The Forest for (No) Trees

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Those of us of a certain age remember growing up with Smokey the Bear, who reminded us about preventing forest fires. Iron Eyes Cody was the Native American (actually, he was Sicilian, but that’s another story) who famously let a tear roll down his cheek in a TV commercial about caring for the environment. Since the 1970s, we’ve made big strides in preventing pollution and protecting some of the most glorious parts of our country.

Our national parks and wilderness areas aren’t just beautiful, they house fragile ecosystems. In this time of extreme climate change, we need to protect them at all costs.

Sadly, these sentiments are not shared by the Destroyer-In-Chief. Recently, Donald Trump signed a pair of Executive Orders opening up vast amounts of our country to logging and mining interests. One order calls for 280 million acres of our forests to be cleared for timber. He also wants to open national parks to industrial mining interests. Naturally, this goes directly against many environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act. Yet as he’s done throughout his entire life, Trump is pushing to just ignore the law.

Then again, who’s going to blow the whistle? As part of clear-cutting federal agencies, the administration has been firing thousands of National Park Service employees (1000 in February 2025 alone). The very people who ensure that the parks are safe and protected won’t be around when the diggers move in (or when Yogi and Boo Boo steal another “pik-a-nik’ basket). Not only is this devastating, but it’s also short-sighted in more ways than one.

The National Park System was established in 1916, although Teddy Roosevelt had declared several national parks as far back as 1901. Its annual budget is about $3.57 billion. That’s for everything: visitor services, resource protection, maintenance, and the like. But each year, park visitors contribute nearly $56 billion to our economy overall. Whatever economic wins Trump thinks he’ll get by paving over paradise will never match the value, in money, natural beauty, national identity, and environmental protection that our parks and protected lands provide.

The (sort of) good news is that Executive Orders are not “laws.” There are things we can do to stop the draconian (and frankly, obscene) actions Trump wants to take against our fragile environment. Check out the National Resource Defense Council for tips on fighting back. Pester the heck out of your representatives to block these plans; 5Calls.org is a fast, efficient way to share your most important concerns with them.

As Joni Mitchell once sang, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” Don’t wait to take some action.

“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.” – Native American saying

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.