Ground Truth
Haaland Makes History at Interior
Interior Secretary Debra Anne Haaland became the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary when she took the oath of office on March 16. She won confirmation in the Senate on a 51-40 vote. She is a member of the Laguna Pueblo and a 35th-generation New...
No Pass from Forest Service ‘Nanny State’
The Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon, recently published an editorial by FSEEE Executive Director Andy Stahl, in which he takes the Forest Service to task for closing large portions of many national forests following forest fires. "According to the Forest Service,...
FSEEE Comments on Grounding of World’s Largest Firefighting Plane
Associated Press journalist Patty Nieberg recently reported on the grounding of the world's largest firefighting plane, the Global SuperTanker, based in Colorado. She contacted FSEEE Executive Director Andy Stahl for an expert opinion: "Some fire experts, like Andy...
FSEEE Voices Support for Mushroom Hunters, Criticizes Post-Fire Forest Closures
The Salem Statesman Journal reports that a unique culinary opportunity is being thwarted by forest managers in Oregon. Morel mushrooms, specifically fire morels, are known for their prolific production following wildfires like last year's Labor Day fires. "It's hard...
Forest Service Partnerships and Volunteers
As funding for public lands agencies has dwindled, the Forest Service has turned to nonprofit partnerships and volunteers (P/Vs) to help keep boots on the ground. The Forest Service Wilderness Advisory Group (WAG) examined this trend in 2008, identifying the top 10...
As if 2020 Wasn’t Bad Enough Already
The U.S. set a record that may have escaped notice at year's end, given the distractions of an accelerating pandemic. 2020 brought a new wildfire record—10.3 million acres burned—breaking the 2015 record by 200,000 acres. “In 2020, we saw some of the hottest months on...
Whitebark Pine
In December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed listing whitebark pine (pinus albicaulisis) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), nearly 30 years after protections were first proposed. Native to the mountains of the western United States...
‘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...
‘Timber Wars’ podcast goes live
"Timber Wars," a podcast from Oregon Public Broadcasting, is now available online. The new podcast tells the story of how a small group of activists and scientists turned the fight over old-growth trees and the northern spotted owl into one of the biggest...
Opinion: Look to wildfires history to better prepare for next one
By Guest Columnist Tom Spies in The Oregonian — Spies is an emeritus scientist with the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station. He lives in Corvallis. The devastating wildfires in western Oregon have caused tragic losses of life, homes and forests....