Ground Truth Blog
6/3/26: We Need Your Help to Make a Stand for Clean Water
[We will be updating this post regularly to reflect the current legislation status and how you can best stand for clean water.] 3 UPDATES 6/3/26: I removed "Urgently" from our post title as lobbyists & Congress were unable to pass legislation exempting aerial fire...
Destructive Jellico Mountains Logging Project Withdrawn
In a letter to Kentucky Heartwood, District Ranger Kyle Edmonds announced the withdrawal of the draft "Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Jellico Vegetation Management Project" on the Daniel Boone National Forest. FSEEE, along with Kentucky...
Forest Service Reorganization: The Bigger Picture
When assessing the Forest Service reorganization, we must consider the bigger picture and broader changes occurring across the civil service. Doing so requires reading wonky government memos and regulations, but you can read straight through this analysis and skip the...
Senator Cassidy Drops Proposal to Carve up Kisatchie, Louisiana’s Only National Forest
Reporting for New Orleans-based Verite News, Tristan Baurick writes that Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy has abandoned his plan to transfer 140,000 acres of Kisatchie National Forest to Grant Parish after his bill "sparked outrage from conservationists and parish...
Climatologist: Fuel-Reduction Logging is a Trojan Horse
Dr. James Hansen, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and former Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, doesn’t like the Fix Our Forests Act. A Boston Globe op-ed coauthored by Hansen and attorney Dan Galpern questions basic...
Study Reveals ‘Substantial, Persistent Fire Deficit’
Government agencies and corporate media consistently emphasize the expansion of wildfire acreage caused by a warming climate. Studies that examine only two or three decades of North American fire history support these claims. “Considering these studies, forest...
Debunking Early-Successional Habitat Myths
“ A campaign is underway to clear established forests and expand early-successional habitats ... with the intention of benefiting specific species.” So begins a 2023 report published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. The authors of that report analyze this...
FS Reorganization Will Close Leading Research Lab in Minnesota
The unfolding Forest Service reorganization targets important scientific facilities along with ongoing research projects. Current nationwide Forest Service research stations will be consolidated down to the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Colorado, and 75% of...
Halverson Article Investigates Use of Roundup in Forests
Excerpts from 'We are Bombarding America's Forests With Roundup' by Nate Halverson, Mother Jones ... I steer my old Toyota Tacoma down a bumpy dirt road to where the Lassen National Forest gives way to private timberland. Lilly rides shotgun. We’d come to this exact...
Beavers Benefit Bats and Butterflies
Beavers are a true keystone species, so it should come as no surprise that two new studies broaden our understanding of beavers’ beneficial role, not only for aquatic life, but also for airborne creatures like bats and butterflies. Both studies were published by the...
Nantahala National Forest
Prior to the 1700s, the land encompassed by the Nantahala National Forest was inhabited by the Cherokee people. Nantahala is a Cherokee word meaning “Land of the Noonday Sun,” a reference to the steep landscape where sunlight only reaches the valley floor at midday....
Sacrificing national forest land for artificial intelligence
In June, Republican Rep. Cliff Bentz of Oregon introduced H.R. 655, the Dalles Watershed Development Act, which would transfer ownership of approximately 150 acres of Mount Hood National Forest from the citizens of the United States to the City of The Dalles, Oregon....