Nearly 100 supporters braved 20-degree temperatures outside the Green Mountain National Forest Headquarters on Jan. 11 to protest the destructive Telephone Gap logging project. About a dozen were from the Burlington area. Third Act Vermonters were there!
This contested plan to cut nearly 11,000 acres in the Telephone Gap area northeast of Rutland includes 800 acres of old growth forest. Old growth trees (more than 100 years old) sequester significantly more carbon than younger ones, positively affect water quality, and are more climate resilient. The Telephone Gap project is projected to release as much carbon as 60,000-gas powered passenger vehicles driven during a year.
Third Act collaborated with Standing Trees, 350 VT, Vermonters for A Clean Environment, and Stop Vermont Biomass for this event. Speakers included: Earl Hatley, Abenaki Nation Coalition, Chris Gish, 350org, Telos Whitfield, Unitarian Universalist minister, State Representative Amy Sheldon, (statement read by Sarah Stott), Justin Lindholm, Vermonters for a Clean Environment, Zack Porter, Executive Director of Standing Trees
The public has until Monday, April 8th to comment. You are urged to submit a comment (or multiple comments – there is no limit) against the Telephone Gap project at US Forest Service NEPA Project Telephone Gap. Also sign this petition Protect Vermont’s National Forest from destructive logging! and contact your Congress people: Rep Becca Balint: (202) 225-4115, or use this contact form, Sen Bernie Sanders: (202) 224-5141, or use this contact form and Sen Peter Welch: (202) 224-4242, or use this contact form.