The Smokey Wire : National Forest News and Views
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There is much to talk about in the Wildfire Commission Report. Kelly Martin has offered to talk to us about it (she is a member of the Commission) via Zoom, so please let me know if you are interested. Today, though, I had heard that Commission members were making Hill visits to highlight … Read more
Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) have come to the Lolo National Forest at the same time it is embarking on revision of its forest plan. Coincidence? Fortuitous? Let’s revisit PODs (again). To create PODs, stakeholders are assembled and first tasked with drawing lines on a map. The lines correspond to places where fires can often effectively … Read more
Thanks to Jon for another excellent litigation round-up on Friday! Both Larry and I are familiar with the San Bernardino National Forest. Both of us were dubious as to Hanson’s claim this project involves fuel treatment “in the remote wildlands” . So I looked up a map for the project. From From this map, you … Read more
REGULATIONS On June 22, the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service proposed (for public comment by August 23) a new set of regulations for administering the Endangered Species Act, which for the most part cancelled many of the changes adopted by the Trump Administration. This follows litigation that resulted in the Trump … Read more
I’m seeing a trend here. Yesterday I posted that folks at CEQ and NSC (!) seemed to be making decisions that formerly would have been made by agencies. Well, the Democratic Science Committee seems to have produced a bill to organize the wildfire research trough without USDA and DOI. Sure, they are looking out for … Read more
Steve posted about this Pew piece yesterday, so I thought I’d take a closer look. He quoted: The USFS can better incorporate climate change-ready practices in four ways. 1) Use the best available science. 2) Identify specific climate change-ready management tools. 3) Monitor and adapt to changing conditions. 4) Engaging communities and Tribes. I think … Read more
This is a long and comprehensive story but I can only quote excerpts, sadly, due to the paywall. I’ll highlight a few points.. The title of the article is “In California forest plan, a hint of climate fights to come.” They seem like the same old fights to me, but with climate issues as a … Read more
Side note: whatever your thoughts, please comment on the MOG ANPR here. That is Mature and Old Growth Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Some people have had trouble finding the link, perhaps due to the bizarre title “Organization, Functions, and Procedures; Functions and Procedures; Forest Service Functions.” Comments are due June 20th. We appear to … Read more
I’m going to do a series of posts on the BLM proposed rule, don’t know how many yet. I was intrigued by a couple of things… first, the coverage by some was “the best thing since sliced bread” and by others “potential to kick out current users.” Of course, some people think that kicking out … Read more
We had a good discussion here with LM and Jon, but I thought I’d post this one. UPDATE: I heard back from Dan Farber on the “do these changes apply to NEPA for everything” question.. here is what he said. So far as I can tell, the NEPA-related provisions are all amendments to NEPA itself … Read more