The headline “Herrera Beutler, GOP lawmakers ask Biden to reduce owl habitat” was disheartening for me to read. In short, old-growth forests that had been preserved for spotted owl habitat had been reduced in size by Trump. As I read about Herrera Beutler in the newspaper, I eventually understood that she is weak on the sciences and in particular, biology.
Once upon a time Republicans were more savvy regarding the sciences. Richard Nixon championed our wild lands and wildlife. It was Nixon who created the EPA; yay Nixon! Now the Republicans seem to want to do away with the GOP’s former accomplishments. The EPA has been so shattered that rebuilding the agency will take time.
Three issues: 1) Old-growth trees hold carbon much better than young trees; 2) We are going through a mass extinction caused by human beings. We need to leave as much wild lands alone as possible; and 3) Those amazing loggers who can climb trees without fear of heights can be retrained to climb wind turbines to repair them. Those wind turbine jobs pay much more than logging jobs. So all in all, every reason to leave old-growth forests alone. No reason to cut them.
