Ground Truth Blog
‘Conservation Value of National Forest Roadless Areas’
In 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule prohibited road construction and timber harvesting on more than 90,000 square miles of inventoried roadless areas (IRAs) in National Forests. Since these areas are not protected by legislation, 40 percent of these lands are...
Trump’s Forest Service Legacy
Donald J. Trump’s environmental legacy will be remembered as one of the most destructive in the nation’s history. While he and his enablers unleashed a preponderance of their environmental attacks through the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection...
Vilsack Confirmed to Head Ag Department
While President Joe Biden’s picks to head the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency will make history if confirmed, his nomination of Tom Vilsack to lead the Department of Agriculture is considered politically safe, as reflected in the 92-7...
Trump Administration Redefines ‘Habitat’
In December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at the direction of Trump appointees, finalized a rule to limit the government’s ability to protect crucial ecosystems by redefining “habitat” as it relates to the designation of areas critical to the survival of...
FSEEE leadership criticizes Democrats for Oak Flat capitulation
As reported by The Arizona Republic, FSEEE Executive Director Andy Stahl criticized the Democratic Party for putting its political gain ahead of Native American religious objections to a proposed massive copper mine on the Tonto National Forest. The proposed mine...
Dirty politics for dirty oil
A proposed railway would unlock some of the dirtiest petroleum reserves in the U.S. by transporting heavy crude oil across National Forest lands. The opportunity to submit comments opposing this Ill-conceived project has been extended until Feb. 12. The Uinta Basin in...
Senator Introduces Forest Restoration Jobs Bill
In a move to “create and sustain jobs in the outdoors” through “forest and watershed restoration and resilience,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) introduced the Outdoor Restoration Force Act in the waning days of the 116th Congress. “For years, Congress has failed to...
Fish and Wildlife Service proposes protections for whitebark pine, a keystone species
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service News Release New proposed conservation protections for the whitebark pine, an emblem of the American West, would aim to bolster new and ongoing conservation actions for the species’ recovery so these unique trees, and the many plants and...
Trump officials rush to auction off rights to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden can block it
By Juliet Eilperin — The Trump administration is asking oil and gas firms to pick spots where they want to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it races to open the pristine wilderness to development and lock in drilling rights before President-elect...
Eleven Alaska Native tribes offer new way forward on managing the Tongass
By Anna V. Smith — In the early fall of 2018, Marina Anderson sped down the rough road connecting one side of Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island to the other. She had only a few hours to get to a public meeting over the potential opening of the Tongass National Forest,...
Trump Administration Moves To Expand Development In Alaska’s Tongass National Forest
By Laurel Wamsley and Scott Neuman — The Trump administration has cleared the way to open the country's largest national forest to more development and logging. In a revised environmental impact study made public on Friday, the Department of Agriculture recommends...
Northern spotted owls vs. timber
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes eliminating about 205,000 acres in Oregon from the northern spotted owl critical habitat designation. The reduction would apply to Bureau of Land Management lands, where officials have said that eliminating “unnecessary...