Ground Truth Blog
Michigan Conservation Easement Supports Old Growth
Typically, when conservationists talk about old-growth forests, they focus on protecting forests that have already reached that stage. In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a new conservation easement takes a different approach by protecting a forest so it can naturally...
Defend Our Roadless Legacy!
Comment Now to Protect the Crown Jewels of our National Forests. The U.S. Department of Agriculture published a proposed rule Aug. 18 to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule in its entirety, stripping protection from 44.7 million acres of the wildest...
Roadless Area Maps and Information — Learn What’s at Risk
The USDA is accepting public comments about rescinding the Roadless Rule until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Click here to read the proposed rule change and to comment. As a staunch National Forest advocate, FSEEE is working to identify and compile the best...
Defend the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule
The U.S. Department of Agriculture intends to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule in its entirety, stripping protection from 44.7 million acres of the wildest national forest land in the United States. The USDA published the proposed rescission rule Aug....
Science Backs Prescribed Burning as the Federal Government Backs Away
A study published June 11 in Science by Stanford researchers Iván Higuera-Mendieta and Marshall Burke and covered last week by The Washington Post confirms what fire ecologists and Indigenous communities have advocated for generations: low-severity, controlled burning...
Fast Fire
As Westerners cope with the smoke and flames of another record-setting fire season, the media serves up dramatic videos of various active wildfires. Much of this footage focuses on dramatic images of crown fires burning through forest canopies, suggesting these fires...
Forest Service Reorganization Threatens Public Lands
Kirsten Stade, reporting for Steady State Herald, recently spoke with FSEEE Executive Director Kevin Hood about the reorganization taking place within the U.S. Forest Service. The interview was part of a larger piece examining the Trump Administration's restructuring...
A Conversation With Jack Cohen
Dr. Jack Cohen delivered a keynote presentation at the 2026 Colorado Wildland Fire Conference in Fort Collins entitled “Community Wildfire Risk and Fire Resilient Landscapes.” Just prior to his keynote, we had the opportunity to have a conversation about his work as a...
Tell the Senate Agriculture Committee to Remove Destructive Forestry Provisions from the 2026 Farm Bill
The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is shaping Title VIII (Forestry) of the 2026 Farm Bill (Agricultural Act of 2026). The Committee failed to move the 2026 Farm Bill on 8/6/26 - but Senate Ag Committee Chairman Senator John Boozman has vowed...
Grounds for Hope
A longtime FSEEE supporter recently confided to me that the countless assaults on our public lands and endless stories of environmental degradation were getting to him. He asked for a reason to hope. The truth is, I do feel hopeful. There is a clear and prolonged arc...
U.S. Wildland Fire Service
‘Like Trying to Fly a Plane While You’re Building It’ by Timothy Ingalsbee The airplane metaphor has become a common theme in conversations among wildland firefighters discussing the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (WFS). President Trump issued Executive Order 14308...
Courthouse News Covers FSEEE’s Fight Over Toxic Fire Retardant
Courthouse News Service reported on oral arguments in FSEEE's federal lawsuit challenging the Forest Service's use of aerial fire retardant, which the agency sprays across millions of acres of public land every fire season without ever having formally analyzed the...