Forest Service
A Better Approach to Wildfire on Public Lands
Why our proposal improves on Fix Our Forests.
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the seventh in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. The …
Continue reading “A Better Approach to Wildfire on Public Lands”
CONTINUE READINGWildfire and National Forests
Reforming federal forest management to address wildfire
This blog post was co-authored with Dave Owen, at UC Law SF. The draft article this blog post series is based is here. This is the third in a series of blog posts on our proposal to reform wildfire law in the United States. The first post is here. The second post is here. Federally …
Continue reading “Wildfire and National Forests”
CONTINUE READINGOff the Road Again?
Trump Administration revocations of ORV Executive Orders won’t have direct effects on the ground, yet.
Last month the Trump Administration revoked two executive orders over forty years old that directed federal agencies to restrict off-road vehicle use (ORV) on public lands in order to protect those lands’ environmental value. The revocation is, of course, controversial, and of a piece of a scorched earth approach to environmental regulation this Administration has …
Continue reading “Off the Road Again?”
CONTINUE READINGChaos on the Public Lands?
Congress has begun applying the Congressional Review Act to federal public lands management plans. The impacts might be significant.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) creates a streamlined process by which Congress can disapprove rules issued by federal agencies – it is one of the few legislative actions that are exempt from the filibuster in Congress, along with reconciliation legislation. This Congress has been aggressive in using the CRA, perhaps because polarization in Congress has …
Continue reading “Chaos on the Public Lands?”
CONTINUE READINGA Way Forward?
Reducing the Number of Decisions Could Accelerate Fire Management
This is the third of a series of three posts on how to do more to reduce fire risks on federal lands. The first post is here, the second post is here. In addressing the increasing risks of wildfire, we certainly need to scale up the resources we apply to the problem, doing more prescribed …
Continue reading “A Way Forward?”
CONTINUE READINGFire and Permitting Reform
Addressing the difficult parts, regulation and litigation
This is the second of three posts on proposed legislation to address the fire crisis on federal lands (the first post is here). Last post, I talked about why this legislation is essential, and the strengths of the bill that the House passed last Congress. In this post, I’ll talk about the parts of the …
Continue reading “Fire and Permitting Reform”
CONTINUE READINGNEPA in the Ninth
Can an agency just shortcut the whole process? The 9th Circuit says no.
On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit decided a NEPA case that discusses two interesting issues. But what’s most striking isn’t what the court did discuss but what it didn’t mention : the fact that last year’s NEPA amendments speaks directly to one of those issues. Apparently the word that NEPA was extensively amended a year ago …
Continue reading “NEPA in the Ninth”
CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Forest Service proposes NEPA regulatory revisions
Forest Service proposes revisions to NEPA regulations to increase exemptions for logging and other projects
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has long been a lightning rod for debates over public land management. NEPA requires federal agencies to fully analyze and publicly disclose the environmental impacts of proposed major federal actions that significantly affect the environment, including analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives and a response to public comments. …
Continue reading “Public Lands Watch: Forest Service proposes NEPA regulatory revisions”
CONTINUE READINGSecretary Zinke Misleads the Public About Wildfires and Federal Public Land Management
Secretary of Interior’s Op-Ed Ignores Science and Land-Use Planning to Falsely Blame Wildfire Risk on “Radical Environmentalists”
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke published an op-ed today calling for “active management” of our federal public lands to reduce wildfire risk, and blaming “radical environmentalists who would rather see forests and communities burn than see a logger in the woods” for the prevalance and lethality of wildfires in the American West. Zinke’s op-ed is disingenuous, …
CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Sage Grouse Plan Revisions
BLM and Forest Service produce draft environmental impact statements for plan revisions
I wrote in the fall about the Trump Administration’s efforts to weaken protections for sage grouse on federal public lands. The next step in that process is currently ongoing – draft environmental impact statements (EIS) for revisions to land management plans for BLM and Forest Service lands. Those EISs are required by the National Environmental …
Continue reading “Public Lands Watch: Sage Grouse Plan Revisions”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
The Drain is a roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet delivered to your Inbox once a week.
