Where is the Lorax?

 There once was a Lorax. He spoke for the trees.

He was yellow and orange with small knobby knees.

And oh that Lorax, with his hatred for Thneeds,

Tried to teach us all the follies of greed.

He urged us to care, and to care quite a lot.

But caring is different than doing, is it not?

And the people who DO, well they don't seem to care

Despite their similar tuft of orange-yellow hair...

I ran across this post on my Instagram feed a few days back. The carousel post summarized a recent Guardian article about one of Trump's latest victims: the trees. Whatever end of the political spectrum you sit on, policies are subject to public scrutiny, and this quick graphic pushed me to investigate the reality of forest decline in the U.S. under the Trump administration.

The action, titled "Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production" went live on March 1. It begins with:

The United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but heavy-handed Federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers.  Our inability to fully exploit our domestic timber supply has impeded the creation of jobs and prosperity, contributed to wildfire disasters, degraded fish and wildlife habitats, increased the cost of construction and energy, and threatened our economic security. 

Certainly, this can't be true. We have endless timber? Surplus trees? And these "extra" forests, they're causing wildfires and killing habitats? When did tree limbs grow thumbs and start swinging axes? “Hotter temperatures caused by climate change, in turn, create dry forest conditions that are more susceptible to fire,” said a spokesperson for Earthjustice. In addition, the debris often left behind by the logging industry, including needles and leaves, “essentially acts as tinder,” they added. So...lack of land management may be a shortcoming, but adding more logs to the fire isn't going to stop the smoke.

The order continues:

Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior, through the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Secretary of Commerce, through the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, shall complete a strategy on USFS and BLM forest management projects under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1536) to improve the speed of approving forestry projects.

Yes, let's endanger more species faster! Who doesn't love streamlined extinction? The order calls for the overall expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres (113m hectares) of national forests and other public lands. Scientists, environmentalists, and other experts all point out the massive flaws and deadly consequences of this plan. 

It's not entirely clear if the forests Trump is referring to are mostly dead brush, therefore aiming the order more toward actual land management than total deforestation, but I may have to trust scientists over comment trolls here. More clarity on exactly what the logging practices will be is needed from the industry.

The order also prioritizes "self-reliance" and accompanied a 25% tariff on Canadian lumber, which supplies 23.6% of the lumber consumed in the US. The economic undertones of the order have lumber industry professionals praising the move toward homegrown profits, but the dying industry produces more carbon dioxide and puts 400 threatened species at increased risk. 

Despite Trump's (obvious) motives, there are some safeguards in place. The Endangered Species Act, for one, will help stall the immediate increase of logging in national forests. Kristen Boyles, managing attorney of the Northwest Regional Office of Earthjustice in Seattle claims:

Any effort to cut protected areas — especially by working around the Endangered Species Act, as the order suggests — would be challenged in court, Boyles said. The nation’s forests are, under multiple federal laws, to be managed for multiple uses — species protection, recreation, clean water and air — not just timber production.

So it's not the END of the world, but you don't know it's the end until it is. Catching late-stage cancer is ineffective. We are watching the tumors grow, spending our time arguing about whether or not they will remain benign - mere threats - or become vicious killers. We are in the early stage, caring instead of doing.

I thought about this as I hacked away privet on Thursday. Knees in the dried out dirt, toes poking cacti, arms burning from the effort of relieving this singular tree from the constraints of its invader. For those two hours, I did what I could for the trees. 

There is no more Lorax to speak for the trees.

It's a childish notion, if you ask me.

No magical creature will voice his concerns

For the safety of flora or fauna, or ferns.

So we must be the Lorax, in our own small ways

In how we make choices in each of our days.

So we help just one tree? Whatever, who cares?

But if we all help just one, we can cover hectares.