Today, we're going to court to protect Tongass habitat! EARTHJUSTICE, BECAUSE THE EARTH NEEDS A GOOD LAWYER 3FEB16

GREED, not need, is driving industry and governments to destroy, piece by piece, areas so beautiful and so rare, like the Tongass National Forest, that we run the risk of loosing them forever. If we allow the Tongass be destroyed forever we better make sure all the pictures are destroyed too so future generations don't see them and curse us for taking the Tongass from them. Please click the link and donate to fund this court case by +Earthjustice against the Big Thorne timber sale (any amount will help, I donated $10.00) if you can, and share this with others! More environmental actions and updates on this blog here.....

Today, we’re going to court to stop vast swaths of the Tongass from being clear-cut. Will you help us win? Make an urgent tax-deductible gift to help us fight back to save our natural world! DONATE NOW After the U.S. Forest Service approved the Big Thorne timber sale—the largest, most destructive old-growth clear-cutting project in the Tongass National Forest in decades—my team and I sprang into action. And today, we’re going to court to fight back! Will you help us win? We can’t stand by while vast swaths of the Tongass National Forest—one of the last ancient coastal rainforests—are clear-cut. And the courts are our last line of defense! Make an urgent tax-deductible gift today to help us fight in court to save Tongass habitat and the wild. If our opponents get their way, the Tongass will see more road building and extreme old-growth logging for years to come. But with you by our side, we’ll protect this crown jewel of the national forest system, home to towering stands of 700-year-old trees that provide vital habitat for bears, salmon, Sitka black-tailed deer, goshawks, and the rare and dwindling Alexander Archipelago wolf. Now more than ever, we need your help. Your gift will be put to work immediately to help us save the wild! For decades, Earthjustice has fought to protect the Tongass from clear-cut logging—and we’ve won. We defended the Roadless Rule in the region and protected wild lands throughout this magnificent forest. And today, with your gift, we’ll stand up for the Tongass—and all wild places—before it’s too late! Thank you for your help,

Holly Harris Staff Attorney Alaska Office DONATE NOW

P.S. We’re fighting to save the Tongass and prevent vast swaths of ancient coastal rainforest from being clear-cut—but we need your help! Make an urgent tax-deductible gift today to help us take on this and other critical fights in court.

Don't let energy companies burn our forests for fuel 16OKT13

I grew up in rural NW Pennsylvania, out in the country, in the "woods" so to speak. And while  most of PA (28,997,120 acres) is covered by forest (approx 60%, 17,398,227 acres) only 9894 acres are old growth forest, meaning most of the state was clear cut at some point in the last 300 years, most occurring in the last 150 years. Most of the trees in the woods I grew up in, and love to go home to wander in, are less than 100 years old. ( A note to those who know me and my family. Yes, we did have a wood furnace in my parents home for years, but the wood we heated with was mostly from dead or dying trees on their property, we seldom bought a load of logs for firewood. Now the hose is heated with propane.) Now some big energy companies, like dominion power and drax group (U.K. power company) are regressing in their operations at a time we need not only to protect our remaining forest and expand them where possible as well and invest in and increase our energy generation from clean, renewable energy resources. The below is from the NRDC, please sign their petition to dominion power and the drax group calling on them to abandon their increasing dependence on cutting our forest for energy generation....

		When you turn on the lights, it shouldn’t destroy a forest. But some utilities are forcing us to do just that -- by clearcutting forests and burning them for electricity. Tell them to stop using our forests for fuel and invest in clean energy alternatives! It may be the worst idea ever: Cutting down massive swaths of our native forests so that utilities can burn them to produce electricity. And the results are devastating: Leveling hardwood forests across the mid-Atlantic coastal region ... threatening wildlife ... and driving even more global warming pollution and climate chaos. Tell the energy giants to stop destroying our forests for fuel and to start producing their power with clean energy alternatives. No one wants to turn on the lights and burn down a forest! Our native southern forests are home to countless species of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth, not to mention black bears and millions of songbirds. But Enviva -- one of the nation’s biggest wood pellet producers -- is grinding these diverse ecosystems into wood chips and pellets, which are then sold to utilities like the U.S.-based Dominion Power and Britain’s Drax Group to fuel power plants and produce electricity. These utilities are ramping up their voracious plans for the large-scale burning of tree products. And Enviva plans to oblige by doubling its production of wood pellets in the coming years. That’s why it’s so critical that we make our voices heard immediately in opposition to this disastrous forest-destroying practice. Torching forests for energy not only drives more global warming pollution; it wipes out the very trees that capture the carbon pollution spewed by power plants. It’s a double whammy for the environment! You and I haven’t fought for so many years to protect our magnificent native forests only to see them ravaged by energy companies in their relentless quest for fuel. Join me in sending them a message loud and clear: Don’t send our natural heritage up in smoke! Urge them to lead the way by investing in real clean energy alternatives like solar, wind, geothermal and agricultural waste. The future of our forests and our climate is depending on it. Thank you for standing with NRDC in defense of our native forests. Sincerely, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council

 I now live in Virginia, and for those interested VA is 27,375,369 acres, approximately 57% forested, 15,844,000 acres, and of that 235,079 acres are old growth forest, 230,000 acres of that in National Forest.