400,000 acres, zero input
In celebration of Earth Month, I urge you to look at Vermont’s 400,000 acres of national forests. As the Green Mountain State, the federal public lands hold an important role in the lives of many Vermonters, providing recreational, spiritual, and economic opportunities for thousands. However, our connections to federal lands are being severed under this current administration, following rollbacks to democratic participation under the National Environmental Policy Act and the federal management of these areas. With this, I urge all Vermonters to embrace public participation and call for the reversal of these USDA-implemented changes.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has served for five and a half decades as a capstone of environmental protection, and has contested federal power over the management of public lands. As a procedural law, NEPA calls for public participation and informed decision-making for any project utilizing federal funds or public lands and waterways, allowing communities to directly influence their lands. While environmental protection is not required in this legislation, by informing and evaluating federal projects, detrimental economic and environmental outcomes are frequently mitigated.
However, as Rachel Frazin describes (“Interior scales back environmental regulations for public lands” The Hill, 02/23/26), the USDA and the Department of the Interior have recently finalized changes reducing the strength of NEPA. By marketing changes as the “modernization” of this legislation, the department aims to remove opportunities for the public to take agency over the uses of their public lands, streamlining their own projects. Despite this, time and time again, these public commenting periods have proved invaluable and irreplaceable to the sustainable management of federal lands, protecting not just the environment, but the social and economic scenes surrounding our lands.
Renowned for its national forests and growing tourism industry using public lands, Vermont should be especially focused on the protection of its federal lands. In the changes instituted by the USDA, the management of federal lands falls into the hands of extractive industries and the federal government. Because of this, I urge all concerned Vermonters to contact their senators and congresspersons to reverse these careless changes.