If you missed reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss when you were a child or you missed reading it to a child or watching the movie now is a good time. Visit your library, bookstore, go online, or search through your streaming services.
On Monday June 23, 2025, the Trump Administration announced its plans to rescind protections that prevent logging on almost a third of national forest lands.
This includes the “roadless rule” passed in 2001 that prohibits road building and logging on all national forest land without roads – approximately 59 million acres of US national forest land.
The Trump Administration also plans to sell off public lands and extract more natural resources for domestic production. What does that mean for Americans?
· More polluted air, water, and soil.
· Fewer trees to combat carbon dioxide damage to the ozone layer.
· Increased risks of wildfires
· Horrific losses of wildlife habitats.
· Loss of recreational areas
The physical area of the United States including Alaska and Hawaii is 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million square kilometers). This includes mountains, plains, forests, rivers, lakes, coastlines, shorelines, and deserts in federal, state, or local protected areas.
Approximately 13% of our land (roughly 477,000 square miles) is now protected as national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, and other designated areas. This is also one-tenth of the protected land area of the world. Approximately 26% of the total marine area of the United States is also protected. In 2022, the Biden Administration pledged to increase the amount by 30% by 2030.
Protected areas are crucial for biodiversity protection, maintaining natural resources, protecting the quality of our air and water, and providing recreational space for Americans and tourists from other countries.
The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit organization started in 1915 by scientists, concerned citizens, and dedicated leaders committed to protecting and caring for nature. It now operates in more than 80 countries and territories. According to scientists at the Nature Conservancy, reforestation is an important way to combat pollution and climate change.
Reforestation is the process of replanting an area with trees, but it is not only limited to logging areas or areas decimated by wildfires. Building homes, businesses, public buildings, and government facilities also contribute to deforestation, habitat loss, soil erosion, flooding, and climate change which need to be rectified.
Some cities and states mandate that trees taken down for construction purposes must be replaced in common areas or nearby parks. It’s important, but it’s also important to make sure the trees being planted are native to the area, so they attract native species of birds, insects, and other wildlife.
Recent cuts to the workforce and budget cuts within the USDA’s Forest Service, the Interior Department’s National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey will make it increasingly difficult to monitor logging, mining, and oil and gas exploration areas to make sure companies are replanting what they cut down and using native trees. It will also be difficult to monitor lakes and rivers to ensure water sources are not being polluted by run-off and harmful chemicals.
We’re headed into dangerous territory. This administration plans to sell public lands and open them to drilling, mining, and logging in the name of profit while shutting down programs to produce clean renewable energy and preserve public lands.
We need a Lorax, and we need to listen before it’s too late.
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By May be found at the following website: https://www.amazon.com/Lorax-Classic-Seuss-Dr/dp/0394823370., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2876144