The following is a copy of a letter to Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Rep. George Whitesides, D-Agua Dulce.
I am Jayme Sun Thomas, wildlife photographer and docent naturalist at Placerita Canyon State Park in the Santa Clarita Valley. I have lived in California all of my life and enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of our local federal public lands and wildlife that inhabit those lands for the past 63-plus years.
I am writing as I am very concerned over the recent emergency legislation being enacted to severely log, drill for gas and oil, and construct coal mines, on our federal public lands being put up for sale to private owners in a few states in the southwestern U.S.
That kind of energy emergency that the administration has put forth puts our endangered and threatened wild animals listed in the Endangered Species Act as well as all wildlife in a very vulnerable situation in those states and surrounding states. It takes federal public lands away from the general public to enjoy their surrounding environmental treasures that have been the enjoyment of hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders for hundreds of years.
Ansel Adams put forth much advocacy and energy into preserving our federal lands, as well as hundreds of other environmental and wildlife researchers, scientists, photographers and activists worldwide. Several wild animals depend on specific habitats and lands where they inhabit very limited land spaces where they survive and thrive, and if logging goes forward and oil and gas drilling and coal mining is put forth, it will destroy the lands and waters that threatened species depend on for survival. I can’t imagine a world without our wildlife and beautiful preserved land spaces for the world to enjoy and live among.
Our U.S. federal public lands generate much revenue for their corresponding states, and public lands give peaceful retreats and hiking trails for the public to enjoy and exercise in, where the beauty of the land and wildlife within can thrive in the limited spaces that we have with our expanding population crisis that our world is under.
Our wild neighbors depend on humanity for their survival, and human and animal lives are all dependent on each other for survival as well as the lands that we share our lives with, and when natural resources and wildlife are eliminated, humanity will surely follow.
The administration is not understanding how every natural species, wild species and human species are all dependent on each other for survival. Climate change is real. Global warming is real. Scientific facts based on centuries of research and exploration have proven that the world is under a major crisis that will cause extinction of our planet as we have known it for several millions of years. It isn’t about the lives we live in our current life spans here on Earth. It is about the future of our planet and all species, human and animal alike, in the far future.
I consider myself so fortunate to have seen and experienced the beauty of wild lands and wildlife that we as humans have lived with and upon for the past several generations of human survival. I can’t imagine the planet without those beautiful experiences.
Please understand federal lands and wildlife species deserve respect, protection and preservation on our planet that is under threats of crisis from every angle. The U.S. and the world have made great progress toward renewable energy and that progress has to continue for the planet’s species to survive and thrive.
Please utilize your voice to represent your constituents in California and across the U.S. to protect and preserve public lands and wildlife from logging, coal mining, and oil and gas drilling that will surely harm all life on our planet.
Jayme Sun Thomas
Saugus
