I find it impossible not to stop and gaze at New Hampshire’s Mount Lafayette whenever it comes into view, even mid-ski run. It’s a beautiful peak from any direction, including this one yesterday from Cannon Mountain, just across the notch. Lafayette isn’t only prominent in stature at 5,249 feet, it’s also part of the 800,000-acre White Mountain National Forest, one of the most popular national forests in the country with 6 million visitors annually.
The White Mountain National Forest is a special place with eight square miles of alpine habitat, the largest area east of the Rocky Mountains and south of Canada. It contains five congressionally-designated wilderness areas; Lafayette’s summit is in the Pemigewasset Wilderness. It continuously restores and revitalizes vast water resources, including 12,000 acres of wetlands, 4,750 miles of streams, 67 lakes, and 35 watersheds. It has 23 campgrounds and 1,200 miles of hiking trails. It provides habitat for big and small game, including 184 species of birds and several federally-listed threatened and endangered species.
From Alaska to Puerto Rico, the United States has 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands, and the US Forest Service is responsible for stewarding them all in the public trust. That means the lands and their resources belong to all of us for the benefit of all of us.
You need dedicated, experienced workers to steward responsibly though, and 3,400 Forest Service workers were fired by the current administration last month—about 10% of the agency’s workforce, which was already underfunded and understaffed. Those workers maintained trail and recreational facilities, monitored for and managed invasive species, protected watersheds, performed search and rescues, responded to climate disasters, like wildfire and hurricane recovery, collected, analyzed, and shared data on forest health, and managed sustainable forestry and land use.
The Forest Service’s mission for our 154 national forests is “to maintain and improve the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of current and future generations.”
But forget maintaining, let alone improving, our national forests for us or for future generations. Especially without all those federal workers and their science-backed protocols. Because on March 1, the president signed yet another executive order, this one calling for immediate expansion of logging and road building on hundreds of millions of acres of national forests and other public lands in order to boost timber sales. The order also speeds up permitting, revises forest management protocols, and sidesteps review under the Endangered Species Act, which is likely illegal and is definitely a direct threat to the 400-plus endangered species that rely on national forests.
Widespread and significant increases in logging and roadbuilding on public lands would have widespread and significant impacts on our lands, water, and wildlife. Our lands, water, and wildlife. Drinking water would be impacted: national forests and grasslands are the largest sources of municipal water supply in the nation, serving more than 60 million people in 33 states. Wildfire risk would increase: forests subjected to industrial logging for timber production burn more severely than older and taller forests. Critical habitat would be destroyed and endangered species would be driven closer to extinction (source: Center for Biological Diversity).
The Forest Service’s motto is “Caring for the Land and Serving People,” a decent summation of its balanced goals for resources and recreation, all for the benefit of the American people.
Because our national forests and grasslands exist to be managed, sustained, and stewarded responsibly for all of us as a public service by the government. National forests directly benefit our communities, our climate, biodiversity, and the clean air and water we, and future generations of Americans, rely on. They are more than just pretty scenery or the way to a quick profit. They need our protection for the public good. And they need us to shout about it from their mountaintops.
