Author: White Oak

This publication summarizes the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA Forest Service’s mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The 2024 Forest Service Budget request for discretionary appropriations is $9.7… Continue reading Forest Service Fiscal 2024 Budget Justification

The News Journal – Basically, it’s not the fact that the logging job is being proposed that has people so upset. It’s more about the overall scope of the job, which will span about four decades and include a considerable amount of clearcutting. I am concerned about the long-term negative effects that could result from… Continue reading Plans for Jellico Mtn. logging project remain unchanged, but maybe not for long

Since 1980, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has lost more than $1.7 billion on timber sales in the Tongass National Forest, according to a new report by Taxpayers for Common Sense. “It actually costs taxpayers millions to ‘sell’ timber that we collectively own, which makes no sense,” said Autumn Hanna, vice president of Taxpayers for… Continue reading New Report: Taxpayers Lost $1.7 Billion from Money-Losing Timber Sales in the Tongass

Sumauma.com – Under what insane set of values are lifeless, horizontal logs priced higher than living, vertical trees? How can it make economic sense to run down one of the world’s most important climate stabilisers, water pumps and cooling systems for the sake of a quick buck, burgers and gold trinkets? The answers to these three… Continue reading Valuing the forest can’t be left to the market

A May 2019 report by the Center for Sustainable Economy says thelogging program on federal forests continues to lose money for U.S. taxpayers in the range of $1.5 to $2.0 billion per year. Each year, the U.S. Forest Service authorizes logging of roughly 3 billion board feet of timber – equivalent to 650,000 full log… Continue reading Damaging logging operations on federal public lands costs U.S. taxpayers nearly $2 billion each year

WildEarth Guardians – Conservation organizations WildEarth Guardians and Oregon Wild filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s misuse of an agency regulation to evade its obligation to analyze and disclose the environmental impacts of three projects on the Fremont-Winema National Forest in Oregon. The organizations allege the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)… Continue reading Conservation groups sue Forest Service for evading analysis and disclosure of commercial thinning projects’ environmental impacts

CounterPunch.org – Some reporters still mistakenly write that commercial logging makes money for the Forest Service. It doesn’t — and this is an important issue because citizens need to know that politicians are actually sacrificing the public’s national forest resources and billions of federal tax dollars to enable the private profit of the timber industry. Adding to… Continue reading The Forest Service Not Only Loses Money Logging, It Makes Fires Worse

Kentucky Lantern – Last month, the Biden administration announced a plan for new regulations to enhance “climate resilience” in those forests. It was a follow-up to a first-of-its-kind inventory ordered by Biden that showed mature and old-growth forests make up 60 percent, or 112 million acres, of the forests managed by the Forest Service and… Continue reading Log and burn? Or let it be? The fight over the future of Hoosier National Forest

America’s mature and old-growth forests — natural climate solutions that remove and absorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere — could win stronger protections if enough people weigh in to urge federal agencies to act. Please urge the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to issue a rule protecting climate forests. The agencies are focused on… Continue reading Protect Our Climate Forests