Author: White Oak

E&E News—The Forest Service faces “enormous” budget challenges that will likely affect how employees go about their daily jobs, agency Chief Randy Moore said. In a memo to employees on the Forest Service website Thursday, Moore said the agency is planning for fiscal 2025 based on the leanest scenario as spelled out in the House… Continue reading Forest Service budget woes persist into 2025

FSEEE — Citing outdated management objectives in the 20-year-old Land and Resource Management Plan for the Daniel Boone National Forest, officials are proposing to log mature and old-growth trees in the 16,969-acre Jellico project area. Read the story by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed a federal lawsuit in February 2024 against the U.S. Forest Service, alleging the Forest Service’s ‘timber target’ decisions put the climate at risk, undermine the Biden administration’s important climate goals, and violate federal law. SELC filed the lawsuit after examining documents from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)… Continue reading SELC Webinar

REI—The U.S. Forest Service manages 193 million acres of the country’s forestlands and grasslands. But logging, development and climate-related stressors like wildfires and invasive species have dwindled our old-growth forests — home to our most ancient trees and ecosystems — to just 12% of these lands. That’s where the National Old-Growth Amendment comes in. The U.S. Forest… Continue reading Protect America’s old-growth forests

NHPR—The project will log more than 600 acres, a relatively tiny portion of the Sandwich Range’s more than 35,000 acreage. But it will cut trees near spots popular for hiking, bringing logging trucks to normally quiet slices of the forest. In certain tree stands, clear cuts are planned. Colloquially, many Granite Staters may see the… Continue reading ‘National forests are not national parks’: Logging debate in Whites divides forestry experts, environmentalists

ABC4—The U.S. Forest Service has stopped logging 147,000 acres of trees in Ashley National Forest in Utah because of a lawsuit filed against the project by conservation groups. The Forest Service authorized the project in October 2023. The Center for Biological Diversity says the project would tear down the habitat for many of Utah’s bighorn… Continue reading US Forest Service halts logging in Utah national forest

News Channel 9 ABC—The U.S. Forest Service has announced it will scrap plans to log a biologically important area of North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest near the Whitewater River. The announcement came nearly six months after the Southern Environmental Law Center sued the agency over the planned logging. “This wild and beautiful forest was saved… Continue reading Forest Service agrees to protect Nantahala Forest from logging

Big Country News — Conservation, hunting, and angling groups and the Nez Perce Tribe have submitted their objections to the Land Management Plan by the U.S. Forest Service in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. Concerns include excessive clear-cutting and its effects on wildlife. The Forest Service said the focus on timber harvest is to reduce fuel… Continue reading Nez Perce Tribe, Environmental Groups say USFS Plan Would ‘Degrade’ Idaho, Montana Forests

The Voice — The Jellico project is a hot topic that has touched a nerve in the people of McCreary and Whitley Counties. It has also touched their hearts. Comments kept pouring in, right up until the midnight hour, just minutes before clocks struck twelve. According to the Jellico Mountains Logging Facebook page, in the end, 673… Continue reading 636 public comments against Jellico’s proposed action

Eastern Standard — The U.S. Forest Service has been receiving public comments on a plan to log 10,000 acres of forest on Jellico Mountain in southeastern Kentucky over a 40-year period. Complicating the issue is an Executive Order signed by President Biden to conserve mature and old-growth forests on federal lands. Kentucky Heartwood Executive Director… Continue reading Kentucky Heartwood and Forest Service Debate Logging Plan