Today, the US Forest Service (USFS) announced they will be accepting applications for a 20 member Federal Advisory Committee that will provide formal recommendations to guide the USFS in revising the Northwest Forest Plan. The Northwest Forest Plan area consists of 19 million acres of federal forest lands in western Washington, western Oregon, and northwest California, and the Advisory Committee will provide advice on how to manage this landscape to promote sustainability, climate adaptations, and wildfire resilience. Sierra Club looks forward to supporting this effort and ensuring the Plan’s benefits from the last three decades can continue into the future.
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit invalidated the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approvals for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Today, the Biden administration kicked off the formal review process of a plan to fully restore environmental protections to Tongass National Forest in Alaska, reversing a Trump-era attack on the Tongass that would have put Alaska’s last vestiges of old-growth forest at risk of destructive logging and road-building. Biden’s plan will also extend new safeguards for the forest as well as dedicating $25 million in federal spending on local sustainable development in Alaska.
The Biden administration announced a plan today to fully restore environmental protections to Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The plan will not only reverse a Trump-era attack on the Tongass that would have put Alaska’s last vestiges of old-growth forest at risk of destructive logging and road-building, it will extend new safeguards for the forest as well as dedicating $25 million in federal spending on local sustainable development in Alaska.
Community and clean water advocates sued to reverse a U.S. Forest Service decision rushed through behind undue political pressure from the lame duck Trump administration
The US Forest Service issued notice for a Final Record of Decision today eliminating the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. The decision opens vast swaths of irreplaceable old-growth temperate rainforest to clearcut logging, jeopardizing the subsistence culture of Indigenous communities, the forest’s role in fighting the climate crisis, and already imperiled wildlife.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Donald Trump later today is expected to sign an Executive Order creating an interagency council to coordinate the U.S.’s participation in the international One Trillion Trees Initiative. The Order follows repeated climate denial from the Trump administration and a proposal last month to open vast swaths of irreplaceable old-growth rainforest in the Tongass National Forest to clearcut logging.
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. -- 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 acres of public lands. This effort by Representative Gallego and Senator Cantwell will ensure pristine National Forests for generations to come.