-November, an inside source told The Post, but it wasn’t ready for his signature. The order only became public earlier this week. The Order is worded in a way that makes clear the President was trying to use the fires last year in California as the rationale for the order’s directives.
It states that “reducing vegetation through hazardous fuel management and strategic forest health treatments is effective in reducing wildfire severity and loss.”
Then it goes on to state that “[actions must be taken across landscapes to prioritize treatments in order to enhance fuel reduction and forest-restoration projects that protect life and property, and to benefit rural economies through encouraging utilization of the by-products of forest restoration.”
It then directs the Secretaries to “give all due consideration to establishing the following objectives for 2019, as feasible and appropriate” and then directs the agencies to offer millions of board feet of timber for sale in 2019.
Moreover, according to The Post, these agencies have given their permission for logging on federal lands to continue during the shutdown — something that was not allowed during the prior long lasting shutdowns in 2013 and 1995. Apparently, these agencies are even considering calling furloughed workers from these agencies back to conduct timber sales, but not to do the kind of land management that would actually prevent fires.
Why This Matters:Experts say that the timber sales directed by the President are unlikely to reduce fire risk since there is so much land at risk of fire due to climate change. The Post explained that “fires have increased fivefold since the 1970s as temperatures have risen and snowpack has shrunk. Just 2 percent of lands treated by the Forest Service between 2004 and 2013 experienced a wildfire.” In short, fire experts say we cannot “groom” our way out of our fire problems – the forces of climate change are too great. So the only winners will be the timber companies who get to harvest more timber, even as the government’s effective fire prevention efforts remain halted by the government shutdown.
by Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer A new United Nations blueprint frames taking on the interlocking climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and pollution as a peacemaking endeavor. The “Making Peace with Nature” report emphasizes that the three must be solved together and require reframing what’s economically valued. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted at a press […]
by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer Though Colombia is known for its coffee, the World Bank and its private sector-focused arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), have been working with the Colombian government to develop sustainable cocoa farming in the Orinoquía region. This project could support rural farmers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prevent deforestation, and […]
by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer A new study has found that, contrary to the expectations of the scientific community, trees are expertly adapting to increased carbon in the atmosphere and absorbing even more carbon while increasing their water use efficiency. However, while these findings reinforce the importance of forests as carbon sinks, many forests are plagued […]
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.