To the Editor,

Last week, the Cranston Herald published an article by an ecoRI reporter entitled, “Public supportive of green bond proposal, $16M in additional funding for land preservation.”

My concerns regarding the proposal to add $16 million to the Green Bond were stated as, “Nathan Cornell, president of the Old Growth Tree Society, told lawmakers he was opposed to the $3 million for forest management, criticizing DEM’s forestry management practices.”

While this statement is technically true, it does not explain why I am opposed to the proposed $3 million to “forests and habitat management,” a name which is intentionally misleading.

The reason I am opposed to this provision in the Green Bond Proposal is because that $3 million would go to fund logging projects including likely clearcutting of our state forests causing deforestation.

I believe DEM deceiving the public by leading them to think they are supporting a measure to protect forest habitat while they are actually supporting the destruction of natural habitats is completely unethical.

The destructive logging DEM conducts destroys biodiversity, leads to the spread of invasive species, degrades water and soil quality, creates a fire hazard, and releases most of the forest’s stored carbon into the atmosphere as air pollution contributing to Climate Change.

If the additional funding for the 2024 Green Bond is approved with that $3 million allocated to logging included and sent to the voters, it risks hurting the chances of the 2024 Green Bond passing, since most Rhode Islanders do not support clearcutting and habitat destruction.

They were fortunate that the public and most of the General Assembly were not aware of the $3 million allocated to logging in the 2022 Fake Green Bond which is now funding logging projects in the Arcadia Management Area. However, it will be difficult for DEM and the timber industry to get away with it in another green bond.

The Old Growth Tree Society asks the Rhode Island General Assembly to amend 2024 H 7550, S 2496, to remove the $3 million allocated to logging under the misleading title of “forests and habitat management,” and instead allocate that $3 million to fund the Rhode Island Natural Heritage Program to monitor and protect biodiversity since no one in the state government has been doing that work since DEM defunded the Natural Heritage Program in 2007.

Nathan Cornell

President of the Old Growth Tree Society

Warwick