WEEK IN REVIEW
TIM NEWCOMB
FOREST PLAN IS OUTDATED
the number of trucks. It is, however, likely to put some smaller composting startups out of business or force them to go farther afield for customers. (So much for lowered emissions and traffic.) Please focus on the truly critical things that need your undivided attention right now. Those issues are as follows: 1) Find funding and community support for a new high school and tech center; 2) address the deteriorating safety of our city (including but not limited to the spate of recent gunfire incidents, one of which shut down the Edmunds campus on its third day of school); and 3) tackle the increasingly egregious price tag of living in this city, for renters and homeowners alike — a problem that has been greatly exacerbated by the recent botched, amateurish and arbitrary citywide property reappraisal. Those three “must-address” issues should keep you plenty busy. Once those have been dealt with, you can turn your attention to the “nice-to-have” items. Nelson Caldwell
BURLINGTON
15 YEARS AND COUNTING
Thanks to Fair Game [“The Deluge Problem,” August 18] for explaining how fossilfueled climate catastrophe is making Lake Champlain cleanup more difficult and expensive. This timely reporting coincides with the end of another recordbreaking summer of heat, wildfire and drought. Yet the connection between climate change and lake pollution is not new information. Fifteen years ago, Conservation Law Foundation successfully sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency
— and, by extension, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources — over the weak framework for lake cleanup. The legal complaint explained that these government officials “completely failed to consider then-existing, widely-known, peer-reviewed scientific findings demonstrating an ongoing and increasing trend of accelerated climate change,” including “then-occurring and predicted climate change-induced changes in precipitation and their effect on the magnitude and timing of runoff, increasing pollutant loads flushed into waters from failing or overwhelmed waste management systems,” and more. Back in 2006, Vermont ANR officials fiercely opposed CLF over these issues. Sadly, ANR Secretary Julie Moore’s more recent acknowledgment that climate change challenges lake cleanup has not translated into a sense of urgency when it comes to clamping down on major pollution sources, such as foul runoff from dairy operations, commercial strip development and municipal storm drain discharge pipes. Meanwhile, ANR has been overly aggressive in placing ever more hurdles in the way of renewable energy projects that will help Vermont do its share to slow climate change and build a more secure electrical grid powered with homegrown energy. In the struggle to clean up the lake and create climate solutions, actions speak louder than words. Anthony Iarrapino
MONTPELIER
Iarrapino is a former senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation.
Standing Trees Vermont would like to thank Kevin McCallum for his reporting and Seven Days for publishing the article “Clear-Cut? Climate Crisis Spawns a Push to Ban Logging in the Green Mountain National Forest” [August 18]. It is important that Vermonters know about the increased logging in our Green Mountain National Forest. We would like to clarify how much of our Green Mountain National Forest is being slated for logging. The four most recently approved U.S. Forest Service plans — South of Route 9 Integrated Resource Project, Rochester Integrated Resource Project, Early Successional Habitat Creation Project and the Somerset Integrated Resource Project — have approved logging of more than 43,000 acres. This is 10 percent of the roughly 400,000 acres of our Green Mountain National Forest. And this does not include other previously approved plans and the upcoming Telephone Gap Integrated Resource Project. All these plans are being approved based on the 2006 Green Mountain National Forest’s Forest Management Plan. Per the National Forest Management Act, this plan is out of date. It does not include current science related to the importance of forests for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, clean water and their ability to reduce the impacts of extreme weather events projected to increase with climate change, protecting communities from natural disasters. If others are interested in joining our efforts to have the U.S. Forest Service change its management approach for our Green Mountain National Forest, they can reach us at our website, standingtreesvermont.org. Mark Nelson
RIPTON
Nelson is a member of Standing Trees Vermont.
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