Author: White Oak

This Saturday, December 14, 2024, Kentucky Heartwood will be leading a hike and field trip to see some outstanding forests in the Jellico Mountains threatened with logging under the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed Jellico Vegetation Management Project. On this hike we’ll see and discuss examples of mature and old-growth forests, different forest communities, and examples of… Continue reading Old-Growth Field Trip in the Jellico Mountains

Appalachian News-Express — Landslides are a deadly and costly natural disaster. In the U.S., 25 to 50 people on average are killed by landslides each year, according to the Department of Interior. In Whitley County, Kentucky, over 90% of the land is susceptible to landslides. In McCreary County, it’s over 97%. This is where the… Continue reading Landslides Pose Threat to Kentucky Counties

Following is one of the public comments submitted to the U.S. Forest Service regarding the Stearns Ruffed Grouse Habitat Management Project: This project places priority on a single species, the ruffed grouse. Multiple studies show that this game bird has declined largely due to West Nile virus, being over-hunted, and predation by prey species such… Continue reading Ruffed Grouse Project Comments

Scoping comments accepted now through Friday, October 18th, 2024 at 11:59pm Kentucky Heartwood—There is a new proposal for Grouse habitat management in the Stearns District of the Daniel Boone National Forest along the Big South Fork area of McCreary and Pulaski Counties. This has nothing to do with the Jellico Mountains logging project. Forest Service… Continue reading Comment on the Stearns Ruffed Grouse Habitat Management Project

Vox—Due to a looming budget cut, the U.S. Forest Service will not be hiring seasonal staff for the next fiscal year, leaving thousands of people out of work and putting essential conservation and biodiversity work at risk. The spending bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives gave the Forest Service around half a… Continue reading Leaked recordings detail Forest Service quietly gutting its workforce

Tim Reed, Stearns District Ranger of Daniel Boone National Forest, has retired. Kyle Edmonds, a forest wildlife biologist, will serve as temporary Stearns District Ranger until a permanent ranger is appointed. We wish Mr. Reed well in his retirement. Read the story at McCreary Voice

Updated milestones in the Jellico Mountains project: Objection period estimated to begin on January 1, 2025.

BBC—Roberto Brito learned how to use a chainsaw at the age of 11. Now he uses his intimate knowledge of the Amazon rainforest to guide tourists around in his flip-flops. It used to be that when Roberto Brito looked at a tree, he would see a number: the amount of money he could earn from… Continue reading The logger who learned the value of living trees

The Tribune—Monroe County commissioners and environmental organizations have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the U.S. Forest Service’s implementation of the Houston South Vegetation Management and Restoration Project in the Hoosier National Forest. In addition to the USFS’s failure to properly examine the impacts to Lake Monroe, the lawsuit claims the Forest Service is violating… Continue reading Forest Service sued again in effort to stop Hoosier National Forest project

Southern Environmental Law Center—A gate blocks the entrance and an ‘area closed’ sign threatens potential trespassers with fines or prison. The warnings come as centuries-old trees are being cut down and put on the back of logging trucks, making Brushy Mountain yet another point of conflict in the fight to save the nation’s oldest forests.… Continue reading Appalachian old growth recklessly put on the chopping block