To the Editor,

In the 2024 Green Bond, $5 million is being allocated to logging and prescribed burning under the misleading name of, "forests and habitat management."

Two Foresters, to be under DEM, are also being added to the Governor's budget for the purpose of supporting increased logging on state land.

This increased logging which is destructive logging will destroy biodiversity, spread invasive species, and create tick habitat.

This logging and prescribed burning could also create a fire hazard endangering thousands of Rhode Islanders who live near state forests.

DEM logging destroys cool, damp forests and replaces them with flammable invasive grasses, weedy brush, and dry logging debris such as branches, wood chips and sawdust strewn across the forest floor.

Prescribed burning can get out of control like the 2022 New Mexico wildfire which was started by a U.S. Forest Service prescribed burn that created the largest wildfire in that state's history.

This allocation to fund more DEM logging and prescribed burning is not only a massive waste of taxpayer dollars, but it will destroy Rhode Island’s state forests and could start the next Exeter wildfire.

Instead, we need to pass the Old Growth Forest Protection Act H 7293/ S 2299, into law, now, so that our last remaining Old Growth and wild forests on state land are permanently protected from DEM’s clearcutting and other forms of destructive logging.

This legislation will also ensure that scientists conduct environmental reviews before any future state logging operations and will create a Natural Heritage Program of scientists to protect Rhode Island’s native biodiversity before it is lost forever.

Nathan Cornell

President of the Old Growth Tree Society

Warwick