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The NWFP will now focus only on climate change, wildfire resilience, old-growth forests, and Tribal inclusion. The hard work of the Community Sustainability group was tossed out, and Biodiversity will not be included as a key analysis topic at all. The three-day meeting began with public testimony where over two dozen people offered their own recommendations to the FAC and USFS. Several FUSEE supporters and FireGen members stepped up to the mic to deliver their two-minute testimonies. One after the other, they urged the agency to prioritize Indigenous perspectives and needs, demanded the agency end its fire exclusion policies, and called for all remaining mature and old-growth forests to be protected from logging. The FAC was visibly moved by the many passionate critiques of fire suppression, including one Native speaker who called it a means of perpetrating cultural genocide. This created space for several FAC members, including FireGen’s Program Director, Ryan Reed (pictured above), to pick up the torch and press the agency to acknowledge the violence that its fire management policies have inflicted on Native communities. Ryan criticized the agency's desire to perpetuate fire exclusion in old-growth forests as both bad science and bad policy. The NWFP offers the agency a unique opportunity to fully analyze the adverse social and environmental impacts of its fire exclusion policies and fire suppression practices, particularly impacting Native communities. The NWFP could make the case for a new fire paradigm with an expansive use of Indigenous cultural burning, prescribed burning, and ecological fire use during wildfires. Check out FUSEE’s scoping comments on the NWFP, the National Old-Growth Amendment, and the testimony of FUSEE's executive director delivered at the FAC meeting. The support of our loyal donors is what makes possible FUSEE's ability to monitor the progress of the NWFP and engage with the FAC. Stay tuned for further developments as the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is scheduled to come out next summer.
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