postMigrator

From Cascadia: How Do You See the Forest?

By postMigrator December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 Uncategorized

<http://www.siskiyou.org/> Logo full color with text copy.jpg

December, 2008

How do you see the forest?

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has began the process of writing their Travel Management Plan, with the goal of publishing a map that shows which roads and trails are open to motorized travel. If it is not on the map then it is not open to public use.

The final plan will determine much about how we see, and protect the unique values of our National Forest. Siskiyou Project’s goal is to ensure that destructive roads are closed through this process. Roads which cause harm to sensitive botanical areas, create sediment sources impacting fish, and create conflicts with quite recreation uses are the focus of our attention.
Continue reading

Auction Proceeds, But Legal Action Delays Damage to Utah Wilderness Negotiations Provide Opportunity to Save Utah’s Wild Areas

By postMigrator December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 RT Newswire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2008 12:10 PM

CONTACT: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Erin Allweiss, 202-513-6254 or 202-277-8370 (cell)

Auction Proceeds, But Legal Action Delays Damage to Utah Wilderness Negotiations Provide Opportunity to Save Utah’s Wild Areas

WASHINGTON – December 19 – In a move that could save 100,000 acres of pristine Utah wilderness from destruction, an agreement between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups was filed in court late last night. The deal will temporarily prevent BLM from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels of Utah wilderness, including land adjacent to national parks, for 30 days (until January 19). Although BLM will go forward with today’s auction, the agency has agreed not to issue the contested leases. This will give Judge Urbina of the U.S. District Court time to hear the case.

Land Management Changes Undermine Wildlife Conservation on Public Lands

By postMigrator December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 RT Newswire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2008 2:35 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity

Josh Pollock, Center for Native Ecosystems, (303) 546-0214
Megan Mueller, Center for Native Ecosystems, (303) 546-0214
Lisa Belenky, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 385-5594

Land Management Changes Undermine Wildlife Conservation on Public Lands; Yet Another Round of ‘Midnight Regulations’ Strips Wildlife and Endangered Species Protection Out of Agency’s Guidance Manual

DENVER-December 18. In another example of last-minute changes issued on the way out of office, the Bush administration has released final changes to a key policy manual for management of endangered, threatened, and other special-status species found on federal lands that would eliminate important protections currently given to the most at-risk wildlife and plants.

Among the sweeping changes to the Bureau of Land Management Special Status Species Manual are new policy directives that undermine protections for endangered and threatened plants, limit efforts to protect those species officially awaiting protection under the Endangered Species Act, make it prohibitively difficult to protect sensitive species found in multiple states, and eliminate some protections for state-protected species found on federal lands.

When Loss of Forest Cover Made the World Hotter

By postMigrator December 18, 2008 December 18, 2008 RT Newswire

———————————————
” … physical evidence, backed by powerful
simulations on the world’s most advanced computer
climate models, is reshaping that view and
lending strong support to the radical idea that
human-induced climate change began not 200 years
ago, but thousands of years ago with the onset of
large-scale agriculture in Asia and extensive
deforestation in Europe.”

“No one disputes the large rate of increase in
greenhouse gases with the Industrial Revolution,”
Kutzbach notes. “The large-scale burning of coal
for industry has swamped everything else” in the
record.

“But looking farther back in time, using climatic
archives such as 850,000-year-old ice core
records from Antarctica, scientists are teasing
out evidence of past greenhouse gases in the form
of fossil air trapped in the ice. That ancient
air, say Vavrus and Kutzbach, contains the
unmistakable signature of increased levels of
atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide beginning
thousands of years before the industrial age.”
————————————————————