WASHINGTON― Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) introduced legislation yesterday that would fast-track unsustainable logging, increase wildfire risk and jeopardize community safety. The measure stands in stark contrast to sensible, science-based legislation sponsored by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), which would help communities in fire-prone areas without backcountry logging.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act. The historic bill permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund, guaranteeing $900 million annually for the improvement of our parks. It also provides $9.5 billion over five years to address the nearly $12 billion backlog of maintenance projects across national parks and public lands.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Westerman today introduced the Trillion Trees Act. The bill is one of three components of Republicans’ legislative attempts to address climate change. Trump has endorsed tree planting to fight climate change, despite repeatedly denying the current climate crisis.
The Trump administration today announced plans to gut long-standing protections against logging and road-building in the Tongass National Forest, a cherished old-growth temperate rainforest in Southeast Alaska and homelands of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people. A coalition that includes Alaska Native people and Alaska-based and national organizations opposes the U.S. Forest Service plan, which comes weeks after revelations that President Trump exerted pressure to allow new clear-cuts in the Tongass.
Today a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that halts, for now, the initial phase of the largest timber sale approved by the U.S. Forest Service in 30 years.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today marks the end of the public comment period for a U.S. Forest Service proposal to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Act ensures environmental analysis of projects affecting public lands and forests. The proposed changes clear the way for increased logging, mining and other destructive development in our forests, even as world scientists stress the urgency of protecting and restoring forests to combat the climate crisis.
BAKERSFIELD, CA: The Forest Service this week will be holding two public meetings on new management plans for the Sierra and Sequoia National Forests. The forest management plans govern how the forests will be used and protected-- setting priorities for wilderness areas, rivers and streams, fire management, recreation, wildlife protection, and more.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change today issued a special report detailing climate impacts already being seen on lands, and the importance of improving land management and land protection and restoration to address the climate crisis. Among the key findings of the report is the essential role for lands in drawing down and storing carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere. The report also drives home the urgency of action-- stressing that delay in greenhouse gas emissions reductions is closing the window to combat the effects of the climate crisis on lands,…
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Energy and Natural Resources Committee Member Senator Maria Cantwell and House Natural Resources Committee Member Representative Ruben Gallego today introduced the Roadless Area Conservation Act. The bill would permanently codify the Roadless Rule and strengthen protections for 58.5 million acres of pristine National Forest System lands across 39 states from logging and road building. Despite the Roadless Rule’s many successes and the millions of taxpayer dollars it saves, there have been multiple Congressional attempts to strip Roadless Rule protections from millions of…
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the US Forest Service’s federal approval for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross two national forests and the Appalachian Trail.