Natural History Wanderings

from Cal Wild

ACTION ALERT: The Fix Our Forests Act Is NOT A Fix!

U.S. Representative Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican, has introduced legislation that purports to protect communities from wildfires. However, the Fix Our Forests Act is more of a vehicle to undermine important bedrock environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. Crucially, it also attacks a basic tenet of our democratic governmental system – that each branch of the federal government should provide checks and balances on the other branches. 

And here’s another reason to oppose it: the bill proposes to give authority to political appointees, who may have minimal or no subject matter expertise, to make important decisions about how the U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior/Bureau of Land Management manage forests on their lands and on Tribal lands.

CalWild supports the return of cultural burning by Tribes and commonsense, science-based policies pertaining to fire and fuels management on our forests, but not at the expense of important environmental laws or basic tenets of our democratic governmental system. This bill is not the “fix” that it claims to be.

Using this form  and urge your Member of Congress to vote AGAINST this incredibly flawed legislation.