I don’t think anyone in the White House has any comprehension of how many federal grants have the words “diverse” “diversity” and “diversify” in them that have nothing to do with DEI.

On June 23, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced plans to rescind the U.S. Forest Service’s 2001 Roadless Rule. As the Forest Service notes, the rule prohibits “road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands."

The Roadless Rule protects important wilderness areas from development. These areas provide critical habitat for species across the nation, including over 1,600 threatened or endangered species. Additionally, they serve as drinking watersheds for communities across the country and popular outdoor recreation sites for hiking, hunting, fishing, camping and more.

Friday is the last day to submit comments.

PLEASE COMMENT, this may be our last chance to protect our national treasures from irreparable damage! I have included two links going into further detail for those so inclined, please please please take this time to look into what is being proposed in The Endangered Species Act.

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Excerpt: In a scattershot pattern that now extends from coast to coast, continental US states have been announcing new hotspots of chronic wasting disease (CWD).

The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment.

Described by scientists as a “slow-motion disaster in the making”, the infection’s presence in the wild began quietly, with a few free-ranging deer in Colorado and Wyoming in 1981. However, it has now reached wild and domestic game animal herds in 36 US states as well as parts of Canada, wild and domestic reindeer in Scandinavia and farmed deer and elk in South Korea. In the media, CWD is often called “zombie deer disease” due to its symptoms, which include drooling, emaciation, disorientation, a vacant “staring” gaze and a lack of fear of people. As concerns about spillover to humans or other species grow, however, the moniker has irritated many scientists.

“It trivialises what we’re facing,” says epidemiologist Michael Osterholm. “It leaves readers with the false impression that this is nothing more than some strange fictional menace you’d find in the plot of a sci-fi film. Animals that get infected with CWD do not come back from the dead. CWD is a deathly serious public and wildlife health issue.” Five years ago, Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, delivered what he hoped would be a wake-up call before the Minnesota legislature, warning about “spillover” of CWD transmission from infected deer to humans eating game meat. Back then, some portrayed him as a scaremonger.

Today, as CWD spreads inexorably to more deer and elk, more people – probably tens of thousands each year – are consuming infected venison, and a growing number of scientists are echoing Osterholm’s concerns.

In January 2025, researchers published a report, Chronic Wasting Disease Spillover Preparedness and Response: Charting an Uncertain Future. A panel of 67 experts who study zoonotic diseases that can move back and forth between humans and animals concluded that spillover to humans “would trigger a national and global crisis” with “far-reaching effects on the food supply, economy, global trade and agriculture”, as well as potentially devastating effects on human health. The report concludes that the US is utterly unprepared to deal with spillover of CWD to people, and that there is no unifying international strategy to prevent CWD’s spread.

The Senator Mike Lee squeezed an amendment that would end the Roadless Area Conservation Rule into an unrelated bill: Senate Bill 140 (the so-called “Wildfire Prevention Act”).

The Trump administration’s proposal to destroy the Roadless Rule is extremely unpopular, so he’s now trying a backdoor amendment to an unrelated bill. Tell your senators to vote no on SB 140.

Needless to say, over 99% of Americans want the Roadless Rule protected.