When I Need to say 'NO'

I need to say “no” to my heart when it wants to sink into a place of fear and worst-case scenarios. I know that worrying doesn’t change anything other than giving me a darker mood. So I say “yes” to resisting whatever threatens to send me spiraling downward. And I have to admit that I find threats to what I care about daily.

Here’s a recent example of what adds to my sorrow and concern: One of the recipients of a grant awarded by the Jackson, Wyoming-based Meg and Bert Raynes Wildlife Fund, on whose board of directors I sit, wrote to inform us that it’s likely their jobs will be lost. These people are university scientists working through a cooperative research program with the U.S. Geological Survey — a government agency like the National Park Service, which is getting much more media attention.

If these scientists lose their jobs, not only would the grants we just awarded be of no use, important field research would not occur and graduate students would not be able to complete their degrees.

I once thought I could make a difference in the world. Because of efforts I was part of, there are a number of designated wilderness areas in the state of Washington that would not have existed without citizen action. The work I did with the Forest Service led to the protection of some small but deserving creeks as part of the Snake River Headwaters Wild and Scenic River System.

I’m not taking credit for this, just recognizing that I was in the right place at the right time. Our elected senators at the time got the job done. But times have changed. Instead of coming up with good ideas and seeing results through government processes, I find myself wanting to say no to everything.

I don’t focus on the negative in my columns, but lately the Wyoming legislature is running amok. Take $50 million from public education and give it to families who send their kids to private school? That might bear some rethinking. Make it OK to run over wildlife with vehicles? Not so much. Take the public land away from the public? Not just no, but HELL NO.

For now, the state senate has voted against the land grab, but it will come up again and again, as it always has when the national commons is sought by private interests. I understand that similar ideas are taking shape in neighboring states including Montana,  and I’m counting on the Supreme Court to tell them the same thing they told Utah a few months ago: NO.

I am in constant need of adding to my “say no” list, no matter how weary and discouraged I may become. I must say no to allowing myself to simply give up and say there’s nothing I can do.

Having gotten the no’s off my chest, I find it more encouraging to reiterate what I say yes to: Democracy, for one. And out of that has come what we call our shared estate: public institutions from libraries to land management agencies that provide grants to western states and counties.

People in Greater Yellowstone are well aware of the benefits we enjoy through our access to public land. But it’s not only about the places we go. The U.S. Forest Service has a branch related to state, private and tribal forestry, and it offers many things that we benefit from without our knowledge. For example:

·      Fire and Aviation Management: works with tribal, state and local partners to manage wildland fire, lending its expertise in fire behavior, operations, research and aviation.

·      Forest Health Protection: provides technical assistance in dealing with insects, pathogens and invasive plants.

·      Cooperative Forestry: provides financial and technical assistance to landowners, communities and businesses to manage and sustain non-federal forest land.

·      Conservation Education: delivers science-based education about forests, grasslands and related natural resources to students and educators.

Through the Inflation Reduction Act last year, the Forest Service offered $1 billion to counties around the country through the Urban and Community Forestry Program, primarily to support investments in urban tree canopies. It also awarded $154 million to projects that conserved 168,000 acres of private forest lands.

This year, no grants appear on the horizon. Forest Service employees are subject to termination and those who manage to keep their jobs aren’t exactly feeling valued. Don’t expect clean outhouses or maintained roads, trails and campgrounds this summer, unless something changes fast.

What are we doing? We’re now well into the second century since Gifford Pinchot — founder of the infant forestry service and the Yale School of Forestry — and Republican president Theodore Roosevelt worked together to establish a national system of forests for conservation and public purposes. From recent reports, the National Wildlife Refuge system is in even worse shape than national forests and parks being chronically understaffed to begin with.

I say yes to continuing the legacy left to us by Roosevelt and Pinchot, for standing up and calling out threats to our priceless public lands.

Attempts to take public land away from the public are nothing new. As chronicled in Nate Schweber’s excellent book This America of Ours, Congress was on the brink of eliminating public land in the West in 1946. Bernard DeVoto published a series of articles about it in Harper’s, revealing the secret meetings and machinations involved, sparking public outrage. Loudly, the public said NO.

The question of the moment is: Will we once again stand up and do the same?

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