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Write a Letter to Help Stop the Destructive “Fix Our Forests” Act

May 30, 2025•Tommy Hough

This piece originally appeared on the John Muir Project Substack on May 28, 2025.

By Bekah Mamola-Hill and the team at the John Muir Project

Your voice, through a simple letter to your local paper, can help expose what’s at stake with the destructive “Fix Our Forests” Act (FOFA), and potentially slow its momentum.

Why Your Voice Matters Right Now

The “Fix Our Forests” Act has quietly accelerated through Congress. It passed the House in January, and will soon be marked up in the Senate, possibly as early as next week. If passed and signed into law, it will weaken environmental review and fast-track logging across public forests under the false premise of wildfire prevention.

While the logging lobby has the money and momentum, we have something more powerful: the truth and people power. This moment calls for all of us to speak up, loudly and publicly. A short letter to the editor (LTE) in your local paper can illuminate what’s slipping past public view and remind your senators that their constituents are watching.

Quick Recap: What’s Wrong With FOFA?

If passed, FOFA will override crucial environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA), to fast-track 10,000-acre logging projects with essentially no environmental review, public input, or scrutiny by the courts.

While predicated on the demonstrably false, discredited claim that increased logging of forests will reduce our wildfire risk, even if the midst of our rapidly-warming climate, the bill’s so-called “community fire safety” provisions lack funding or incentives for home hardening or real community protection.

The bill falsely claims logging is necessary before prescribed burns, but science demonstrates burning alone is more effective, less costly, and better for forests.

The bill also promotes livestock grazing as “wildfire management,” even though scientific evidence shows grazing degrades native ecosystems and introduces highly combustible invasive grasses. These invasive grasses move in everywhere, which is often why burned California hillsides turn a remarkable shade of luminescent green in February and March, only to become dry, flammable, and fallow by May when the weather turns drier.

Digital Dissent: Write a Letter to the Editor (LTE)

A letter to the editor is one of the most effective ways to raise the alarm, and it’s easier than you might think. Just a few sentences in your local paper can show your members of Congress that constituents are paying attention, pushing back, and refusing to let destructive legislation like FOFA slip through quietly. If your letter is printed, email a link or drop off a hard copy of the letter or the opinion section at the district offices of your U.S. senators and federal representative.

You don’t need to be an expert to write a compelling LTE. Focus on what matters to you: concern for public lands, wildlife, climate, or your community’s safety.

Step 1: Use this tool to find submission guidelines, or Google “your town + newspaper + LTE submission.”
Step 2: Pick a recent news hook. Look for wildfire coverage, logging-related headlines, or national news about forest policy. Search terms like “wildfire” or “logging” on your paper’s website can help populate articles to respond to.
Step 3: Keep your letter and remarks short and powerful (100-120 words). Tie your message to the article you found, and make your point: The “Fix Our Forests” Act is not the solution. Instead, support real community safety, natural recovery after forest fires, and forest protection.
Step 4: Submit it — and tell us if it runs! Let us know if your letter gets published. Comment on this substack or tag us online so we can amplify it!

Whether your letter gets published or not, you can still make sure your U.S. senators hear from you. We’ve created a printable postcard you can mail directly to their office. If you don’t have a printer at home, check your local library — many offer free printing. Use the postcard to let your federal representatives, and especially your state’s two U.S. senators, know you’re speaking out publicly, and that you expect them to reject this harmful bill. The message space is small, but your voice is not. Find your state’s two U.S. senators and their contact information via this link.

Example Letter to the Editor

Need a spark of inspiration? Check out this recent letter by the John Muir Project policy and advocacy director, which was recently published in the Los Angeles Times. It responds to a story on the 2013 Rim Fire by pushing back on myths about forest destruction, and calls out logging disguised as restoration. It’s concise, grounded in personal observation and science, and ties directly into the public conversation.

Let’s Put the Public Back in Public Policy

The “Fix Our Forests” Act, unfortunately, has bipartisan support from both Democrats and Republicans. But public pressure, especially at the local level, can still shift the outcome. Lawmakers should pay attention to what their constituents are reading and saying, especially when it’s in their hometown paper.

If even a few dozen letters appear across key states, we can reframe the conversation, shape how this bill is talked about going forward — and whether it moves forward at all. We can show Congress voters see right through the false solution presented in the Fix Our Forest Act. Every letter, every submission, every note counts.

This is how we shift the paradigm. This is how we fight back.

An LTE isn’t the only way to speak out, but it’s one of the most impactful. When constituents take the time to write and are fortunate enough to get their perspective published, lawmakers notice. It shows we’re not just paying attention — we’re engaged, informed, and ready to hold them accountable.

After all, it’s not just a letter. It’s a reminder of who they work for.

This essay was originally posted on the John Muir Project Substack account. Other than my photos here, I make no legal claim to this content.