You are viewing news tagged as 'forests' || Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Private logging key to improving national forests, say Western governors

Posted: April 19, 2013

The Western Governors' Association wants the Forest Service to expand the use of public-private partnerships in an effort to help restore environmentally stressed national forestlands that in recent years have been plagued by drought, climate change and wildfires.

In a two-page letter...

Appropriators fret over NPS budget woes

Posted: April 17, 2013

Worries on both sides of the aisle about the National Park Service's financial health surfaced today during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Democrats focused on how sequestration is affecting agency operations, from the required furloughs of U.S. Park Police officers to the...

USFS budget emphasizes collaborative planning and conservation

Posted: April 15, 2013

President Obama's budget request for the Forest Service includes full funding for a popular collaborative restoration program and seeks increased funding for land acquisitions and private land easements.

The agency's $4.9 billion request is about the same as current funding levels.

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Jewell wins confirmation as Interior secretary

Posted: April 12, 2013

By a vote of 87 to 11, the Senate approved Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) chief executive Sally Jewell on Wednesday as the next Interior secretary.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told his colleagues Wednesday that Jewell had...

USFS change aims to resolve project objections earlier in review process

Posted: April 11, 2013

In U.S. Forest Service-speak, we’re switching from a 215 to a 218. The difference in digits determines how and when someone can protest a timber sale or a road decommissioning, or any other Forest Service project that needs an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment.

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USFS touts integrated restoration plan ahead of budget request

Posted: April 9, 2013

A Forest Service pilot program that consolidates funding for several restoration activities last year protected 800,000 acres from the threat of catastrophic wildfire, the agency said just days before the administration is expected to ask Congress to expand the program nationally.

The...

BLM study shows that Colorado Plateau will get hotter and drier

Posted: April 8, 2013

Conservationists are lobbying the Bureau of Land Management to overhaul its policies in the Colorado Plateau after the agency's own study indicated big alterations are coming over the next 50 years because of climate change.

The vast Colorado Plateau is home of the spectacular canyon...

In Idaho powder struggle, a ruling for backcountry skiers

Posted: April 8, 2013

A federal judge in Idaho ruled the U.S. Forest Service broke the law by not crafting rules to govern snowmobile travel, a victory for powder-loving backcountry ski enthusiasts.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Bush wrote that the Forest Service must draw up regulations designating areas of use...

Feds project climate change will double wildfire risk in forests

Posted: April 8, 2013

The hotter, drier climate will transform Rocky Mountain forests, unleashing wider wildfires and insect attacks, federal scientists warn in a report for Congress and the White House.

The U.S. Forest Service scientists project that, by 2050, the area burned each year by increasingly severe...