Articles by Grist staff

Sticking Out Their Tongass

It’s a big bummer, but not a big surprise: The Bush administration ruled on Friday that it will not provide wilderness protection for any additional land in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, a move that will open up hundreds of thousands of acres of old-growth forest to logging. Public opinion was overwhelmingly in favor of creating […]

Mass Appeal

Massachusetts may get its first national forest if a plan being drawn up by the administration of Gov. Mitt Romney (R) comes to fruition. The plan’s still in the preliminary stages — so preliminary, in fact, that no maps have yet been sketched — but a considerable chunk of northwestern Massachusetts could be affected, including […]

Out to Luntz

Worried that their party is vulnerable on environmental issues, some Republicans in recent months have been trying to foster a gentler, greener image. An influential memorandum penned last fall by GOP strategist Frank Luntz advises Republicans to sprinkle terms like “balance” and “common sense” into their environmental speeches, and to stick to the word “conservationist,” […]

N.C. Pee Dee Blues

Water wars have long simmered in the arid Western U.S., but now they’re bubbling up in Eastern states as well. Dry spells in 1999 and 2002 brought many of the East’s rivers to worrisome lows; increased water demand spurred by new development is only adding to the problem. A contentious quarrel between Maryland and Virginia […]