Andy Kerr

Conservationist, Writer, Analyst, Operative, Agitator, Strategist, Tactitian, Schmoozer, Raconteur

Forest Service

The Forest Service Proposal to Save Its Old Growth: A Start, Though Inadequate

The Forest Service Proposal to Save Its Old Growth: A Start, Though Inadequate

If President Biden wants to be remembered in history for saving the nation’s remaining mature and old-growth forests and trees for the benefit of this and future generations, the Forest Service is going to have to do significantly more than what it has proposed so far.

Read More

The Unmaking of the Northwest Forest Plan, Part 2: Remaking It for the Next Quarter Century

The Unmaking of the Northwest Forest Plan, Part 2: Remaking It for the Next Quarter Century

The prospective defeminization/emasculation of the Northwest Forest Plan by the Forest Service is likely inevitable. All the more reason for the Biden administration to promulgate an enduring administrative rule that conserves and restores mature and old-growth forests.

Read More

The Unmaking of the Northwest Forest Plan, Part 1: Out with Enforceable Substance and in with Performative Process

The Unmaking of the Northwest Forest Plan, Part 1: Out with Enforceable Substance and in with Performative Process

The world’s largest ecosystem management plan is under existential threat.

Read More

Protecting Drinking Water Sources, Part 1: Water Quantity, Quality, and Timely Release

Protecting Drinking Water Sources, Part 1: Water Quantity, Quality, and Timely Release

Most Americans get their drinking, bathing, and flushing water from surface sources, most of which are unprotected from logging and other exploitation.

Read More

Retiring Grazing Permits, Part 3: Future of the Voluntary Retirement Option  

Retiring Grazing Permits, Part 3: Future of the Voluntary Retirement Option   

The future of the voluntary federal land grazing permit retirement option.

Read More

Retiring Grazing Permits, Part 1: Context and Case for the Voluntary Retirement Option

Retiring Grazing Permits, Part 1: Context and Case for the Voluntary Retirement Option

The option to voluntarily retire federal grazing permits is progressing, albeit in fits and starts.

Read More

How Much Mature and Old-Growth Forest Does the US Have Left?

How Much Mature and Old-Growth Forest Does the US Have Left?

Any inventory reveals that most of the nation’s mature and old-growth forests have fallen to the saw. Not only must all that remains remain, but degraded forests should also be allowed to become mature and old-growth forests once again.

Read More

Forests in the American East, Part 3: A Vision of the Return of Old-Growth Forests

Forests in the American East, Part 3: A Vision of the Return of Old-Growth Forests

This Part 3 suggests ways to partially—but significantly—bring back the magnificent old-growth forests that have long been lost.

Read More

Preforests in the American West, Part 1: Understanding Forest Succession

Preforests in the American West, Part 1: Understanding Forest Succession

As public lands conservationists continue their fight to save the last of the mature and old-growth forests for the benefit of this and future generations, we must not forget the preforests.

Read More

Book Review: Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands

Book Review: Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands

Understanding the history of public lands is useful if one is to be the best advocate for the conservation of public lands.

Read More

Blumenauer’s REC Act of 2022: A Wreck for Conservation

Blumenauer’s REC Act of 2022: A Wreck for Conservation

Blumenauer’s bill would open up Mount Hood National Forest to new logging loopholes.

Read More

Biden’s Executive Order on Forests, Part 1: A Great Opportunity

Biden’s Executive Order on Forests, Part 1: A Great Opportunity

President Biden is poised to enter the pantheon of forest-protecting American presidents.

Read More

Toward 30x30: Using Presidential Authority to Proclaim National Wildlife Areas Within the National Forest System

Toward 30x30: Using Presidential Authority to Proclaim National Wildlife Areas Within the National Forest System

The president could use authority granted long ago by Congress to significantly elevate the conservation status of large areas within the National Forest System.

Read More

Senator Ron Wyden and National Recreation Areas: How Large a Legacy?

Senator Ron Wyden and National Recreation Areas: How Large a Legacy?

Top Line: Oregon’s senior senator is poised to leave a legacy of national recreation areas. Just how many and how good that legacy will be is up to him.

Read More

Clinton and Obama Giveth, Trump Taketh, and Biden Restoreth: Two National Monuments in the State of Utah

Clinton and Obama Giveth, Trump Taketh, and Biden Restoreth: Two National Monuments in the State of Utah

Two national monuments in Utah have been restored, but it isn’t over.

Read More

Preremembering Jerry Franklin and Norm Johnson, Oregon Conservationist

Preremembering Jerry Franklin and Norm Johnson, Oregon Conservationist

The old forests of the Pacific Northwest are in far better condition today than they would be if not for Professors Jerry F. (for Forest!) Franklin and K. Norman Johnson.

Read More