Scientists have identified seventeen areas in the eastern US suitable for the recolonization of Puma concolor. Will humans allow it?
Read MoreWelcoming Back Pumas to the Eastern United States
National Park Service
Book Review: Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands
in Book Reviews, Bureau of Land Management, Congress, Counties & Federal Lands, Courts, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Deserts, Ecological Reserves, Ecosystems, Elections, Endangered Species, Energy, Federal Lands, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Forests, Grasslands, Legislation, LItigation, Livestock Grazing, Mining, Nat'l Conservation Lands, National Forest System, National Monuments, National Monuments Act, National Park Service, National Park System, National Parks, National Recreation Area, National Scenic Area, National Trails System, National Wildlife Refuges, Presidents, Public Land Law, Recreation, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness, Wildlife
Understanding the history of public lands is useful if one is to be the best advocate for the conservation of public lands.
Read MoreThe Proposed Sutton Mountain National “Monument”
Legislation has been introduced to conserve and restore one of the most colorful natural landscapes in Oregon for the benefit of this and future generations.
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Figure 1. Whitebark pine on the Fremont-Winema National Forest. Source: George Wuerthner (first appeared in Oregon Wild: Endangered Forest Wilderness, Timber Press, 2004).
Withering Whitebarks and Wilderness
After decades of dithering, the Fish and Wildlife Service has finally proposed listing the species as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Read MoreDavid Simons: An Oregonian with a Shining Vision for Public Lands Conservation
If not for the Cold War (1945–1991), there might well have been a national park in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains.
Read MoreNational Parks in Oregon, Part 4: Will the Inertia Continue?
I am bearish on the prospect of establishing any new national parks in Oregon, save perhaps one that would be a hell of a long shot. I am semi-bullish on the possibility of modest additions to Oregon’s only national park. But I am bullish on the chances of designating several new National Park System units in Oregon.
Read MoreNational Parks in Oregon, Part 3: Modest Expansion amid Grand Hopes
No new national park proposal in Oregon has made it past the finish line since the establishment of Crater Lake National Park in 1902. Oregon’s only national park has had two very modest additions since then, in 1932 and in 1980.
Read MoreNational Parks in Oregon, Part 2: Multiple Failures
Part 2 discusses multiple failures to establish additional national parks in Oregon.
Read MoreNational Parks in Oregon, Part 1: One Success
There are national parks and then there are other units of the National Park System—all administered by the National Park Service. The United States has 62 national parks. It has another 357 units that are also part of the National Park System but go by another name (national whatevers). Herein we focus on the one national park in Oregon.
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Figure 1. There is lots of money to be spent by taxpayers and made by the fire-industrial complex. Fires boost the local economy. Source: National Interagency Fire Center.
Speaking Truth to the Fire-Industrial Complex
The fire-industrial complex needs to be redirected to only set fires on wildlands and only put out fires on buildings.
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Fig. 1. Crabtree Lake in Crabtree Valley, which contains some of the oldest trees in Oregon, is in the proposed Douglas Fir National Monument, located in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Source: David Stone, Wildlands Photography. Previously appeared in Oregon Wild: Endangered Forest Wilderness (Timber Press, 2004), by the author.
The Oregon Wildlands Act 2.0
in Congress, Legislation, Nat'l Conservation Lands, National Forest System, National Monuments, National Park Service, National Park System, National Parks, National Recreation Area, National Scenic Area, National Wildlife Refuges, Recreation, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness, National Trails System
Less than a week after President Trump signed the Oregon Wildlands Act into law (as one of many bills in the John D. Dingell, Jr., Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-3rd-OR) convened an Oregon Public Lands Forum on Monday, March 18, 2019.
Read MoreFilling the Congressional Conservation Pipeline for When It Unclogs
in Congress, Federal Lands, Keep it in the Ground, Marine National Monuments, Marine Sanctuaries, Nat'l Conservation Lands, National Forest System, National Monuments, National Park Service, National Park System, National Parks, National Recreation Area, National Wildlife Refuges, Politics, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness, Bureau of Land Management, Ecological Reserves
Several mostly good public lands conservation bills have been introduced in the 115th Congress (2017–18) but languish in committee, unable to get a vote on the floor of the House or the Senate.
Read MoreThe National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, Part 2: Rounding It Out and Cleaning It Up (For Oregon, If Not Elsewhere)
Currently, less than 1 percent of Oregon streams, by mileage, are included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. An estimated additional 10,000 miles (less than 3 percent of the total mileage) of Oregon streams are eligible for inclusion.
Read MoreThe National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, Part 1: A Vital National Conservation Purpose
There are times when Congress acts in a visionary manner. (Is it less so today, or is it just me?) Such was the case in 1968 when it enacted into law the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
Read MoreBungling of the Bundys: A Postmortem Analysis of Government Incompetence
The bands of bozos that joined Cliven Bundy and his four sons in legally questionable escapades on federal public lands have mostly gotten away with it.... And now the conservation community has a chance to make sweet, sweet lemonade out of the Bundy lemons.
Read MoreMany National Parks Arose From National Monuments
The originations of 25 of our 59 national parks, totaling 39.6 million acres, were first seeded by the establishment of a presidentially proclaimed national monument. Fourteen of these monumental 25 were established from more than one national monument proclamation, in that were expanded by later presidents.
Read MoreFederal Systems for the Conservation and Enjoyment of Lands and Waters
in Bureau of Land Management, Congress, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, National Forest System, National Park Service, National Park System, National Recreation Area, National Wildlife Refuges, Presidents, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness
Federal conservation systems are an unqualified social good and generally provide elevated protection and better management to important federal public lands and to resources and areas of high national significance. All existing federal conservation systems could be improved, and none should be weakened or discarded. Those that haven’t yet been codified by Congress need to be.
Read MoreNational Heritage Areas: Combining the Conservation of Nature, History, and Culture with Local Economic Development
National heritage areas (NHAs) are a way to conserve and restore important natural, historical, and cultural resources for this and future generations while at the same time generating local economic activity through tourism. NHAs are established by Congress but administered by local entities with the assistance of the National Park Service.
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Crabtree Lake in Crabtree Valley, home to some of the largest and oldest trees in Oregon, located on western Oregon public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, in Linn County, is part of the proposed Douglas-Fir National Monument. Photo: David Stone, Wildlands Photography.
A Monumental Battle, Part 2: National Monuments in the Congress
There is no question that an Act of Congress can eliminate, shrink, or weaken a national monument proclaimed by a president pursuant to authority granted by Congress. What Congress giveth, Congress can taketh away. The property clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2) ensures that. Yet in fifty-five Congresses over the past 110 years, Congress has rarely acted to eliminate, reduce, or weaken a national monument proclamation by a president.
Read MoreA Congressional Conservation Agenda for the Twenty-First Century
With President-elect Trump having won the Electoral College and the Republicans being in the majority of both houses of the coming 115th (2017-2018) Congress, the public lands conservation community is going to be on defense like never before.
It was either the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) or the Manassa Mauler, William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (1895–1983) who famously said that the best defense is a good offense. The conservation community needs to be for good things while we are opposing bad things.
Though we’ve burned through one-sixth of the current century, Congress has yet to enact any sweeping and bold public lands conservation legislation in the new millennium. There’s still time though, and a crying need.
You may be questioning my grip on reality at this moment, given the recent election. While I am quite cognizant of the dark times that await us, I’m equally aware that it often takes several Congresses (two-year terms) to enact sweeping and bold legislation into law....
There is no time like the present to begin to change political reality.
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