{"id":26828,"date":"2025-07-21T19:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T19:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/26828\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T19:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T19:36:08","slug":"rick-enser-the-greenwashing-of-the-telephone-gap-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/26828\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Enser: The Greenwashing of the Telephone Gap Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentaries are opinion pieces contributed by readers and newsmakers. VTDigger strives to publish a variety of views from a broad range of Vermonters. Commentaries give voice to community members and do not represent VTDigger\u2019s views. To submit a commentary, follow the instructions here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This commentary is by Rick Enser, a biodiversity specialist who served as Coordinator of the Rhode Island Natural Heritage Program for 28 years. He is currently the Principal Conservation Biologist with the Conservation Cooperative, providing consulting services to government agencies and NGOs on biodiversity assessment and conservation planning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The recent approval of the Telephone Gap IRP<\/a>, the 11,000-acre logging project slated for one of Vermont\u2019s largest and oldest tracts of unprotected forest, was applauded in the media by Jamey Fidel, General Counsel and Forest and Wildlife Program Director of the Vermont Natural Resource Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Fidel, \u201cclose to half the overall acreage that will be treated will be trying out some different approaches, many of them that have a lighter touch on the land, that are designed to have more of a beneficial carbon outcome, to be bird-friendly, and also to enhance old forest conditions through harvesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

All dubious claims, but the most nonsensical is the suggestion that tree harvesting can be a \u201cbird-friendly\u201d endeavor. In fact, this phrase implies that some birds, in this case forest species, deserve to be reduced at Telephone Gap in order to provide for other birds that prefer unforested conditions.<\/p>\n

The concept of \u201cbird-friendly management\u201d has its origins with the Audubon Society whose mission of protecting birds has led to all manner of private landowner assistance in fostering \u201cbird-friendly habitat,\u201d even in the face of a changing climate.<\/p>\n

A 2019 article posted on Vermont Audubon\u2019s web page, ridiculously titled \u201cBirds are Telling Us It\u2019s Time to Take Action on Climate<\/a>,\u201d claims that \u201cwe already know what we need to do to help the birds we love.\u201d Among the six suggestions for \u201cwhat you can do to help in Vermont\u201d is to \u201cplant native trees, shrubs and flowers to create bird-friendly places at your home, school, or place of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audubon\u2019s intent here is to suggest that homeowners can replace their decidedly bird-unfriendly and climate-unfriendly mowed lawns and sterile landscaping with a diversity of native plantings to support a greater diversity of birds. Unfortunately, this rationale has been corrupted by the suggestion that forest ecosystems that already support native biodiversity should be managed to be more \u201cbird-friendly\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 2012 publication \u201cManaging Your Woods With Birds in Mind: A Vermont Landowner\u2019s Guide<\/a>,\u201d published by Audubon Vermont and Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, poses the question, \u201cWhat does a bird-friendly forest look like?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The answer: \u201cWe envision healthy forests that provide suitable breeding and post-breeding habitat conditions for a suite of Vermont birds and sustained yields of timber and other forest products and services.\u201d As such, \u201cbird-friendly\u201d becomes a selective process in which foresters conduct prescriptive management to support those birds desired by the landowner. It is suggested that landowners provide a variety of habitats and ages, including unforested early successional habitats to attract woodcock, a decidedly \u201cunfriendly\u201d choice for true forest birds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Managing private forest lands with birds in mind may be an acceptable practice considering more destructive alternatives, such as clear-cutting large tracts of forest to maximize profits. But it is not acceptable on public lands where proforestation should be practiced to properly address the climate and biodiversity crises. That is the appropriate choice for the people\u2019s forests.<\/p>\n

Describing the Telephone Gap project as \u201cbird-friendly\u201d is nothing more than a ploy to enlist support from the thousands of people who simply \u201clove birds,\u201d especially those whose experience with Nature is mostly with the birds that visit their backyard feeders. They support the billion-dollar bird-feeding industry<\/a> and the organizations that promise to protect the birds they love, but they rarely venture to wild places like Telephone Gap.<\/p>\n

According to the environmental assessment prepared for Telephone Gap<\/a>, the birds that will benefit from the proposed harvest treatments include, \u201cmany passerines such as the eastern bluebird, common yellow-throat, song sparrow, and American goldfinch,\u201d all familiar backyard birds. The Forest Service provides zero information about the mature forest species that will be depleted by these misguided efforts to provide habitat for common birds that simply do not belong in mature forest ecosystems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But then again, that\u2019s not really the goal, is it? The real intent is to log, baby, log, and the Forest Service and its sycophants have employed all manner of disinformation to justify these actions.\u00a0 \u201cA lighter touch on the land\u201d; \u201cbird-friendly\u201d; \u201cenhancing old forest through harvesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing more than greenwashing \u2014\u00a0and a carefully crafted, highly unethical scam.<\/p>\n

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Have something to say? Submit a commentary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commentaries are opinion pieces contributed by readers and newsmakers. VTDigger strives to publish a variety of views from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[23327,192,23328,79,23329],"class_list":["post-26828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-commentaries","tag-environment","tag-jamey-fidel","tag-science","tag-vermont-natural-resources-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}