A few weeks back, I ran across a press release from The Nature Conservancy about partnering with the Bridger Teton National Forest in Wyoming for “forest restoration”, the current euphemism for logging. I sent a FOIA to the Bridger Teton to see what was going on and got back two national-level MOU’s agreeing to help each other out with logging our National Forests.
I had known for decades that the TNC were major promoters of livestock production in the arid west, using the dozens of ranches they have bought up (along with the federal grazing permits) to pretend they can graze livestock in the arid west and have healthy ecosystems, which is, of course, deeply ignorant of how these ecosystems function. This deep and likely purposeful ignorance is perfectly demonstrated by their response to a recent article about the bulldozing project within the Bear’s Ears National Monument, where a TNC rep bloviated:
“The Nature Conservancy is committed to sustainable land management practices that balance the needs of local communities with ecological integrity. Our proposed range improvements in the Indian Creek Allotment aim to provide water sources for cattle away from sensitive riparian and high-recreation areas, aligning with the Bureau of Land Management’s adaptive management policies. This approach supports sustainable grazing while also protecting vital ecosystems.”
The TNC rep clearly doesn’t know anything about how these ecosystems function or the absolute incompatibility of Biological Soil Crust (BSC) and livestock. There is nothing “sustainable” about their livestock operations. I recently collected condition data within the group of pastures slated for the bulldozing and what they are calling “sustainable” and “protecting vital ecosystems” averaged a Similarity Index calculation for grasses at 9% of potential. In other words, livestock grazing has strip mined 91% of the potential.
One more example I will give, some time back, the TNC bought a big ranch with some big federal grazing permits. They wanted to prove they could graze their livestock and have a functional ecosystem at the same time. They hired a well known researcher to prove that for them. It turned out the data didn’t support their thesis. Instead of letting scientific method and facts prevail, the TNC sued the researcher to block the release of the data.
Sorry for getting diverted for a moment…..
So, back to TNC promoting logging…..
So while I was doing a little digging, I found a recent report detailing the TNC’s efforts to promote logging. The John Muir Project published the report.
The press release for the report stated:
“The Nature Conservancy – the biggest, richest, and most influential environmental organization in the country – has been working with the logging and wood products industries and lobbying governments at all levels to increase logging and expand markets for wood products, often calling these efforts ‘natural climate solutions,’” said the Reverend Leo Woodberry, executive director of the New Alpha Community Development Corporation and prominent leader in the environmental justice movement.
Woodberry said,
“When my colleagues and I presented The Nature Conservancy with evidence that wood production and industrial logging is destroying our forests, making climate change worse, and making rural communities – particularly communities of color – more susceptible to flooding, wildfires, water contamination, and pollution, they weren’t interested in talking about how we can work together to fix this. As the climate crisis worsens, we need The Nature Conservancy to stop promoting false solutions.”
In a series of articles, The Nature Conspiracy exposé refers to scientific evidence, public statements, and expert interviews to document:
- Evidence that wood markets and logging are making climate change worse
- How letting forests grow is vital to solving the climate crisis and protecting communities from extreme weather events such as flooding and wildfires
- Cases where wood production is emitting harmful pollution, disproportionately impacting low-income communities and communities of color
- How TNC works with some of the worst players in the forestry industry to promote the expansion of wood production and logging via government measures such as the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
In the West, The Nature Conservancy promotes logging as a way to reduce wildfire risk to communities, despite the fact that the largest study comparing fire in protected forests to fire where logging is permitted found that “forests with the highest levels of protection from logging tend to burn least severely.”
“All logging companies have to do is say the magic words ‘fuel reduction’ and they can cut down the most fire-resistant large, old trees; they can clearcut mature forests; or they can call it ‘commercial thinning’ and kill 80% of the trees in a forest,” said Chad Hanson, PhD, of the John Muir Project. “It’s commercial logging for profit, just with a different label,” he said.
In my much younger days I actually volunteered for the TNC, but it didn’t take very long to figure out that there was something wrong.
As I have said before, look beyond the glossy mailings and see who/what is funding the entity, what is the ratio of fundraisers, media people, managers etc. to people actually doing the work. Generally, once an organization gets past 10 employees, its mission and effectiveness decline significantly.
If I had any money to give, the only big group I would even think of giving any to would be Earth Justice. But even that I wouldn’t do. I would look for tiny to small, kick-ass, no-compromise organizations who refuse to adopt the bogus anthropocentric world view (where the only purpose of conservation is how it serves humans) pushed by the big funders.
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