I’m Upset

When I read the latest issue of National Parks Magazine, I was devastated. The land that Teddy Roosevelt had the foresight to protect was gutted with the stroke of a pen.

I thought Antheia in the Thorns, a thriller about the petroleum industry, scheduled for publication in January, would be my last novel. But after reading about the parks, I started on a new book that same day. Rightfully Mine, about the timber industry, will be the third novel in my environmental series.  I’ve been so upset that I wrote more than 80,000 words, three-fourths of the story, in just five weeks. But I can’t wait until publication to share what I’ve learned. 

The latest federal budget slashes $4 billion from national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, and recreation lands. Gone are $900 million for operations, $73 million for construction, $77 million for recreation and preservation, and $127 million for historic preservation. Some parks are being turned over to states already strapped for funds.

Last year, the National Park Service logged more than 331 million visits. Now these treasured places face neglect, sell-offs, and—worse—industrial exploitation.

Two new executive orders fast-track logging on federal lands and limit the public’s right to know about these projects. More than 250 million acres of public land managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are now for sale to anyone with the cash and the will to exploit them.

Who profits from this rape of our land? Industry.
Who pays the price? The American people.

Supporters claim that clear-cutting will protect us from wildfire. It won’t. Fires are not the enemy; they’re part of the solution. Naturally occurring fires clear undergrowth, open the forest canopy, and trigger the regrowth of diverse plants that feed wildlife. They also leave standing dead trees (snags) that countless species depend on for food and shelter.

The forests most at risk aren’t old-growth; they’re corporate tree plantations—dense monocultures grown after generations of clear-cuts. These burn hotter and more destructively than natural forests. An Oregon study found that such plantations burned 30% more severely than adjacent older stands on protected land. For a century, industrial logging and fire suppression have created unnaturally flammable conditions. Now, under the guise of “fire prevention,” those same industries want to log even more.

This is backward thinking. Old-growth forests resist fire better and store massive amounts of carbon dioxide, helping fight climate change, the very thing making fires worse. Logging releases far more carbon than fire. Even after a severe burn, standing dead trees continue storing carbon, anchoring soil, and feeding the next generation of forest.

Post-fire “salvage logging” is destructive. Heavy machinery crushes seedlings, compacts soil, and speeds the release of carbon. It turns recovery into ruin.

Some people believe that cutting down trees in the remote backcountry will protect their homes. It won’t. What it does is divert resources from the things that truly work. Real defense lies in “home hardening”: fire-resistant materials, smart landscaping, and clearing flammable vegetation within 50 feet of buildings.

Not all forests are the same, and a one-size-fits-all fire policy is a mistake. Indigenous peoples have long known how to use fire strategically to encourage certain plants, improve habitat, and sustain biodiversity. We should learn from that wisdom, not bulldoze over it.

The timber industry thrives on fear. Politicians and lobbyists push a false narrative that fire is an unmitigated disaster. In 1988, the media described Yellowstone’s fires as “catastrophic” and “ruined.” Today, biologists agree that the fires rejuvenated the park more than any human intervention ever could.

The truth is that wildfires are natural. What’s unnatural is selling off the very lands that protect us, lands that hold our clean water, store our carbon, shelter our wildlife, and offer refuge for the human spirit. Our public lands are not just real estate; they are a living trust, passed from one generation to the next. Once they’re sold, cut, or mined, they’re gone forever. No budget shortfall, or corporate profit margin, is worth that loss.

We need policies grounded in science, not scare tactics. We must defend our old-growth forests, restore degraded lands, and resist the false promise that logging will save us from wildfire. The parks and forests belong to all of us. If we don’t fight for them, we will lose them—not to a blaze of fire, but to the quiet, steady theft of a pen stroke.

Picture this: the trailhead where your children first spotted a bald eagle—gated and locked. The meadow where wildflowers spilled like paint across the hills—plowed under for timber roads. The sound of wind in old-growth branches—gone, replaced by the grind of machinery. Once these places are destroyed, they are gone forever. And we will be the last generation to remember them as they were.

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Your thoughts are important. How can we stop this tragedy from occurring? Comment on my BLOG SITE. https://www.eichingerfineart.com/blog/202306/americas-parks-ours-until-theyre-not

Forest Conversion is a 24” by 20” framed acrylic painting on canvas. To purchase, go to https://www.eichingerfineart.com/workszoom/1353405/forest-conversion#/

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REFERENCES:

Pierno,T (2025) Parks Are Being Dismantled Before Our Very Eyes. National Parks Conservation Association. Retrieved from https://www.npca.org/articles/7044-parks-are-being-dismantled-before-our-very-eyes

Website (2025) The Trump Administration Is Recklessly Axing Funding and Staff for America’s National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administration-is-recklessly-axing-funding-and-staff-for-americas-national-parks-forests-and-public-lands/

News Hour ( 2025) Whitehouse set to roll back protections for nearly 60 million acres of national forests.PBS. Retrieved from

https://www.pbs.org/video/national-forests-1750799624

Article. (2025) The Trump administration orders half of the national forests open for logging. Washington Post. Reddit. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/oregon/comments/1jsvgd1/trump_administration_orders_half_of_national/

Denny,E. (2025) Against public interest, Trump hands public forests over to private industry. The Wilderness Society. Retrieved from https://www.wilderness.org/articles/press-release/against-public-interest-trump-hands-public-forests-over-private-industry

Website (2025) Ten Things Oregonians Should Know About Forest Fires.Oregonwild.org. Retrieved from https://oregonwild.org/resource/ten-things-oregonians-should-know-about-forest-fires/