A group of environmental activists gathered outside the Burlington office of U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) on Wednesday to demand he “fix” his vote in support of federal legislation that would change how federal forests are managed.
Members of the forest conservation group Standing Trees are angry that Welch voted in October in favor of a bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act after telling constituents that he opposed it. Now they want him to vote against the measure when it comes before the full Senate.
The bill aims to give federal agencies more latitude to actively manage forests to help reduce the risk of wildfires. But critics say it does so by rolling back environmental regulations, limiting endangered species protections and drastically reducing public input on logging decisions.
“This is not the time to be taking away our right to hold these agencies accountable and weigh in on what happens to these public lands,” Chris Gish, a community organizer with Standing Trees, said to other supporters who held signs that read “Save Wild Forests” and “Do Not ‘Welch’ On Your Promise.”
Welch in July penned a letter expressing concerns that the bill “seeks to weaken critical environmental laws” and “could lead to increased logging and ecosystem degradation.”
“The Fix Our Forest Act misses the mark … I cannot support this bill as written,” Welch wrote at the time.
Then, in October, even though the bill had not been revised to address any of his concerns, Welch voted to move it out of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Welch did so after he “weighed conservation and forest management concerns, and engaged the expertise of Vermont’s forestry leaders and conservation community,” according to his staff.
The vote was 18-5, with all Republicans on the panel voting for it, while Democrats were split nearly even.
Welch expressed hope that the bill would be revised before it came to a floor vote in the Senate, which has yet to happen.
“The Fix Our Forests Act confronts the increased threats of wildfires, which Vermont is not immune to,” his office said in a statement. “Senator Welch will continue to work with his colleagues on the Senate Agriculture Committee to strengthen this bill and protect Vermont forests.”
But critics such as Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees, have blasted Welch for shifting his position. After the October vote, Porter said Welch had “turned his back on Vermonters and all Americans who care about public lands, endangered species and our fragile democracy.”
At the rally on Wednesday, Porter said Welch still had time to “get it right” but that his claims to be working to improve the bill sounded hollow.
“The time to take a stand was in committee,” Porter said.
Robb Kidd, Vermont conservation program manager for the Sierra Club, said his organization also opposes the bill and is disappointed by Welch’s vote.
“I appreciate Senator Welch’s work to improve the bill, but from our perspective it falls short,” Kidd said in a statement.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!