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Tell Idaho: Fight Back - Don’t Let The Pine Beetle Destroy Our Forests
  1. Signatures
    372 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. The Governor of ID (+ 2 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The Governor of ID
      • The ID State Senate
      • The ID State House
  2. Created By
    Austin Billings
    Boise, ID
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Right now, a trip to dramatic western places like Yellowstone National Park can be both inspiring and heartbreaking. Visitors are greeted with gorgeous vistas, diverse and rare wildlife, and mile after mile of dead and dying trees.

The mountain pine beetle, fueled by climate change, is decimating forests across the United States, particularly in the West - over four million acres of US Forest Service land are already past saving, and the USFS estimates that "by 2012, the majority of lodgepole pines in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming will be killed by the beetle." Idaho and Montana have already lost 15 billion feet of board timber to the bug.

One Republican Governor is doing something about it - and it's time his peers in neighboring states followed his example.

1/3 of the Black Hills National Forest (known for Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, and sacred Lakota history) has already fallen prey to the beetle, and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard is saying no more. He's pledged $3 million in state money over the next three years - in addition to existing federal funds - "to pay for tree thinning in healthy stands of forest and removal and cleanup of bug-infested trees."

Other Governors must follow Daugaard's example, including Idaho's Buch Otter. The vast majority of Idaho's land is owned by the federal or state government, including 2.3 million acres of beautiful lodgepole pine, the country's deepest canyon and deepest fresh-water lake, and a sliver of Yellowstone National Park. Whether for their value as carbon sinks and natural timber resources or their importance as wildlife refuges and part of creation, these pristine forests are worth saving.

Tell Governor Otter to join South Dakota, the U.S. Forest Service, and conservationists across the country, and fund a state effort to stop the further spread of this deadly beetle.

Picture credit: Idaho's Boise National Forest is worth saving. Courtesy Flickr user pauljess999.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Fight Back - Don’t Let The Pine Beetle Destroy Our Forests

Greetings,

I just signed the following petition addressed to: Governor Butch Otter and the Idaho State Legislature.

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Fight Back - Don’t Let The Pine Beetle Destroy Our Forests

Right now, a trip to dramatic western places like the Idaho Panhandle National Forest can be both inspiring and heartbreaking. Visitors are greeted with gorgeous vistas, diverse and rare wildlife, and mile after mile of dead and dying trees.

The mountain pine beetle, fueled by warmer temperatures, is decimating forests across the United States, particularly in the West - over four million acres of US Forest Service land are already past saving, and Idaho and Montana have already lost 15 billion feet of board timber.

One Republican Governor is doing something about it - and I hope that you will follow his example.

1/3 of the Black Hills National Forest has already fallen prey to the beetle, and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard is saying no more. He's pledged $3 million in state money over the next three years - in addition to existing federal funds - "to pay for tree thinning in healthy stands of forest and removal and cleanup of bug-infested trees. Some of that money will be used to pay half the costs of forest treatment on private lands."

Other Governors must follow Daugaard's example, including Idaho's Buch Otter. The vast majority of Idaho's land is owned by the federal or state government, including 2.3 million acres of beautiful lodgepole pine, the country's deepest canyon and deepest fresh-water lake, and a sliver of Yellowstone National Park. Whether for their value to us as natural timber resources, recreation areas, and carbon sinks or their intrinsic importance as wildlife refuges and part of creation, Idaho's pristine forests are worth saving.

Please join South Dakota, the U.S. Forest Service, and conservationists across the country, and fund a state effort to stop the further spread of this deadly beetle.
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Sincerely,

[Your name]

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