USFS faces bleak future

I’ve been reading up on the move. I don’t see it as inherently bad. It makes sense IF you trust them. I think I’d rather see it in Colorado. A little better political environment or maybe just more in tune with the tourist economy.

Everything I love and care about is being wrecked by this administration. Education, health care, the environment, secular government, freedom from religion, the public good, democracy itself. I will not live to see all the things get repaired, if they even can. As to backpacking and outdoor life, resource extraction corporations will take control of most of our public lands in the next few years. No one can stop it now.

I believe the government mislead us for years. Not intentionally. All this talk of stewardship and LNT. To sell it off to private equities or private citizens for private resorts is a fraudulent act and should be the course for many lawsuits. At least that is my hope. Hopefully too costly to warrant infrastructure. It may lead to strip mining and clear cutting to get as much profit as possible, as quick as possible. There will be some damage in the transition. As there was before. What we now consider points of interest. Death Valley Days and all. A lesson learned from gardening organically. The microbes will survive and repopulate. All is not lost.

I find it disappointing that BPL has not yet made this a headline/blog issue.
https://saveusfs.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRGMDRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR6ygBSvnQBmSb4fGkMvfVV-imMNVIiC1nQwlTnOmz2cWGlDjUHGBiPiA2gBuQ_aem_i7ZUM5x-3C_UkN_qR-16qg

Susy, I agree.  Unfortunately, posts get deleted here.

Park Service broke the law approving mining inside Mojave National Preserve, lawsuit says

Yes, I did just delete three posts. Friendly reminder of the Forum Guidelines and that political topics are moderated more closely for thread drift.

So…AK’s post isn’t thread drift? Huh. Since you deleted mine, which was a thoughtful reply, here’s the non-thread drift:

The NF system has never been about recreation. It has always been about resources – be it minerals, animals or timber. Utah is a perfectly fine state for it – in the middle of the country, in a state full of this. DC is expensive to operate in – and a lot of NF lands are in the west anyways.

Yes, Sarah’s right; mine was total thread drift, wailing in despair; deletion would be appropriate.

So more on topic – the FS as with all federal agencies, has been hollowed out by DOGE and more so since that ridiculous show, with long time knowledgeable civil servants being pushed to quit or simply laid off. Even without moving  the office to the west, it’s a disaster for public lands under their jurisdiction. Being in Utah makes them more beholden to development interests by companies in that region, and less accountable to all of us the taxpayers, who pay for the services they provide. Of course the FS has always been about resources, but I’d like to believe that they are tasked with responsible use of resources, not utter destruction for ultimate monetary gain. But if they answer to local and state power holders, they will ensure the pond gets fished dry. The only thing holding back corporations with a singular profit motive are regulations; companies are not designed to care about nature, wildlife or our future, only about short term gain.

And of course Alaska will get hit hard, because we have the two largest national forests in the system so cutting personnel creates a hot mess. Wildland fire mgmt comes to mind as a significant concern going forward as well. With the willy nilly approach to cutting departments, much harm will likely result. “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?”

Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?

I think FS used to be totally into resources – harvesting trees.  Recreation was second priority.  Sort of PR to allow unrestricted harvesting.  They harvested more than was sustainable.

Then, they reduced the amount of harvesting to more sustainable levels which pissed off the people that had become used to the higher levels.  Now, the administration may be more sympathetic to that anger and will harvest more.  Which is unsustainable but possible for a while.

The FS has gradually become more into recreation and preservation.  Now, we seem to be backpedaling.   Hopefully we’ll recover eventually and it won’t be a long term bleak future.  Us speaking up against this will probably minimize the backpedaling.

They don’t listen. Too busy lining their pockets. The ones who do listen don’t need convincing.

Nominating an executive from Delaware North, one of the concessionaires for our National Park System was controversial, to say the least.

His name is no longer on the list: White House withdraws nomination of hospital exec for NPS director https://share.google/I8VlxGkysEJmp5uTb

The only hopes I have are for november. Be careful as to how we spend our money. One foot in front of the other. It’s a long uphill from here.

So we are allow to criticize the FS but not the politicians who are eviscerating it.

We all use Forest Service roads to get to wilderness areas too. Will they maintain the ones that aren’t being actively used to harvest/mine/graze?

Folks, we have forum guidelines, and I do my best to follow them when moderating. Sometimes I miss posts, and many fall into gray areas that require judgment calls. The goal is to support the community, not to target anyone: there’s no conspiracy or ill intent here.

Political discussions often go off-topic quickly, as we’ve all seen. Please help keep this space a refuge from the constant political division.

If you want to debate politics, please use a political site or social media. This forum is about backpacking. We do welcome discussion of political issues that directly affect the outdoors, as well as ways to advocate for the places we care about.

Once discussion shifts into general right/left politics or venting about “the other side,” it will be removed. This just isn’t the place for that.

Backpacking is, at this point in time, inextricably linked to politics as public lands are under siege every day. It is imperative that we all speak up to save our public lands.

They want to slash the budget for the Park Service by 25% while they waste the money on ballrooms. This isn’t left or right politics, it’s the destruction of our country, but don’t say anything. You might upset somebody.

https://saveusfs.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRGMDRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR6ygBSvnQBmSb4fGkMvfVV-imMNVIiC1nQwlTnOmz2cWGlDjUHGBiPiA2gBuQ_aem_i7ZUM5x-3C_UkN_qR-16qg

Thank you for the link, Susy. This gives us lots of ways to take action.

I tried some of those brand links, but some don’t work or don’t have links. Very confusing. Glad to see many of them taking action though.

“but some don’t work or don’t have links”

must have been created by AI : )

I want to let the participants of this thread know that you have been heard.

I spoke with RJ today and, for now, I’ll be easing back on moderation of political posts. I’ll continue to monitor political threads and step in if needed but I intend to do so less often.

Why? The world is a different place than when we last articulated the political guidelines.

Thank you Matthew and Ryan. I think that’s a good call. It’s still on us to be courteous toward each other and respecting differences of viewpoints.