Ground Truth Blog
FSEEE Bighorn Protest ‘Gets Ink’
Angus Thuermer with Wyofile and Alex Hargrave with the Buffalo Bulletin reported on our protest that helped convince Bighorn National Forest officials to drop their plan to spray toxic herbicides to kill native sagebrush and larkspur. As noted by Hargrave, the Forest...
FSEEE Protest Prompts Forest Service to Retract Herbicide Plan
When officials at Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming proposed aerial spraying to kill native larkspur and sagebrush under the guise of controlling invasive weeds, FSEEE called foul. Larkspur can sometimes be toxic to cattle, and cattle won’t eat sagebrush. Given the...
Andy Stahl Discusses Retardant Lawsuit on Public Radio
Our fire retardant lawsuit against the Forest Service continues to attract media attention. Today, Oct. 25, Dave Miller interviewed FSEEE Executive Director Andy Stahl for Think Out Loud, a live radio program produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting. Our lawsuit is...
FSEEE Fire Retardant Lawsuit Fuels Media Coverage
FSEEE's recently filed lawsuit — which seeks to stop the Forest Service from polluting waterways with aerial fire retardant and force the agency to adhere to the Clean Water Act — has received a flurry of media attention. E&E News characterizes our lawsuit as "the...
FSEEE Sues Forest Service Over Fire Retardant
Sixty days have passed since FSEEE delivered a notice of intent to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for its use of fire retardant in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Forest Service has not responded, so we have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District...
Prescribed Fire
The wildfire crisis in the West represents one of the most significant issues that the Forest Service must address. Climate change frequently gets a large share of the blame, as does the Forest Service 100-year policy of suppressing all fires “by 10 a.m.,” thereby...
Beavers Can Spearhead Climate Action
A recent report by Emily Fairfax and Chris Jordan finds that “biological components,” beaver in particular, are critical to restoring “the full process-based functionality of connected floodplain systems.” The authors note that rivers and streams, “are naturally...
FSEEE Objects to Aerial Herbicide Spraying in Medicine Bow NF
FSEEE has filed an objection to the Draft Record of Decision (ROD) for Invasive and Other Select Plant Management for the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming. Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson issued the draft ROD, which would allow the Forest Service to spray toxic...
Victory: Post-fire Forests Reopening in Oregon
During the 2020 and 2021 fires in Oregon national forests, the Forest Service issued closure orders in the affected areas. But once the fires were extinguished, closure orders were extended, ostensibly to protect the public from the risks posed by so-called “danger...
Fuel Treatments Provided Minimal Benefit in Oregon Fires
A recent report on the 2020 Oregon wildfires finds “little evidence to support the use of fuel treatments to mitigate fire severity under extreme fire-weather conditions.” Published in Ecosphere by researchers with the Forest Service and Oregon State University, the...
Native American Tribes Will Co-manage Bears Ears
After restoring and expanding Bears Ears National Monument, the Biden administration signed a historic agreement that gives Southwestern tribes a role in managing the monument. Under Secretary Deb Haaland’s leadership, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land...
Nantahala, Pisgah National Forests Ban Ginseng Harvest
A ban on collecting wild ginseng in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests will remain in place until the ginseng population recovers. Prior to the 2021 ban, collecting ginseng on national forest lands was capped to prevent over-harvesting. According to Forest...