Ground Truth

Collaboratives are a Failed Experiment

Collaboratives are a Failed Experiment

“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” — Elizabeth Warren It is no coincidence that the rise of collaborative groups described in Christopher Ketcham’s guest essay followed the demise of the Forest Service’s logging-at-all-costs era....

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Excerpted from ‘This Land’

Excerpted from ‘This Land’

When Congress passed the 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act, one of Barack Obama’s major public lands initiatives, it included a provision for a new program of management of national forests that promised “collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration” of...

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The Peshtigo Firestorm

The Peshtigo Firestorm

On the night of October 8, 1871, in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, “all hell rode into town on the back of a wind.” In two hours, the Peshtigo Fire decimated a swath of forest 10 miles wide by 40 miles long and obliterated the towns of Peshtigo and Brussels in northeastern...

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Mining Proposal Threatens Okefenokee

Mining Proposal Threatens Okefenokee

If approved, a proposal to mine titanium and zirconium in southern Georgia will threaten the integrity of the Okefenokee Swamp, designated a Wetland of International Importance through the Ramsar Convention. Ninety percent of the massive wetland lies within the...

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Oregon High Court Rejects Timber Lawsuit

Oregon High Court Rejects Timber Lawsuit

The Oregon Supreme Court rejected an appeal in a $1 billion lawsuit that sought to define the “greatest permanent value” of forests as timber revenue. The 13 counties that brought the lawsuit gave forestland to the state in the 1930s and ’40s. Oregon manages the land...

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Jet Fuel From Wood

Jet Fuel From Wood

Writing for Greenwire, Marc Heller reports that Enviva, the world’s largest wood pellet producer, has inked a deal to turn forest products into aviation fuel. The deal will send up to 750,000 metric tons of “forest thinnings” to a new production facility to be built...

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FSEEE Bighorn Protest ‘Gets Ink’

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...

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FSEEE Sues Forest Service Over Fire Retardant

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...

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Prescribed Fire

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...

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Beavers Can Spearhead Climate Action

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...

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Victory: Post-fire Forests Reopening in Oregon

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...

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Native American Tribes Will Co-manage Bears Ears

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...

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