Ground Truth
Bighorn Fire: Questions raised about effectiveness of flame retardant used against wildfires
By Tony Davis in The Arizona Daily Star — From the stark, deeply incised rock face of Pusch Ridge to the spruce-lined top of Mount Lemmon, one color seems to have dominated the two-week battle of the Bighorn Fire: Flaming, searing red — maybe a cross between the hues...
A Setback at Boundary Waters
Federal District Judge Trevor McFadden, a recent Trump appointee, upheld the Trump administration’s decision to reissue two mineral leases for the Twin Metals Minnesota mine project, which risks polluting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Superior National...
Oil, Logging, Mining Ordered as Forest Service Focus
By Bobby Magill, Bloomberg Law — Oil, logging, mining, and grazing will be the priorities of national forests and grasslands, with expedited environmental oversight, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told the U.S. Forest Service Friday. Perdue‘s memo announced a...
Forest Service Solicits Comments on Proposed Dam Near Holy Cross Wilderness
By Grant Stringer, Aurora Sentinel Conservationists and development boosters alike can now weigh in on the next phase of a city government-backed plan to build a new reservoir and divert water to Aurora taps. The White River National Forest opened a public comment...
A Victory for the Tongass
U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason rejected the Trump administration’s plan to harvest timber in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Gleason ruled that project approval violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation...
Disgraceful Plans for Utah Monuments
The Trump administration has finalized management plans for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. Both plans make it easier to obtain rights of way for development. The plans also allow chaining, the practice of dragging chains between...
Updates from El Yunque
El Yunque National Forest encompasses much of Puerto Rico’s Sierra de Luquillo Mountains and is the only tropical rain forest in the U.S. National Forest system. Even though it is one of the smallest National Forests, its hundreds of animal and plant species make it...
Protecting America’s Wilderness Act
The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2546 by a vote of 231-183, sending the bill to the Senate in mid February. The Protecting America’s Wilderness Act would designate more than 1.3 million acres as wilderness at dozens of locations in Washington, Colorado...
Forest Service Takes FSEEE’s Advice
Last winter, the Forest Service proposed that people pay a fee to hike or camp in central Oregon’s undeveloped wilderness areas. The agency argued that wilderness areas are “special” places in which Congress has authorized hiking and camping fees. FSEEE pointed out...
FSEEE Weighs in on Wilderness User Fees
Last month, the Forest Service proposed levying fees for entering three wilderness areas the agency oversees in Oregon, even for hikers and campers. FSEEE opposes the move. Here’s a letter Executive Director Andy Stahl wrote to the agency this week outlining our...
Dogs and Lizards
We all know this about dogs—they’re serious sniffers. Now, biologists are putting that olfactory prowess to work to help save an endangered lizard in California. Blunt-nosed leopard lizards used to be common in the San Joaquin Valley. But their populations have...
Fire Season Returns To “Old” Normal
The latest statistics from the National Interagency Fire Center show that 2019 has seen a decrease in the total amount of wildfire activity across the United States compared to the past decade. As of yesterday, there have been 40,263 wildfires across the nation,...
Lawsuit Challenges Minnesota Mine
Conservationists filed a lawsuit this week challenging a government ruling granting a water permit to a Canadian mining firm that wants to dig an open-pit copper and nickel mine in the Superior National Forest. The litigation claims the mine would threaten the...
Federal Land Critic Now in Charge of BLM
A man who argues that all lands owned by the federal government should be sold is now in charge of the nation’s largest system of federal lands. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed an order this week naming William Perry Pendley, a former Reagan Administration...
More Goats Removed from Olympics
Another 76 mountain goats have left the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state as wildlife managers continue their efforts to move the invasive ungulates to the North Cascade mountains. The animals were lifted by helicopter to staging areas on the peninsula, then...
FSEEE Opposes Natural Gas Pipeline in Oregon
FSEEE is weighing in on a controversial proposal to build a high-pressure natural gas pipeline that would span a wide stretch of southwest Oregon, including portions of three national forests. Our argument? It’s illegal, plain and simple. When Congress created our...
FSEEE Weighs In On Fire Retardant
In 2012, the Forest Service launched a study called “Aerial Firefighting Use and Effectiveness.” The purpose was to provide an objective analysis of whether using aircraft to fight wildfires actually works. Nearly eight years later, we’re still waiting for an answer....
Trump Administration Seeks to Cut Environmental Reviews
The Trump administration this week released a plan to roll back environmental reviews and opportunities for public input for a wide range of projects on national forests, including major logging operations. In a statement released on Wednesday, Secretary of...
Founding FSEEE Board Member Speaks Out Against Utah Roadless Plan
Dave Iverson, president of FSEEE's Board of Directors, wrote an op-ed that was published in the Salt Lake Tribune, making a compelling case against Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's controversial proposal to roll back protections for roadless areas of national forests in the...
ESA Protection Sought for Red Tree Voles
Conservationists filed a lawsuit last week accusing the Trump administration of failing to protect eight rare species under the Endangered Species Act, including a population of red tree voles along the Oregon coast. A 2016 Forest Service study found that populations...
Trump Administration to Close Job Corps Centers
More than 1,000 U.S. Forest Service employees could lose their jobs under a plan announced by the Trump administration today to shutter nine Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers and largely privatize those that remain open. The Forest Service has overseen the...