I just called the supervisor’s office of the Lolo National Forest: The pre-recorded message said they were closed because of the government shutdown.

I called the Flathead National Forest: Same Story.

Ditto for the Bitterroot National Forest, and the Flathead National Forest, and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and the….Well, you get the picture.

Does anyone know if logging on U.S. Forest Service lands has also been stopped during the on-going government shutdown? What about mining, and oil and gas development and commercial grazing on U.S. Forest Service lands?

Are all these resource extraction activities on America’s National Forest stopped during President Trump’s shutdown of the federal government? Or are all these resource extraction activities on America’s National Forest still actively taking place on America’s National Forests, but with zero to minimal oversight by the U.S. Forest Service?

Get the full scoop from this breaking article in the Washington Post:

The Justice Department’s public integrity section is examining whether newly departed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to his agency’s inspector general investigators, according to three people familiar with the matter, a potential criminal violation that would exacerbate Zinke’s legal woes.

Zinke, who left the Trump administration Wednesday, was facing two inspector general inquiries tied to his real estate dealings in his home state of Montana and his involvement in reviewing a proposed casino project by Native American tribes in Connecticut. In the course of that work, inspector general investigators came to believe Zinke had lied to them, and they referred the matter to the Justice Department to consider whether any laws were violated, the people familiar with the matter said.

The department’s public integrity section has since been exploring the case, the people familiar with the matter said. The extent of its work is unclear, though the inspector general had questioned witnesses in an apparent attempt to scrutinize Zinke’s account, one of the people said.

Also, in other (stinky) Zinke news, shortly after the departing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke shared with the public a rather bizarre message, which appeared to be scribbled in red Crayola marker, Zinke then penned a letter to his 70,000 Interior Department employees (30% of whom, Zinke infamously claimed were “not loyal to the flag”), which in part read:

“When I was a Boy Scout, I was taught to leave the campsite better than I found it. I am confident that over the last 2 years we have done that together for our public lands and the Department of the Interior.”

On Tuesday, Time Magazine wrote: “Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West’s iconic national parks on Monday, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.”

Meanwhile, yesterday ABC News reported: “As the government shutdown extends into the new year, public lands and national parks are struggling to handle the trash, waste, and other damage from visitors without staff to manage the situation.”

Here’s a couple of photos from the past few days showing – literally – how Secretary Zinke left America’s public lands campsite (and legacy?). Good riddance, Zinke!

During the government shutdown, I thought I’d run some posts about other organizations involved in the same kinds of issues as the Forest Service and see if they run into the same kinds of problems, and whether they’ve found solutions. It’s kind of a “you’re not alone” or “it’s not just you” approach.

This piece is by Tisha Schuller with the tagline “After years on the front lines of Colorado’s energy fights, here’s what I’ve learned about why natural resource issues are so divisive—and what to do about it.” The piece is well worth reading in its entirety. Thanks to PERC for providing the link.

Some women enter the field, as Schuller did, with the idea of peace-making. I wonder whether there’s a gender difference (not 100%, of course) in the attitude of folks like her, compared to what Chief Thomas called “paid gladiators”? The kind of people who think that if we all understood each other better, had compassion for each other, and worked together, we could make the world a better place despite our differences? Let’s keep an eye out for these potential environmental peacemakers (Patty Limerick is another).

Needlessly Dividing

To prevent the emotional discomfort of cognitive dissonance, we surround ourselves with like-minded people. The informational echo chambers allow us to experience more day-to-day harmony. By feeding ourselves news and intellectual conversations that reinforce our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, we create a cycle that further exacerbates the certainty of our own perspective.

This makes the exploration of scientific information quite challenging, especially amidst our polarized national politics. Loud, soundbite-spewing voices are needlessly dividing conversations about our environmental, natural, and economic resources. With this backdrop, intelligent conversations about tradeoffs of energy development become nearly impossible. In a cooler political climate, inhospitable to ill-founded passions, smart and reasonable people would discuss evidence concerning fracking. How I long for this elusive place.

…
Monitoring.. Or Maybe Not

The voluntary baseline sampling program was a clear success. It demonstrated that operators were willing to be proactive to assuage public concerns. A year later, the program would be codified as a state regulation with official COGA support. Today, tens of thousands of water sampling data are publicly available. The new mountain of data took the question of whether oil and gas development was systematically contaminating groundwater off the table. It was not.

The program, however, did nothing to resolve the conflicts around oil and gas development in Colorado. Public concern about oil and gas development quickly morphed into new issues. Initially, I was surprised. Each time one topic was resolved by a study or a new regulation, the next surfaced seemingly instantaneously. Now I understand the dynamic more clearly: Communities were concerned about fracking in their hearts and their guts, so they would find no shortage of new issues to worry about.

..
Difficult Conversations

Combining all of these biases, we can begin to understand why having a conversation about resource conflicts is so difficult. Cognitive dissonance makes us seek out sources of information that we are likely to agree with. We hear data that fit our worldview. Then source amnesia and the repetition effect kick in. All of this is exacerbated by the most familiar of all biases: confirmation bias. We seek out sources of information that confirm what we believe and dismiss the data that doesn’t. The result is the opposite of a virtuous cycle.

A special shout-out of support and blessings to current Forest Service and other federal employees today.

Here’s a prayer borrowed from my spiritual community with a few additions:

With hearts broken open we pray

for compassion that opens our arms wide this day to embrace as our sister, our brother, each person with whom we share this lovely planet

for vision that clears our sight to recognize the Light and Goodness that flow in abundance this day in every situation, every place and within every being

for obedience
that opens our ears to the cries resounding throughout every quadrant of our earth this day, cries for life, for deep happiness, for a just peace, for care for the earth

for wisdom that discerns well and brings forth the thoughts, works and acts that may bring life this day.

With full hearts we accept the blessings of this day and wish one another peace.

Peace to all!

The Sacramento Bee has the full story.

Remember, earlier this year Trump’s outgoing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blamed California wildfires on “frivolous lawsuits” from “environmental terrorist groups.”

PG&E has already been convicted in criminal court for a recent deadly tragedy. Could the utility soon find itself as the defendant in a dozen more cases, charged with breaking state laws?

In the wake of massive utility-caused Northern California wildfires, a handful of district attorneys in flame-scarred counties are pondering whether to charge the utility company in criminal court for misconduct.

Cal Fire, the state’s fire protection agency, sent investigative reports to seven counties this summer saying it believes PG&E likely violated state public resources and health and safety laws in 12 blazes.

Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said it is up to local prosecutors in Sonoma, Napa, Yuba, Nevada, Lake, Humboldt and Butte counties to make independent decisions on whether to use the fire agency’s investigative conclusions to file criminal charges.

USFS press release:

Idaho and USDA sign historic agreement to improve forest health

Recent article from Greenwire:

Prescribed burns on the decline — study

Lots of news about Secretary Zinke’s resignation today. The self-professed “geologist” was rocked by numerous scandals. As harsh as most all of the news coverage about Zinke’s departure is today, I’m going to say that history will judge Zinke even harsher.

I just did this for their headline/picture, but here’s the article about the wilderness planning part of their forest plan revision process.

As was pointed out in this post, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated four U.S. Forest Service (USFS) logging projects on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which would have clearcut 1,700 acres of old-growth rainforest and constructed about 14 miles of logging roads.

Jon and Andy have shared additional information about this issue over here, so please check that out.

Below is a press release I got from Larry Edwards of Greenpeace. A copy of the ruling is here.

ANCHORAGE – A unanimous verdict of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated four U.S. Forest Service (USFS) logging projects in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest national forest, ending a ten year legal battle. Greenpeace USA and Cascadia Wildlands filed the suit in 2008.

The decision permanently stops four timber sales that would have clearcut 1,700 acres of old-growth rainforest — habitat that is critical to deer, which are the primary prey of the rare Alexander Archipelago wolf (or “Islands Wolf”), and vital to subsistence hunters. The lawsuit focused on all three — deer, wolves, and hunters.

“But the victory is for more than deer, wolves and hunters,” said Larry Edwards, a representative of Greenpeace and resident of Sitka, Alaska. “It also protects many other kinds of wildlife in those areas, diverse forest uses, and carbon that is stored in the soil, trees and vegetation. As a far-north coastal rainforest, fires are rare and very small here, and as a result the Tongass is world-renown for storing carbon in its soil, trees and vegetation.”
At issue in the litigation was how the Forest Service determined impacts of the logging projects on Sitka black-tailed deer, and consequently wolves and hunters.

The Court concluded that the agency’s modeling of deer winter habitat “does not accurately measure forest structure [and] was too unreliable to be used.” It also said the “USFS failed to explain why it was authorizing the projects despite lower-than-recommended deer habitat capabilities.” (The recommended minimum capability is specified in the Tongass Forest Plan.)
In voiding the agency’s approvals of its four projects, the court noted that in “over a decade of litigation … USFS has been given multiple opportunities to correct flaws in its project analysis and ignored the court’s guidance.”

“The Forest Service was handed a clear message today that it cannot fudge the science in order to give its projects an ‘easy pass’ and sell excessive amounts of timber from a planning area,” said Chris Winter of Crag Law Center, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. “The Islands Wolf is a rare species in Alaska’s rainforest, and it’s vital that the agency follow the best science on how to protect it and how to provide for the needs of deer hunters.”
“The Forest Service has scheduled two of the projects in our lawsuit to be logged in 2019. The court’s verdict invalidating the decisions comes just in time.” said Gabriel Scott of Cascadia Wildlands.

“The Forest Service greatly overestimated the habitat available for deer, and consequently underestimated the impacts of logging, not just in the four projects in this case but in every one of its timber project decisions made between 1996 and 2008,” Edwards said. “This justified logging which should never have happened. Greenpeace and Cascadia have demonstrated, with the agency’s own documents, that its computer models were flawed. For recent projects the USFS has corrected those errors, but it refused to do so for the earlier ones,” he said.

Together, the four projects would have cut 33 million board feet of timber from 1,700 acres of old-growth forest, and about 14 miles of logging roads would have been constructed.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs were Chris Winter and Oliver Stiefel of Crag Law Center based in Portland, Oregon, and Rene Voss of Mill Valley, Ca. Plaintiffs are grateful to the McIntosh Foundation for supporting the Islands Wolf litigation, from the beginning.