US Forest Service
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Federal agencies at odds over salvage-logging proposal in Oregon
Siskiyou-hoo! Photo: BLM. A U.S. Forest Service proposal to conduct a massive salvage-logging operation in Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest has come up against a surprising critic — the U.S. EPA. While the Bush administration has advertised the plan as a necessary measure to protect the future health of the forest — which was hit by […]
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Keep the Forest Fires Burning
Critics Charge Forest Service With Overzealous Fire Fighting A growing cadre of critics charge the U.S. Forest Service with fighting too many fires, saying that the cost — in money, lives, and ecological damage — is too high. As logging in national forests has declined by 80 percent over the last decade, fighting fires has […]
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Burned
192 million — number of acres in the U.S. National Forest System1 6.9 million — number of acres of private and federal land burned by wildfires in 2002 2 2.4 million — number of acres of national forest land burned by wildfires in 20023 980,000 — average number of acres of national forest land burned […]
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The Three Amigos
Three Major Companies Join Fight to Protect Tongass Office supply giant Staples and building companies KB Home and Hayward Lumber have joined with environmentalists in opposing a Bush administration proposal that would allow roads and development in southeast Alaska’s pristine Tongass National Forest. The three companies, all big users of wood products, have been working […]
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Can’t See the Trees for the Forest Service
Two House Democrats have accused the U.S. Forest Service of cooking its books in order to blame environmentalists for the fires that raged across much of the West this summer. Reps. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) spoke out yesterday against a recent USFS report in which the agency claimed that environmental appeals delayed […]
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Plan Nein
In a move that frustrated environmentalists, the U.S. Forest Service said on Friday that it would delay revising management plans for most national forests in the Northwest until 2012. Under a timetable set by Congress, the multi-year plans had been slated to be revamped by 2005; enviro groups had hoped to use the scientific and […]
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The border patrol is threatening two endangered cats in Texas
The Texas-Mexico border has long been a setting for political skirmishes, a conflict zone where figures hide in shadows hoping to find a loophole in the paramilitary operations that attend the Rio Grande, the river that separates the U.S. from its southern neighbor. This ocelot doesn’t have nine lives.Photo: U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. […]
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How we could save both forests and jobs
The “roadless” road show swept the nation last week as U.S. Forest Service officials collected public comment on President Clinton’s initiative to prohibit road building in national forests where no roads now exist. What’s missing from this picture? Photo: U.S. Forest Service. The policy would affect 43 million acres across the country, including about 5.8 […]
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A conservative argument for Clinton's forest initiative
Ed Marston, publisher of High Country News, proclaims in his paper’s April 10, 2000 issue: “The war between extractive interests and the environmental movement for control of the Interior West’s public lands is drawing to a close. The timber era, the cattle era, the mainstem big-dam era, the wise-use era are ending. An immense landscape […]