Activists and agencies try to balance the West’s horse mythology against herd impacts.
U.S. Forest Service
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Update: Court blocks old-growth logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest
Meanwhile, the Trump administration pushes to allow roads and more cutting.
Posted inNovember 26, 2018: Follow the fish
Critics skeptical of mining company’s plans for restoration
Midas Gold hopes to reopen and revitalize an abandoned gold mining site in Idaho.
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Inside Colorado’s ‘hotbed’ of wildlife conflict
Documents show flawed management leads to unnecessary killings of bighorn sheep.
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Vicki Christiansen to stay on as head of Forest Service
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue appoints a permanent Forest Service chief.
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Zinke announces mining ban near Yellowstone
Locals and some conservationists applaud; others cry favoritism by the Montanan.
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Reckoning with History: When we overcame political division
50 years ago, a functional Congress enacted four important conservation bills.
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Wildfires don’t hurt hot real estate markets
Our love for nature causes more homes to be built in the path of destructive wildfires and leads to more blazes.
Posted inSeptember 17, 2018: The Pioneer of Ruin
Latest: Forest Service report calls for changes in wildfire management
Increases in timber sales, prescribed burns and thinning projects are needed to save life and property.
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Gender diversity on the fire line
A photographer chronicles several of the firefighters combating and cleaning up after California’s Donnell Fire.
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Wildfire suppression is a decades-old conundrum
Wilderness managers are still trying to balance the risks and necessity of fire.
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Latest: The Forest Service’s use of fire retardant has doubled since 2014
Despite environmental harms, the agency continues to rely on aerial drops to battle blazes.
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To protect a forest, a town agreed to leave it alone
With wildfires looming, Flagstaff came together to support national forest closures.
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What it’s like to fight wildfires in the West
A photojournalist and firefighter describes the challenges of battling wildland blazes.
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Mountain bikes shouldn’t be banned from wild landscapes
Conservationists, cyclists and other wilderness visitors all value public lands.
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Military jets shouldn’t shatter the peace of public lands
The piercing sounds of war training assault visitors to Olympic National Park.
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Wildfires hit the West: ‘We’re stretched to our limits’
Fires this year have covered 1 million more acres than the 10-year average from January to July.
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Feds eye changes to a bedrock environmental law
A clash over the National Environmental Policy Act follows familiar fault lines.
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
After Malheur, side effects of the Bundys’ extremism linger
But in Harney County, Oregon, collaboration around public lands grows.
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Caught in the crossfire at a Colorado campground
A writer endures a night of bullets and bonfires in a previously serene gulch.