April 18, 2025
From the Board of Directors of Wild Alabama, a nonprofit corporation, to all concerned about our National Forests in Alabama:
We write to express our concerns about a development impacting our national forests. Recently, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate called the “Fix Our Forests Act.” It builds on a House version that was passed in January.
An aim of the bill is to change forest management plans ostensibly to address the risks of wildfires in the Western United States. While wildfire mitigation efforts are important, the Fix Our Forests Act stands to have a negative far-reaching effect that could eliminate important safeguards that protect our forests here in Alabama.
Specifically, the legislation seeks to expedite forest management projects by streamlining environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and limiting certain legal challenges. In other words, the bill would eliminate opportunities for our citizen voices to be part of the conversation about how our public lands are managed and could lead to increased logging without adequate scientific review or community input, potentially harming ecosystems and endangered species. That is critically important in Alabama where the richness of our biodiversity ranks us among the top four states in the country.
The important safeguards the Fix Our Forests Act stands to eliminate are also the very means by which our national forests in Alabama came to be the beautiful treasures they are today with their three designated wilderness areas: Sipsey, Cheaha and Dugger. All National Forests in Alabama are currently managed under a plan focused on conservation and recreation that was created under the process established by the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental reviews and community input through public comment. Wild Alabama participated directly in that process and our citizen volunteers were instrumental in helping to change the former forest management plan from one of timber production to the restoration plan we all benefit from today.
The Fix Our Forests Act stands to dramatically undermine years of conservation efforts by opening millions of acres of federal land across the country to logging without scientific review and community input.
Wild Alabama advocates for maintaining existing safeguards and increasing protection of our public lands. Please join us in asking our elected officials to protect our national forests and vote against any bill that diminishes the protections and safeguards we have fought for many years to enforce.
You can contact our U.S. Senators and House of Representative Members at these numbers. All you need to say is who you are, where you are from, and how you want them to vote:
Senator Tommy Tuberville
(202) 224-4124 (Washington D.C.) (251) 308-7233 (Mobile, AL)
Senator Katy Boyd Britt
(202) 224-5744 (Washington, D.C.) (205) 731-1384 (Birmingham) (659) 251-2880 (Tuscaloosa)
(251) 662-9990 (Mobile)
(334) 777-1150 (Montgomery) (256) 429-3450 (Huntsville)
(334) 500-4097 (Dothan)
Representative Barry Moore (District 1) (202)225-2901
Shomari Figures (District 2) (202) 225-4931
Mike Rogers (District 3) (202) 225-3261
Robert Aderholt (District 4) (202) 225-4876
Dale Strong (District 5) (202) 225-4801
Gary Palmer (District 6) (202) 225-4921
Terri Sewell (District 7) (202) 225-2665
Thank you for your help in protecting our forests and wild places in Alabama!
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of Wild Alabama, a nonprofit corporation.
From the Board of Directors of Wild Alabama, a nonprofit corporation, to all concerned about our National Forests in Alabama:
We write to express our concerns about a development impacting our national forests. Recently, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate called the “Fix Our Forests Act.” It builds on a House version that was passed in January.
An aim of the bill is to change forest management plans ostensibly to address the risks of wildfires in the Western United States. While wildfire mitigation efforts are important, the Fix Our Forests Act stands to have a negative far-reaching effect that could eliminate important safeguards that protect our forests here in Alabama.
Specifically, the legislation seeks to expedite forest management projects by streamlining environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and limiting certain legal challenges. In other words, the bill would eliminate opportunities for our citizen voices to be part of the conversation about how our public lands are managed and could lead to increased logging without adequate scientific review or community input, potentially harming ecosystems and endangered species. That is critically important in Alabama where the richness of our biodiversity ranks us among the top four states in the country.
The important safeguards the Fix Our Forests Act stands to eliminate are also the very means by which our national forests in Alabama came to be the beautiful treasures they are today with their three designated wilderness areas: Sipsey, Cheaha and Dugger. All National Forests in Alabama are currently managed under a plan focused on conservation and recreation that was created under the process established by the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental reviews and community input through public comment. Wild Alabama participated directly in that process and our citizen volunteers were instrumental in helping to change the former forest management plan from one of timber production to the restoration plan we all benefit from today.
The Fix Our Forests Act stands to dramatically undermine years of conservation efforts by opening millions of acres of federal land across the country to logging without scientific review and community input.
Wild Alabama advocates for maintaining existing safeguards and increasing protection of our public lands. Please join us in asking our elected officials to protect our national forests and vote against any bill that diminishes the protections and safeguards we have fought for many years to enforce.
You can contact our U.S. Senators and House of Representative Members at these numbers. All you need to say is who you are, where you are from, and how you want them to vote:
Senator Tommy Tuberville
(202) 224-4124 (Washington D.C.) (251) 308-7233 (Mobile, AL)
Senator Katy Boyd Britt
(202) 224-5744 (Washington, D.C.) (205) 731-1384 (Birmingham) (659) 251-2880 (Tuscaloosa)
(251) 662-9990 (Mobile)
(334) 777-1150 (Montgomery) (256) 429-3450 (Huntsville)
(334) 500-4097 (Dothan)
Representative Barry Moore (District 1) (202)225-2901
Shomari Figures (District 2) (202) 225-4931
Mike Rogers (District 3) (202) 225-3261
Robert Aderholt (District 4) (202) 225-4876
Dale Strong (District 5) (202) 225-4801
Gary Palmer (District 6) (202) 225-4921
Terri Sewell (District 7) (202) 225-2665
Thank you for your help in protecting our forests and wild places in Alabama!
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of Wild Alabama, a nonprofit corporation.
National Forests are federal lands under the direction of the Department of Agriculture. They are managed by the United States Forest Service. Since our organization’s beginning as the Bankhead Monitor back in 1991, through our time as Wild Alabama, then Wild South, and now once again Wild Alabama, we remain rooted in Forest Watch. Our work of forest protection began with Forest Watch as a means of protecting our last wild places.
We continue to monitor Forest Service activities to assure that the terms of the 2004 Forest Revision Plan for National Forests in Alabama are upheld and that Forest Service management practices are compatible with restoration principles. Our goal is healthy, intact eco-systems on our public lands. This is accomplished through our active participation as a member of the Bankhead Liaison Panel, through ground-truthing timber sales, writing comment letters on proposed Forest Service policy, management practices and projects, and responding to concerns expressed by forest visitors.
We continue to monitor Forest Service activities to assure that the terms of the 2004 Forest Revision Plan for National Forests in Alabama are upheld and that Forest Service management practices are compatible with restoration principles. Our goal is healthy, intact eco-systems on our public lands. This is accomplished through our active participation as a member of the Bankhead Liaison Panel, through ground-truthing timber sales, writing comment letters on proposed Forest Service policy, management practices and projects, and responding to concerns expressed by forest visitors.
Forest Watch Report January 2024 - December 2024
Forest Watch Report January 2023 - December 2023
Forest Watch Report January 2022 - December 2022
Forest Watch Report January 2021 - December 2o21
- Attended Bankhead Liaison Panel meetings
Forest Watch Report January 2023 - December 2023
- Attended all 2023 Bankhead Liaison Panel meetings
- ANPR:MOG (May meeting w groups in NC; Aug 2023 ANPR:MOG comment letter and signed onto SELC's comment letter)
- Oct. 2023 letter to FS Supervisor re NEPA for Hemlock treatment
- Nov. 2023 Coosa Riverkeeper/proposed Quarry at Oxford near TNF (site visit, ADEM meeting, letter to ADEM)
- Responded to concerns about SPB cut on Dry Hollow Road
Forest Watch Report January 2022 - December 2022
- Bad burn in Talladega National Forest
- Aquatic Passage Project on Brushy Creek in Bankhead
- Dec 2022 comment letter re proposed Forest Orders in BNF and TNF
- Attended all Bankhead Liaison Panel meetings
Forest Watch Report January 2021 - December 2o21
- Consulted with Bankhead District Ranger Andy Scott about the sedimentation load in Sipsey Fork and its tributaries in the Bankhead National Forest and how how the poor condition of the forest roads may be contributing. Wild Alabama composed a letter to Forest Supervisor Cherie Hamilton in Montgomery regarding the poorly maintained roads and how they are likely contributing to the sedimentation problem.
- Engaged in meetings and site visits in the Bankhead National Forest about the proposed swap of national forest land for private land on Sipsey Fork. Wild Alabama submitted a comment letter and remains attentive to the process.
- Ground-truthed marked sites in the Flint Creek timber sale, Bankhead National Forest.
- Met with Ranger Andy Scott, silviculturist Jason Harris, scientists from the Southern Research Station and educators from the surrounding communities to plan for an upcoming project that will involve students in collecting acorns and planting a 20 acre site on Balls Mountain that was formerly a loblolly pine plantation.
- Submitted a comment letter regarding the proposed Aquatic Organism Passage Project on Bankhead and Talladega National Forests.
- Signed on to a letter to Congress from Southern Environmental Law Center supporting legislation that will make the Roadless Rule permanent.
- Participated in three planning meetings for a community science project in partnership with the Bankhead District of the Forest Service that will involve high school and college students in the monitoring of Eastern hemlock sites in the Bankhead National Forest for the purpose of the early detection of Hemlock Wooly adelgid.