The Smokey Wire : National Forest News and Views
Community Sourced, Shared and Supported
The following article is written by Keith Hammer, Chair of the Swan View Coalition in Montana. Hammer has shared his views on this blog before – including raising red flags about some types of ‘collaboration’ in Montana. —————— Imagine a world where you donate some time working on a Forest Service project and the Forest … Read more
Thanks to a reader who sent this interview from Evergreen Magazine and noted that the whole series (on a banner across the top when you click the link) is interesting. Here is a link and below is an excerpt: “Certainty is a two-way street. We believe Idaho needs a wilderness bill for the same reasons … Read more
The latest informal assessment gives them mixed reviews. It lead me to take a quick look at the CEQ guidance for collaboration during NEPA (2007). I don’t find that it makes a great case for collaboration between federal agencies and the public. It is more directly aimed at interagency collaboration, where the authorities are more … Read more
Timber industry people who don’t trust forest collaboration believe that those of us who participate in collaboratives are sleeping with the enemy. Environmentalists who would rather sue than participate in collaboratives think that environmentalists who collaborate with us are sleeping with the enemy. So it’s unanimous. We’re sleeping with our enemies. I don’t care what … Read more
Here is an interesting post from Bob Berwyn’s blog. Thanks, Bob, for finding this! I tried to simply “repost” it to this blog but had technical difficulties.. Below is an excerpt: Details The changes would provide greater clarity to the public and states on what information would best inform the evaluation of a species’ status … Read more
Agency press release from yesterday…. Release No. 0087.15 Contact: Office of Communications (202)720-4623 U.S. Forest Service Partnership Effort Improves Health of America’s Forests Program has supported 4,300 jobs per year, improved 1.45 million acres of America’s forests since 2010 WASHINGTON, April 7, 2015 — The U.S. Forest Service announced today that 1.45 million acres … Read more
From the Idaho Statesman, here is a link, and below is a quote. YEARS IN THE MAKING Despite that, the Wilderness Society, an organization established to protect wilderness and wild values, has spent eight years at the table working on an agenda to restore the forests, wildlife, rivers and rural economy of the region. Working … Read more
Let winter travel planning begin. Not something the Forest Service wanted to do, but the result of a court decision that found the Forest Service incorrectly exempted snowmobiles from the travel planning regulations. Here is the new regulation and a news article. Over-snow vehicle use on National Forest System roads, on National Forest System trails, and … Read more
Sounds like quite the wonkfest…. National Stewardship Contracting Virtual Meeting Tuesday, January 27, 2015 Eastern Case Studies: 11:00 AM EST Western Case Studies: 12:30 PM EST Registration required: Register now Why should you attend? Fresh off its permanent authorization in the 2014 Farm Bill, stewardship contracting is factoring into the activities of National Forests and … Read more
In yesterday’s post I asked: New Congress, new ideas.. we could take this project and ask the question, how could we do better with justice for all and still follow the existing laws? Ideas? When I retired, the solution to this was “collaboration”- folks have been doing this, and spending a great deal of time … Read more