national forests
Public Lands Watch: Resilient Federal Forests Act
Bill to reduce environmental protections for timber management on federal lands passes House
The Resilient Federal Forests Act (RFFA), H.R. 2936—which would curb environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for a variety of forest management activities on National Forest and BLM lands—passed the House November 1. (We previously wrote about a version of this bill in committee here.) NEPA requires agencies to consider whether proposed …
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CONTINUE READING200 Days and Counting: Public Lands
The potential impact of a Trump Administration on our federal public lands.
The federal government owns almost one-third of the land in the United States, primarily concentrated in the Western states. In addition, the federal government is the primary manager of the oceans off the coast of the United States (with the exception of oceans within three miles of the coastline, which are primarily under state authority). …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: HR 2936
Resilient Federal Forests Act would reduce or eliminate environmental protections for logging projects on National Forests
The House Natural Resources Committee passed H.R. 2936, the “Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017,” out of committee on June 27th and the bill is now waiting in the House for debate. The bill would expedite National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) review for U.S. Forest Service projects in order to improve forest management on federal …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: HR 5 and Land-Use Planning
Bill passed by house would increase burden on agency for land-use planning
HR 5 The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA) Passed House 1/11 Received in the Senate 1/12 Referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs This post was co-authored by law student Emma Hamilton. On January 11th, the House passed HR 5, the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017, which includes a provision mandating new …
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CONTINUE READINGWatching over our public lands
Keeping track of what is happening with our federal public lands
There is a lot of discussion about possible changes in environmental law post-election. One area that has received some attention is public lands. The federal government owns a little less than one-third of the lands of the United States – many of those lands are ecologically valuable, and are components of our priceless national park …
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CONTINUE READINGAir quality and wildfire
We may need to burn more to get less smoke
One of the impacts of California’s difficult fire season has been air pollution. Fires produce smoke. Large wildfires produce a lot of smoke. And large wildfires in the southern Sierra Nevada produce smoke in the southern Central Valley – the part of the United States that already has some of the worst air quality in …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Future of Fire Policy
Climate change will require reconsideration of how we manage fire
It has been a brutal fire season here in California. It’s been brutal in part because of a historically bad drought. But unfortunately, the end of the drought (when it comes) will not be the end of our fire problems. Those fire problems are the result of long-term, human-caused trends that will only continue: climate …
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CONTINUE READINGPine Beetles, Environmental Law, and Climate Change Adaptation
Inflexible laws may be the best response to climate change
Anyone who lives or has visited the Intermountain West over the past decade or so has noticed the devastating impact of a mountain pine beetle epidemic on the pine forests from Arizona and New Mexico all the way up to British Columbia and Alberta. As a result of warmer winter weather because of climate change, …
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CONTINUE READINGTenth Circuit upholds Clinton-era Roadless Rule
You wouldn’t think courts would still be deciding, late in 2011, whether actions taken by the Clinton Administration were lawful. But they are. Late last month, the Tenth Circuit upheld the Roadless Rule for national forests issued at the very end of the Clinton presidency. The Roadless Rule, which largely prohibited road construction and timber …
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CONTINUE READINGGifford Pinchot’s Birthday
Gifford Pinchot (the final “t” is silent) was born on August 11, 1865. He was responsible for founding the Yale School of Forestry, which remains a major center for environmental research and teaching today. Like Chief Justice John Marshall, he is also considered the founding father of an institution even though he wasn’t the institution’s …
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