The Smokey Wire : National Forest News and Views
Community Sourced, Shared and Supported
I wouldn’t have thought that one is a substitute for the other, and maybe this suggests that Utah defined its problem wrong initially. But they’re happy enough with the way their Shared Stewardship agreement is working that they have put their roadless rule proposal on a back burner. At least some greens seem happy, too, … Read more
Many thanks to Russ Vaagen for giving another perspective. It helps us understand the frustrations of the different parties, and also (as is often the case) how the FS is between a rock and a hard place. Here I’d like to especially highlight one point: I just hope we don’t have to go through this … Read more
David Beebe writes: Most of the last of the large tree rainforests of Amazonia are falling and/or on fire. Most of the last of the large tree rainforests of Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago are also long gone – permanently gone. The Roadless Rule and all the remnant wild watersheds it protects are all we have … Read more
I’ve been thinking about the Pike-San Isabel Travel Management decision and its long history of litigation, which started while I was still employed by the FS. I remembered another project that had the same level of conflict. It was the Rico-West Dolores travel management on the San Juan, which apparently has gone from being litigated … Read more
We mentioned the group Great Old Broads for Wilderness earlier this week. I belong, instead, to Humble Dames Supporting Thoughtful Dialogue. If there were such a group, and there were a founder, it would definitely be Dr. Patty Limerick, a historian at the University of Colorado, who has had a variety of experience with natural … Read more
Thanks to a Smokey Wire reader for this one! The story is about Sagehen Creek Field Station run by UC. Well worth reading in its entirety. Lots of leadership, including by Scott Conway the silviculturist as well as I’m sure many others on the District, the Sagehen Creek folks, collaboration and patience. Sure, we all … Read more
Lourenço Marques posted this as a comment: He had seen this on FB. Today the Montana Bicycle Guild, Inc., filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court brought by Helena Hunters & Anglers and Montana Wildlife Federation against the U.S. Forest Service. The MBG is intervening to support the Forest … Read more
In this post, we talked about the FS reducing public involvement with the new regulations. But then as we explored the actual current NEPA regs in this post, we found out that removing the scoping requirement appears to mean that the change to the regs goes from https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/220.4 (e)Scoping (40 CFR 1501.7). “(1) Scoping is … Read more
I’d like to thank Susan Jane Brown, Anonymous, and others for engaging deeply and thoughtfully on the proposed NEPA regs. They’ve brought up many good points, which I’m going to try to separate into different threads. This one is about scoping. I’m hoping we can all get on the same page about what is required … Read more
NAU pilot project tests exporting wood products via railway (and ship) to speed forest restoration A pilot project at Camp Navajo has the potential to unlock a critical bottleneck in forest restoration and wildfire prevention efforts across northern Arizona by creating markets for restoration byproducts like wood chips from small-diameter trees. The pilot project, led … Read more