Join us on or before Friday, January 17th in submitting objections to the Green Mountain National Forest’s reckless Telephone Gap logging project! Below we break down the objection process into three key points, and the recipients that need to hear from you.
Wondering how you can weigh by Friday, January 17th at 11:59pm? We'll break it down for you - read on:
Crafting Your Objection
The most important part of your objection is sharing your own connection to Telephone Gap and clearly demanding that this logging project be canceled. If you have visited the Telephone Gap area, if you live in either of watersheds downstream (Otter Creek and the White River), or if you are concerned about climate change or the precedent for other public lands, say so. If you don’t have much time to write a detailed message debunking each one of the Forest Service’s questionable claims, that is totally ok! A few heartfelt sentences is enough to get your opposition on the record and continue building the momentum to cancel the Telephone Gap project.
If you wish to include more details, Forest Service guidelines suggest that “issues raised in objections must be based on previously submitted comments unless they are specific to new information arising after the designated comment opportunities.” You can refer to your previous comment if you submitted one of those, and/or include the following key pieces of new information that have come up since the preliminary environmental assessment comment period that started on March 8, 2024:
Endangered Species: The Telephone Gap area is home to extremely rare species, including the Canada Lynx. According to public records obtained by Standing Trees, a Canada Lynx was seen on September 3rd, 2024 walking just outside, of all places, the GMNF headquarters in Mendon! If Canada Lynx are traveling past the Forest Supervisor’s office alongside the busiest road in the region, it is all but certain they are using much better habitat nearby in the heart of the Telephone Gap landscape. And yet, despite proof of the presence of Lynx in the Telephone Gap project area, the Forest Service stated in the Telephone Gap Biological Evaluation that “the gray wolf and Canada lynx are not known to occur within the project area on the GMNF, [and] they are not likely to occur within the project area in the foreseeable future.” This is nonsense! The Forest Service must go back and analyze potential impacts to lynx.
A security camera captured this lynx walking through the parking lot of the GMNF Supervisor’s Office in Mendon, VT on September 3rd. Old Growth Forests: The Telephone Gap logging project would cut 817 stand acres of old growth, a significant figure considering that the US Forest Service estimated in June that there are only 2,000-acres of old-growth in the 400,000-acre Green Mountain National Forest. In other words, only 0.5% of the entire forest is old growth, and the Telephone Gap project threatens this extraordinarily important and rare habitat.
Climate Impact: The Telephone Gap project would release 254,556 tons CO2e, the equivalent of driving more than 60,000 average passenger vehicles for a year. This is the climate impact from just one of the National Forest’s logging projects — the Early Successional Habitat Creation, Robinson, Somerset, and other recent projects are all on a similar scale, and conceivably are already releasing similar or greater amounts of climate pollution.
Submitting your comments:
Feel free to simply copy the same objection submission to each of the following:
Vermont’s Congressional Delegation
Representative Balint: Use this form or call (202) 225-4115
Senator Sanders: Use this form or call (202) 224-5141
Senator Welch: Use this form or call (202) 224-4242
Forest Service Objection Portal: Use this form to submit your objections via the Telephone Gap project website by 11:59 pm EST on Friday, January 17.
Background:
Telephone Gap is the latest in a series of significant logging projects in the GMNF. Thanks to a groundswell of public support for mature and old-growth forests, there has been unprecedented public engagement on the Telephone Gap project. Over 13,000 individuals signed a petition calling for the project to be canceled, and there were more unique comments submitted to the Forest Service for Telephone Gap than any other project in GMNF history. We have already won a more detailed environmental analysis, a first-of-its-kind carbon assessment, and have delayed the Telephone Gap project by more than a year. Despite the delays and increased scrutiny, the Forest Service is still pushing a reckless plan at Telephone Gap, which would, among other things:
Cut nearly 11 thousand acres of public forest, 91% of which is classified by the Forest Service as mature or old.
Cut 817 stand acres of old-growth, according to the USFS’s Region 9 definition.
Degrade habitat for some of Vermont’s most imperiled animal species, including Northern Long-Eared Bat, Brook Trout, and Canada Lynx.
Release a whopping 254 thousand tons CO2e, equal to driving more than 60,000 average passenger vehicles for a year.
Log 1,800 acres of the 16,000-acre Pittenden Roadless area, one of the largest unprotected tracts of wild land in the state. The Forest Service argues on absurd technicalities that building logging roads and cutting 11% of the area, in addition to damage already caused by the Robinson Project in Pittenden’s northern half, will not substantially alter the “character” of the roadless area.
Whether or not the Forest Service chooses to listen to public input during this objection period, we will continue to fight back against the Telephone Gap project. Outreach to Vermont’s congressional delegation and (especially!) widespread public pressure are each part of the movement coming together to cancel the Telephone Gap project and ensure lasting protections for our public forests.