What you can do to save Rhode Island’s forests

To the Editor,

Rhode Island has the distinction of being the only state in New England where no state-owned forests are protected from logging. Instead, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has been contracting logging companies to clearcut state forests including in Natural Heritage Areas where rare and endangered species live, paid for by taxpayer dollars. While the big environmental groups in the state are correctly alarmed by the clearcutting of forests for solar farms (which is a big issue), they defend DEM’s clearcutting of our natural, native forests on public land and do nothing to stop it.

Habitats for rare and endangered species in the state have no protections whatsoever and are being clearcut. Our state’s Natural Heritage Program was shut down 17 years ago, so there hasn’t been and is not now any government agency monitoring and protecting our state’s biodiversity including rare and endangered species.

However, while most of the state’s environmental groups do little or nothing to stop the destruction of our state’s forests, we, the citizens of Rhode Island can.

Please reach out to your state representatives and senators to co-sponsor and support the Old Growth Forest Protection Act which will be reintroduced in the RI Legislature in 2025, to create the first state laws to protect Forests and Biodiversity in Rhode Island’s history. The emails can be found under the names of the representatives and senators on the RI Legislature website which you can find at www.rilegislature.gov

The Old Growth Forest Protection Act would protect Old Growth Forests, create a functional Natural Areas Preserve system to protect rare habitats and forest ecosystems including the currently unprotected Natural Heritage Areas, require environmental review before state logging operations, and bring back the Rhode Island Natural Heritage Program.

If you want to join the Save Rhode Island’s Forests campaign to help in the effort to save the state’s forests and biodiversity, you can send an email to ncornell.ogts@gmail.com

Nathan Cornel, President of the Old Growth Tree Society
Warwick