Whenever an US presidential election comes around, many people believe see it as another opportunity to provide relief to current problems that have gone unaddressed in the country. The 2016 election may be a rather pivotal one. This is because, according to scientists, the next president of the United States may be the last president…
Covering a span of more than 655,000 acres, the Cherokee National Forest is one of our nation’s natural treasures. As such, this magnificent forest, which serves as much of the natural border between Tennessee and North Carolina, deserves to be protected. For years, environmental groups have worked diligently to protect the forest from environmentally unsound,…
On behalf of the Utah Environmental Congress and the High Uintas Preservation Council, the Ashley National Forest was challenged adopting a forest plan amendment that reduced the number of Management Indicator Species (MIS) on the Forest from 12 to two. MIS are important, because monitoring of MIS populations is how the agency knows whether or not…
Alabama Circuit Judge Joel Laird ruled that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) illegally issued a water pollution discharge permit to HarGal Mining Partnership for a gold mine on Terrapin Creek in Cleburne County, Alabama. Under Alabama law, clean water can be degraded only when the permittee demonstrates that the proposed discharge is necessary…
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver struck down another Utah National Forest project on the management indicator species (MIS) issue. Key to this case is that the 10th Circuit blew off the 2000 “transitional” rule and the 2004 “interpretive” rule the Forest Service had manufactured to justify not protecting wildlife when logging. The…
Tucked away in Western North Carolina, where it starts in a ravine between the Blue Ridge Parkway and the eastern side of the Black Mountains, North Carolina’s beloved South Toe River came close to having its natural splendor altered in 2005. Fortunately, conservation groups stepped up in hopes of preventing such an action, and they…
On Dec. 23, 2004, the U.S. Forest Service released new regulations covering planning and management for all National Forests under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). These new rules totally change how 192,000,000 acres of public land will be managed. This white paper is the first extensive review of the new regulations and the environmental management systems…