National forest

For 25 years, the roadless rule has stopped logging and road building in an undeveloped part of U.S. forests.

It protects 45 million acres of National Forest System lands.

Now, the Trump administration wants to rescind the policy.

The Trump administration has justified rescinding the rule, saying it will reduce regulatory burdens on the government, help with land management, and even change wildfire risk.

Thank you so much.

We've been talking with Randy Spivak, Public Lands Policy Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, about the roadless rule, which for 25 years has stopped logging and road building in undeveloped parts of US forests.

It protects 45 million acres of National Forest System lands.

We finish today's show with a dispatch from KPFA's Richard Walensky, who brings us this review of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's production of African Stew in San Francisco.

where in the world is

talking a little bit about the locations used in the show and the and the place names that are dropped on the show so column national forest uh do you want me to ask you if these are real and or that kind of thing or let me just go through them and i'm gonna

assume

oh wait uh some of them are real obviously Call it National Forest.

Real or not?

Not real.

Oh, gosh.

In 2020, I had non-refundable plane tickets and rental car, and then they closed all the National Forest because of the wildfires.

Oh, no. That's almost what happened to us.

And then 2023 is all set to go and Hurricane Hillary hit California and dumped a foot of snow and flooded out everything.

The suggestion evoked an immediate response in Congress.

Under the leadership of Senator Newlands of Nevada, the Reclamation Act of 1902 was passed providing for the redemption of the desert areas of the west the proceeds from the sale of public lands were dedicated to the construction of storage dams and sluiceways to hold water and divert it as needed to the thirsty sands furthermore it was stipulated that the rents paid by water users should go into a reclamation fund to continue the good work forever construction was started immediately under the terms of the law within seventeen years about one million six hundred thousand acres had been reclaimed and more than a million were actually irrigated in the single year nineteen eighteen the crops of the irrigated districts were valued at approximately one hundred million dollars in his first message also president roosevelt urged the transfer of all control over national forests to trained men in the bureau of forestry a recommendation carried out in nineteen o seven when the forestry service was created in every direction noteworthy advances were made in the administration of the national domain the science of forestry was improved and knowledge of the subject spread among the people lands in the national forest available for agriculture were opened to settlers water power sites on the public domain were leased for a term of years to private companies instead of being sold outright The area of the National Forest was enlarged from 43 million acres to 194 million acres by presidential proclamation, more than 43 million acres being added in one year, 1907. the men who turned sheep and cattle to graze on the public lands were compelled to pay a fair rental much to their dissatisfaction fire prevention work was undertaken in the forests on a large scale reducing the appalling annual destruction of timber millions of acres of coal land such as the government had been carelessly selling to mining companies at low figures were withdrawn from sale and held until congress was prepared to enact laws for the disposition of them in the public interest prosecutions were instituted against men who had obtained public lands by fraud and vast tracts were recovered for the national domain an agitation was begun which bore fruit under the administrations of taft and wilson in laws reserving to the federal government the ownership of coal water power phosphates and other natural resources while authorizing corporations to develop them under leases for a period of years the prosecution of the trusts.

As an executive, President Roosevelt was also a distinct personality.

His discrimination between good and bad trusts led him to prosecute some of them with vigor.

I've had 100, probably 1,000 photos I haven't processed.

But especially when I'm driving, a lot of times when I'm in these large parks or driving the National Forest, I've got the camera on my seat and it's on, ready to go.

At any second, if I have to roll down that window, take a picture out of the car even.

There's been a couple times where it's like by the flash of lightning that that fox is gone or a moose one time.

remember you telling me that, yeah.

I mean, I'm assuming that it's taking us a shortcut, not in the middle of the stinking National Forest on a snowmobile trail.

I'm looking at Hunter.

I'm like, we hide a body out here.

We went in, like I said, through Cook City.

So the drive up from Cody up to Cook City, we went through the Shoshone National Forest.

And that's beautiful as far as the views and just the overlooks.

And, you know, we would stop at an overlook and, you know, look out over the mountains and the valleys.

But, you know, Yellowstone has that real bright, bright look, just like when you go to Yosemite and places like that because of all the rock and the geology is so incredible.

there as well but you know you're talking about the park people coming out the park rangers and stuff nancy and i got hooked on there's like a you know how we have the tv show cops but there's one on wildlife stuff and like they like chase people who go hunting without permits or overshooting and it's it's really interesting you know i don't want to see any of the animals hurt but it's it's Nice to know that there's people watching out, but they're like actual park police investigators.

In the park areas, in Shoshone and National Forest and all through that area.

Because they're really trying to protect them.