Forest Service
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What do you do when transport company is breaking federal law with state protection to haul giant machinery through Idaho to tar sands hell? It seems as though the Idaho and Montana state governments are working for Canada and the oil companies. Idaho citizens and the Nez Perce Tribe protests but they get arrested, rather…
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Tribal leaders shoved aside by police leading the megaloads upriver- It was thought the megaloads issue on U.S Highway 12 across north central Idaho was finally settled by Federal Judge Lynn Winmill. Early this year he wrote a decision that the U.S. Forest Service has jurisdiction over any megaload seeking to traverse the Highway 12…
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Montana Wilderness Study areas finally protected from vehicles until Congress acts- The Montana Wilderness Study Act passed in 1977. It required that the Forest Service protect the “wilderness quality” of a number of roadless areas in Western Montana until Congress decided to make a final decision as to whether the areas should be designed as…
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Orofino, Idaho. The Clearwater National Forest has denied the use of U.S. Highway 12 along the famed Lochsa River for the transport of megaloads bound for what some call the “tar sands hell” of south central Alberta. While the bulk of this battle was successfully fought a couple years ago by opponents of the transport…
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Rural Economic Vitalization Act reintroduced- The Rural Economic Vitalization Act (REVA) would allow private parties to pay willing ranchers to relinquish their grazing permits on public lands, and then the grazing allotment would then be permanently closed to livestock grazing. U.S. Representative Adam Smith of Washington State has just reintroduced this legislation. Conservationists and economists…
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The Supreme Court recently ruled in an 7-1 vote (Justice Stephen Breyer recused himself) that the EPA regulations about water pollution as mandated by the Clean Water Act did not apply to sediment and other pollution from logging operations. The timber industry is rejoicing over the ruling. But citizens should be less sanguine than industry.…
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Sequester looks almost certain. What now happens to public lands? The New York Times article linked below discusses the effects of the now almost certain sequester on the national parks . Most people who follow this issue know that they are chronically underfunded when it comes to resource protection. The Parks aside, what about…
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Once again, it’s $1.35/AUM — just a token fee- Like last year, the USFS and the BLM have announced that the 2013 grazing will a mere $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM). In a news release, the agencies wrote: “An AUM or HM – treated as equivalent measures for fee purposes – is the occupancy…