As a follow up to the April 28th forum on "Protecting our Veterans and Our Forest," Transylvania Partners for Democracy is sponsoring this SAVE OUR FOREST petition.
SAVE OUR FOREST PETITION (Click to sign the petition)
We, the undersigned citizens of Transylvania County, oppose the recent executive orders and policies of the Trump Administration that will have a devastating impact upon our nearby forests and parks.
President Trump’s Executive Orders, 14225, 14153, 14241, 14270, 14276 and 14285, eliminate environmental safeguards to allow private corporations to dramatically expand timber production and mining extraction on public lands and national parks here in western North Carolina and across America.
Even as these policies increase demands on the National Forest Service and National Park Service, the Administration has instituted a 22 per cent reduction in their budgets, resulting in drastic cuts to programs and personnel that will degrade public access to our parks and dismantle environmental management, conservation and science-related programs that help to preserve the remarkable old-growth forests and complex eco-systems surrounding us here in Transylvania County and throughout the nation.
In addition to opening public land to corporate interests, the Trump Administration has also proposed the transfer of dozens of our national parks to the states which would then be allowed to sell them to private interests, a plan for privatization outlined in Project 2025.
The Pisgah National Forest and nearby parks and forests are critical to our financial well-being. They attract more than 10 million visitors a year and contribute $200 million to Transylvania County’s economy. But, if we see them defined only by their economic value, we have become the cynic described by Oscar Wilde: someone who knows “the price of everything and the value of nothing," As the National Park Service director wrote during World War II, above all else, our parks and forests are America’s common inheritance, places that allow us all to “grow mentally and spiritually as well as physically.”
We call upon our political representatives at the local, state and national level to save our forests for future generations from this administration’s reckless policies.
PETITION TO PROTECT OUR SCHOOLS (Click on the link to sign.)
Attention: NC Senator Kevin Corbin, NC Representative Mike Clampitt, US Representative Chuck Edwards, US Senator Tom Tillis, US Senator Ted Budd
We, the undersigned citizens of Transylvania County, oppose the recent executive orders, policies and budgetary choices of the current national administration and the North Carolina legislature that have undermined our public education system promoting private schools at the expense of public education.
With the goal of eliminating the US Department of Education, the current House budget calls for direct cuts of $12 billion in federal aid to schools. In addition, there is reduced funding for Head Start, childcare grants, school-based meals, students with disabilities, special education, SNAP (food stamps) and other programs for the nation’s most vulnerable children. These reductions are intended to help offset a minimum of $4 trillion in tax cuts heavily tilted toward the wealthiest Americans.
North Carolina’s current legislative leadership has joined over 32 other states in adopting voucher plans that divert taxpayer dollars to private schools. The budget for North Carolina’s voucher system for private schools has increased from $14 million in 2013 to $463.5 million in 2024 with future commitments that will cost billions, inevitably weakening financial support for our public school system, particularly in more rural counties like Transylvania where there are few private school alternatives.
North Carolina’s ranking for teacher salaries has fallen from 19th to 43rd over the last twenty years and, adjusted for inflation, there has been a 13 percent decline in teacher pay since 2010 alone.
As citizens and voters in Transylvania County, we call upon our elected representatives to oppose these destructive measures and restore North Carolina to the position that it once held as the “Education State.”