Two important and related issues in my latest article:

(1) The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) intends to eliminate wildlife and old-growth protections in western Oregon forests. This is to ensure that those forests are logged to their “maximum productive capacity.”

In plain terms, that means clearcutting and replanting. That’s it. And it would occur across nearly 2 million acres. For reference, that’s about the size of Glacier National Park and Olympic National Park combined.

In practice, these plans mean that the federal government would return to the logging levels of the 1960s—a notoriously terrible time for the environment, clean air, clean water, and wildlife.

It would mean returning to a time when 3 square miles of western Oregon’s temperate rain forests were felled every single week, with complete disregard for the consequences to wildlife habitat, water quality, or wildfire risk.

The public comment period is open and runs until March 23.

(2) The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has scheduled its hearing to nominate "sell-off Steve" Pearce as the BLM director for tomorrow morning, 9:30 a.m.

Infamously anti-public lands, Pearce went as far as to criticize Theodore Roosevelt’s “big ideas of big forests and big national parks” back in 2012, expressing his hope that the Romney administration would “reverse the trend of public ownership” of public lands and waters.

He also has financial connections to the oil and gas industry, among many other problematic issues.

As far as BLM directors go, it’s hard to find anyone who’d be worse for public lands, waters, and wildlife.

Contact your senators today, urging them to oppose Steve Pearce as BLM director: 202-224-3121. (More links in the article below.)