A logging truck pulls out from a forest thinning operation on Forest Service Road 4610 off of Skyliners Road in Bend in 2023. (Andy Tullis/The Bulletin file)

For over 40 years now, I've been fortunate to call Bend my home. The trees and the lifestyle drew me in but now a line has been drawn in the sand. RACA (Roadless Area Rule Act) was adopted over 25 years ago and has kept our forests in check but now this status is under threat by the Trump administration. In Oregon, we have 2 million acres of roadless areas. This is crucial to preserving our diminishing forests. The cause of most of our forest fires are due to people. Allowing more access by motor vehicles will only make this worse. Our forests are home to precious wildlife, including elk, Grizzlies, salmon, beavers and more. They deserve protection as well as our trees. The Trump administration has reduced the USFS by 25% which includes firefighters. This will be devastating to the preservation of all we hold dear. The intention of this administration is to rob of us our most precious resources. If we sit back and do nothing, they will take what they want. We cannot allow this to happen.Andrea Salinas in the 6th district is directing the campaign to preserve RACA. We need everyone to contact our state representatives to let them know this is unacceptable (Bynum, Hoyle, Bentz). Protect Oregon's wildest places while we still can.

The US Forest Service manages nearly 380,000 miles of roads. Even when fully funded, the USFS is unable to maintain this extensive transportation network. Deferred road maintenance means erosion and water quality impacts for trout and salmon streams

For almost 25 years, it has been the official policy of the USFS to not build additional roads in the 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas. And for good reason! The Roadless Rule prevents road building through forests and grasslands that provide important habitat for fish and wildlife, and solace for the American public. It protects intact chunks of public land that support recreation. Importantly, the rule expressly allows qualifying timber management, fire mitigation, and habitat restoration within the roadless areas.

Nevertheless, the USFS is soon expected to officially announce their proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule with a truncated comment period.

I've been the bulk of my career in western forestry and natural resource management. I also recreate on our public lands almost daily. While I greatly appreciate the access that existing roads provide, I strongly oppose opening up tens of millions of acres to new roads.

The supporters of Project 2025, the new conservative dogma, are flooding social media, news outlets, and broadcast networks with a comprehensive set of proposals that, if implemented, purport to "Make America Great Again." This propaganda effort deserves comment because reality did not change earlier this year with the advent of new political leadership. We have the same serious environmental and social issues to contend with going forward.

Try this thought experiment. Forget the past. I mean this quite literally. Leave all your learned preferences and expectations behind. Live only in the present with an eye to the future. How should we all adjust our lifeways to consider that adverse climate change is well underway, fresh water is becoming scarcer, our life-sustaining ecosystems are degrading, and our planet is seriously over populated? Denial is not an answer or an option.

Instead, focus on these very personal actions. Live in a smaller, more energy efficient space. Transition to an electric lifestyle. Don't buy any more gasoline powered vehicles, go with an electric vehicle instead. EV's now cost about the same as gas vehicles (assuming MSRP discounting continues) and pre-owned electrics are great deals. Install enough solar cells on your property to meet your needs for electricity or buy a share of a solar farm if cells are not an option. Burn less methane (euphemistically referred to as "natural gas") and wean off it completely as soon as possible. Don't burn wood if you live in an urban setting.

Limit reproduction to at most one child per couple and advocate for this target across the next four generations. Significantly reduce your use of potable water through conservation. Eat lower on the food chain most of the time, especially eat less red meat, refined sugars, and ultra-processed foods (and if recent research is correct, drink less alcohol, too).

Thus ends the thought experiment (perhaps call it the Reality-based Project 2025). Now start living like the future of your lineage and all of humanity depended on it. Our own behaviors, though seemingly innocuous, in aggregate are shaping the world that will exist decades from now. Let's all endeavor to be remembered as on the right side of history.