National forests are the cornerstones of the effort to connect fragmented habitat and restore wildlands in the western United States. No matter who takes over the presidential mantle in 2009, the conservation community needs to be equipped with a vision for the management of our national forests that is informed by on-the-ground knowledge and strong working relationships with current and future agency leaders.

To that end, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics policy analyst James Johnston—along with his four-legged companion Zella—began a summer tour of national forests in mid-June. His first stops were at the Modoc National Forest in California, the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada and Utah’s Dixie and Manti La Sal National Forests. He continued on to forests in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

James is meeting with agency personnel and local conservation groups to learn about U.S. Forest Service success stories and challenges. The information he gathers will enable FSEEE to create written recommendations for managing our national forests that identify key challenges and opportunities. Because our membership includes conservation-minded agency personnel and because of our long history of protecting forests through support of Forest Service whistleblowers, FSEEE is uniquely positioned to cultivate the knowledge and relationships necessary for future conservation successes.—Patricia Marshall

Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics filed suit in April against the U.S. Forest Service under the National Forest Management Act for authorizing cattle grazing on a section of the Fremont-Winema National Forest in southeastern Oregon. The presence of livestock—which trample frogs, erode stream bank habitat and graze on the forage that frogs depend on for cover—coupled with a seven-year drought, is contributing to an endangered species listing for the Oregon spotted frog.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers the Oregon spotted frog to be “warranted but precluded from listing because of other listing priorities.”

The Forest Service responded to FSEEE’s suit with a proposal to remove cattle until the agency constructs a fence that excludes cows from spotted frog habitat on Jack Creek. In addition, the agency is considering a restoration plan for the area that includes reintroducing beaver and repairing stream banks.

In June, area ranchers, FSEEE staff and Forest Service line officers toured the Antelope grazing allotment on Jack Creek, which is home to an imperiled population of Oregon spotted frogs. During the tour, led by Chemult District Biologist Terry Simpson, visitors inspected the beginnings of the new fence that, when completed, will consist of three miles of three-strand barbed wire designed to keep cattle out of the creek.

Our group visited the site on a brilliantly clear day. We crashed through lodgepole and willow thickets along the proposed fence route, then pulled up short at the spot where Jack Creek meanders through a broad, shallow marsh—perfect habitat for freshly hatched tadpoles.

A rancher offered a good-natured request, “We came all the way out here, and there’s some frogs here, you say, and I’m not going to leave until I see a frog.” In response, Simpson shed her boots and socks and waded in. The rest of us followed. Within fifteen minutes she located a softball-sized, iridescent green egg mass surrounded by dozens of new spotted frog tadpoles. We talked frogs for the next half an hour.

Rana pretiosa has disappeared from more than 90 percent of its former range in southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California. There are fewer than fifty known sites where the frog survives. In 1996, the Forest Service identified one of these sites on the Antelope allotment. Simpson began systematic surveys in 1999. That year, the number of egg masses—a standard measure of frog population health—in Jack Creek numbered 335. Last year she counted just twenty-one.

The fence, which costs around $15,000, is scheduled to be completed by August 1. A decision about a comprehensive restoration plan will be made next year. Thanks to the passion and hard work of Forest Service biologists, the frog’s future is looking brighter on the Fremont-Winema.—James Johnson

When whistleblower Glen Ith died in March 2008, his legal challenge to the Scott Peak timber sale on the Tongass National Forest was pending in federal district court. The sale proposes to log hundreds of old-growth forest acres that are important habitat for Sitka black-tailed deer, Queen Charlotte goshawk and American marten. Ith’s suit alleges that the U.S. Forest Service violated the Forest Service Decision Making and Appeals Reform Act by dismissing Ith’s second administrative appeal of the sale without a decision. (He won the first.)

The Forest Service dismissed his appeal because it asserted that Ith had relied upon a non-public wildlife analysis report—a report he himself authored for the environmental impact statement. The Forest Service had shelved Ith’s report and substituted a different version. Ith’s lawsuit also argues that the environmental impact statement omits the critical environmental harm documented in his original report, a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Ith’s death left his case without a plaintiff. In his stead, his wife, Marketa, agreed to seek a court order allowing her to substitute as the plaintiff. On June 3, in a first of its kind ruling, U.S. District Court judge Ralph Beistline ordered that Marketa Ith be substituted for her husband as the plaintiff. The ruling allows her to advance all the claims against the Scott Peak sale that Glen Ith had originally sought. She is represented by the Western Environmental Law Center with assistance provided by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics staff.—Andy Stahl

Finding a source for paper and printing Forest Magazine has always involved a juggling act. We balance the most environmentally friendly options with cost and quality. Two years ago, we switched from soy ink, which was 80 percent petroleum, to plant-based flaxseed ink, which contains no volatile organic compounds. For the past several years we have used a paper that was 50 percent recycled, with 15 percent post-consumer content.