Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Tongass: A National Treasure


As Olivia and James head off to the US Wildlife and Fisheries conference in Baltimore, the federal budget battle rages on in Washington DC. I am aghast at some of the suggestions. Do away with the EPA? I don't even know what to say to that kind of idea, especially when lax regulation paved the way for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Continue subsidising the oil industry? C'mon people, you can't be serious.
Meanwhile, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's winter publication of LIVING BIRD proposed a great way to save the government $30 million dollars. Stop subsidizing the logging of old-growth forest in Tongass, Alaska. This 17 million acre national forest is home to a beautiful and ancient ecosystem that once lost, cannot be replaced. Now why didn't Congress think of that?

1 comment:

modernemama said...

Unfortunately without election finance reform Congress has no incentive to stop subsidizing these industries