Petition by @LostForestsofWNY on Instagram

TO:  New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) and our local County governments in Western New York comprising DEC Region 9.

Stop logging our public forests!

Halt the ongoing aggressive logging and clear cutting of our public forest land in Western New York.

Alarm bells have rung in WNY over the volume and aggressiveness of logging going on right now on public forest land designated as State Forests and County Forests.

These forest are being documented for their forest ecology and effects of active and recent logging, beginning with Cattaraugus County. Every site we have checked so far has either clear cutting or active aggressive logging, recent clear cutting or aggressive logging, or the trees are marked for future clear cuts/logging. We have documented this near Holiday Valley on McCarthy Hill and in Rock City, on Golden Hill, at the Dobbins Memorial Forest, and several Cattaraugus County forests around Ashford Hollow Road which are now completely gone. And we have barely begun.

If you care about our public lands, NOW is the time to stop them. If not, our forests will be gone. Get out to your local public forest lands and see how government employees are treating them. This is the time for change, and not their kind of change. In this time of Global Climate Crisis, we need these forests more than ever for carbon sequestration and a healthy planet.

These aggressive logging practices harm:  forest ecology, wildlife habitat, species diversity, air quality/oxygen production, carbon sequestration, water quality/sedimentation, soil stability, tourism, recreation – including hiking, hunting, bird watching, biking, fishing, and camping, and our spiritual connections through getting back to nature and just plain living in peace with the natural world.

This is our heritage and it is being stolen from us. It took a long time for these diverse forest ecosystems to be created. It will take more years than we will be alive to grow back to mature trees and a state of healthy and diverse forest ecology/climax forest succession. This is cutting the Spirit out of WNY. These have been public lands for decades and now they have been denigrated and in some cases completely destroyed.

Time is of the essence. These trees are being taken out fast. If you are a lover of nature or just disagree with the aggressive logging decisions made by our government employees, make your VOICE heard. Please sign this Petition demanding the NYS DEC and Region 9 County governments halt logging of our public State and County forest lands.

Many Blessings, Your Spiritual warrior, Don Shelters.

Find us on Instagram @LostForestsofWNY