To the Editor,

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has been logging forests in our state’s Natural Heritage Areas, creating large clearcut areas where few or no trees remain standing. The Natural Heritage Areas are habitats where rare and endangered species live which were identified by the Rhode Island Natural Heritage Program. Sadly, DEM discontinued the Natural Heritage Program in 2007 which was the only state entity which identified, monitored, and protected native biodiversity. Therefore, no state agency or environmental group other than the Old Growth Tree Society has been opposing DEM’s logging in the Natural Heritage Areas.

In 2016, DEM logged, mostly in the form of clearcuts, 23 acres in the Great Swamp Management Area. This 23-acre logged site is part of about 90 acres of former forest logged in the Great Swamp by DEM, mostly through clearcutting. All of which is in a Natural Heritage Area.

In 2020, DEM logged, mostly in the form of clearcuts, 195 acres in the Arcadia Management Area, much of which was in a Natural Heritage Area.

None of the Natural Heritage Areas are legally protected from logging which is why DEM is able to log in them. That also means all rare and endangered species on state-owned land are at risk of losing their unique habitats which they need to survive. Natural Heritage Areas right now only serve “as an aid in the conservation of state listed rare, threatened or endangered plant and animal species found in Rhode Island.” Clearly, DEM is ignoring this information as they are actively logging in the Natural Heritage Areas.

In 2024, DEM is proposing to log 32 more acres in the Great Swamp Management Area in one of the last remaining upland forests in the Great Swamp. These 32 acres are also in a Natural Heritage Area. It is very likely that this will be a clearcut as well.

Old natural forests sequester and store carbon, which prevents Climate Change. After DEM “manages” the forests – which means clearcutting them so there are no living trees anymore – the carbon is released into the atmosphere accelerating Climate Change.

Contrary to the explicit intent of the Natural Areas Protection Act passed into law in 1993 to create many protected Natural Area Preserves, DEM in the past 30 years has not created even one protected Natural Area Preserve, where logging would be prohibited.

Rhode Island needs a Natural Heritage Program to advocate for rare and endangered species again, and our state urgently needs to create Natural Area Preserves as defined in the Natural Areas Protection Act of 1993, to permanently protect the state’s Natural Heritage Areas from logging. 

Nathan Cornell

Warwick

Nathan Cornell, a former member of the Warwick School Committee is President of the Old Growth Tree Society.