Ground Truth

Record Retardant Drops From Medford Air Tanker Base

Record Retardant Drops From Medford Air Tanker Base

Planes launched from the Medford Air Tanker Base in Oregon have dropped 1.7 million gallons of fire retardant so far this year, breaking the airbase’s previous record set during the 2023 fire season. The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest announced the new record on...

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Gutting the Forest Service Workforce

Amazon announced last month that revenue forecasts require that it cut staffing at its fulfillment warehouses. “We’re forced to lay off all of our package handlers,” said Jeff Bezos. “They’re our cheapest labor and lowest in our corporate hierarchy so, obviously,...

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Forest Service Releases Seasonal Employees

Forest Service Releases Seasonal Employees

The U.S. Forest Service has suspended the hiring of all seasonal employees with the exception of firefighters for the 2025 fiscal year due to anticipated budget shortfalls. Letters sent to regional leadership teams were leaked via social media site Reddit, prompting...

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Ottawa National Forest

Ottawa National Forest

The Ottawa National Forest encompasses 1 million acres on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, extending from the south shore of Lake Superior to the Wisconsin state line. The Forest is home to abundant wildlife, scenic views, rolling hills, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and...

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Forest Service Fails to Protect Fens

Forest Service Fails to Protect Fens

by Ann Vileisis The U.S. Forest Service recently denied a petition brought by 27 conservation groups from 14 states urging the agency to adopt a rule to better protect the special type of peat-forming wetlands known as fens. Nourished by the continual flow of...

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Fire Retardant in Wine Country

Fire Retardant in Wine Country

The Point Fire burned 1,200 acres in Sonoma County in June. Lago di Merlo Vineyards lost a few vines to the fire, but it faces an uncertain future after an errant fire retardant drop painted a 20-acre swath of grapevines bright red. The Press Democrat reports that...

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No Safe Harbor for Water Polluters

No Safe Harbor for Water Polluters

For the sailor, a “safe harbor” provides refuge from the storm. In the law, a “safe harbor” gives legal immunity from a broad prohibition to accommodate certain narrow, desirable conduct. For example, when a landowner voluntarily agrees to protect habitat for an...

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National Whistleblower Day

National Whistleblower Day

In 1989, Forest Service timber sale planner Jeff DeBonis took the words of the Continental Congress to heart when he penned and distributed an open letter to Forest Service Chief F. Dale Robertson. Jeff called for an end to over-cutting our national forests. “We have...

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‘Redefining the Urban Wildfire Problem in the West’

‘Redefining the Urban Wildfire Problem in the West’

A recent report published by Headwaters Economics addresses the increasing risks to communities in wildfire-prone areas. The authors characterize current efforts to control wildfire as “ineffective” and “costly.” Fundamentally, the current paradigm is “inconsistent”...

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Save the Jellico Old-Growth Forest

Save the Jellico Old-Growth Forest

Using an outdated management plan, the Forest Service is set to approve a timber grab on the Daniel Boone National Forest. Please call USDA Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture Meryl Harrell and urge her to protect Kentucky’s Jellico Old-Growth Forest. Call...

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Daniel Boone National Forest

Daniel Boone National Forest

Encompassing a section of the Cumberland Mountains in eastern Kentucky, the 708,000-acre Daniel Boone National Forest features some of the most rugged terrain between the nearby Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains on the far side of the Great Plains....

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Gila National Forest

Gila National Forest

The Gila National Forest in New Mexico is home to Earth’s first wilderness area, established by the Forest Service 100 years ago today and 40 years before the Wilderness Act was signed into law. Aldo Leopold, a Forest Service supervisor working in New Mexico at the...

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Cheatgrass

Cheatgrass

'One of the most significant ecological crises facing land managers in the arid West' A report published in January, Cheatgrass Invasions: History, Causes, Consequences, and Solutions, by Western Watershed Projects is the source of the above quote. Authored by Erik...

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Burned Redwoods Recover From 2020 Fire

Burned Redwoods Recover From 2020 Fire

In August 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex fire burned through Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz, California, consuming all of the foliage on some of the oldest redwoods. “It was shocking.... It really seemed like most of the trees were going to die,” Drew...

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