The Smokey Wire : National Forest News and Views
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From the University of Arizona: Combine the tree-ring growth record with historical information, climate records and computer-model projections of future climate trends, and you get a grim picture for the future of trees in the southwestern United States. That’s the word from a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, … Read more
I don’t purport to track such things empirically, but last month seemed a particularly good one for the Forest Service in court. As blogged previously here, the Ninth Circuit sustained some post-fire logging near Lake Tahoe. The FS also won a 9th circuit decision up-holding some small tree thinning in Montana. Add two victories in … Read more
Thanks to Terry Seyden for this link. Perhaps the Californians on this blog can help me. I can’t understand this story… This is about the Sequoia National Monument- which has probably had more planning investment per acre than any other unit of the National Forest System. Although the monument designation bans commercial logging, that didn’t … Read more
This statement was release yesterday: The Center for Biological Diversity is a founding member of the Four Forests Restoration Initiative. The Center co-founded, participates in and supports the Initiative as a vehicle for corrective ecological restoration treatments that lead to the re-establishment of climate-entrained fire regimes and native biological diversity across landscapes dominated by ponderosa … Read more
From the Center for Biological Diversity: FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.— The U.S. Forest Service awarded one of the largest-ever tree-cutting contracts in the history of the national forest system today to a timber company represented by a retired Forest Service official. While he was a federal employee, the official was the agency’s liaison to that same company’s … Read more
From the Spokesman Review here. For four decades, truckloads of logs rolling out of the woods were Bob Boeh’s primary interest in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. No surprise since his employer, Idaho Forest Group, depends on federal timber sales to help keep five sawmills churning out 2-by-4s. But Boeh also finds himself pondering old-growth … Read more
A couple of months ago, a world atlas from the 40’s. was circulating around our office. One of the categories about each country was “natural resources”. In the past, I remember it used to be a good thing for a country to have natural resources, but it seems like now they are to be protected … Read more
Over at KCET‘s “The Back Forty”, Char Miller challenges some too-common thinking in forestry. In Will Trees Save Us from Climate Change? A Doubtful Tale, Miller challenges foresters to move beyond thinking that re-greening the planet via planting trees will save us. Further, Miller suggests that there are lessons unlearned in attempts to plant trees … Read more
Update: According to Cascadia Forest Defenders: “On Sunday April 22, in celebration of ‘Earth Defense Day’ and in solidarity with Occupy the Trees, Cascadia Forest Defenders installed a tree sit in the Goose Project timber sale known as ‘Golden.’” ————— The Goose timber sale on the Willamette National Forest has been discussed on this blog … Read more
A copy of the complaint can be found here. Meanwhile, a copy of the press release from the plaintiffs is printed below and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s article can be found here. Weekend Update: An attorney with the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center – who happens to live directly next to the Bozeman Watershed logging project … Read more