Action Alerts

This bill will undermine protections for our forests and endangered species

What's At Stake

Congress is voting on a harmful bill that will undermine protections for our forests and endangered species.

House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman and Representative Scott Peters have introduced H.R. 8790, the so-called Fix Our Forests Act that would roll back critical environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Despite its name and supposed attempt to mitigate wildfire risk, the bill is nothing more than a trojan horse to weaken environmental protections, expose our forests to logging, stifle the voice of the public, and perversely divert resources that could be used for wildfire defense away from the communities that need them the most.

We need your help to defeat this legislation. Contact your Member of Congress and tell them to oppose the Fix Our Forests Act.

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While no one argues against efforts to protect communities from wildfires, this bill would not provide impacted communities with the proven tools and techniques they need to keep themselves safe. Instead, the bill would exempt tens of thousands of acres of public lands from environmental laws that protect threatened and endangered species while curtailing community engagement in land management decisions. Additionally, it would facilitate large-scale logging operations under the guise of ‘forest management,’ and would tie the hands of individuals attempting to hold federal agencies accountable in the courts.

At a time when our forests are facing threats to climate change, including from worsening wildfires, and endangered species are facing a biodiversity crisis, further weakening environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act is not the answer.

Join us in fighting back against these efforts to weaken environmental laws. Tell your Member of Congress to oppose the Fix Our Forests Act.

Hikers explore lush cedar forests in the East Fork Bull River drainage of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.
Hikers explore lush cedar forests in the East Fork Bull River drainage of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. (Katherine O'Brien / Earthjustice)

Delivery to U.S. House of Representatives

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.