Most Americans get their drinking, bathing, and flushing water from surface sources, most of which are unprotected from logging and other exploitation.
Read MoreProtecting Drinking Water Sources, Part 1: Water Quantity, Quality, and Timely Release
Climate Change
Forest Service Proposes Rulemaking: An Opportunity to Conserve and Restore Mature and Old-Growth Forests
The Forest Service has announced it is going to be proposing new regulations to address the “climate resilience” of the National Forest System.
Read MoreHow 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 MoreOffshore Oregon Could Be Despoiled by Wind Power Turbines
We don’t have to despoil the environment and view off the shore of Oregon to produce carbon-free electricity.
Read MoreBiden’s Executive Order on Forests, Part 1: A Great Opportunity
President Biden is poised to enter the pantheon of forest-protecting American presidents.
Read MoreOregon’s Blue Carbon, Part 2: Coastal Wetland Loss and Restoration
Before the European invasion, tidal wetlands of all kinds covered 0.06 percent of Oregon’s total area; today they cover just 0.03 percent.
Read MoreOregon’s Blue Carbon, Part 1: Rep. Bonamici on the Case
Sea grasses, mangroves, and salt marshes along our coast “capture and hold” carbon, acting as something called a carbon sink. These coastal systems, though much smaller in size than the planet’s forests, sequester this carbon at a much faster rate, and can continue to do so for millions of years.
Read MoreBiden’s Bait and Switch
Unfortunately, “America the Beautiful” represents a gross dereliction of the duty of the Biden administration to future generations.
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Figure 1. Goodbye, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Source: Wikipedia.
46, the 117th, and the New Math: 50 + 1 > 50
Fortunately, the Trump administration was generally so grossly incompetent at governing that most of the Trumpian rollbacks were, are being, or can be overturned through a combination of executive, judicial, and congressional actions.
Read MoreSmoke Gets in Your Eyes
We must simultaneously rapidly decarbonize our economy and occasionally don N95 masks.
Read MoreSmoke Happens
If we are to have functioning forest ecosystems, across the landscape and over time, fire—sometimes very large and at inconvenient times—must occur.
Read MoreHow US Public Lands Can Help Save the Climate and Ourselves
Rather than limiting ourselves to the micro and at the margin, the public lands conservation community must go for the macro and at the core.
Read MoreNew US Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Exploitation: Costly and Short Lived (Part 2)
For economic, environmental, and societal reasons equally applicable to today’s and future generations, the United States should eschew any new offshore oil and gas exploitation and continue its progress toward a fossil fuel–free sustainable energy economy a decade or two earlier than it otherwise would.
Read MoreNew US Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Exploitation: Costly and Short Lived (Part 1)
The Trump administration is proposing to open up vast areas of the United States Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to leasing for oil and gas, far larger than the area made available under the Obama administration.
Read MoreLessons from Salem: Protecting Local Drinking Water Supplies
Alas, a full-on Bull Run solution is not possible for every other municipal water supply in Oregon, but more could be done.
Read MoreLeave It to Beavers: Good for the Climate, Ecosystems, Watersheds, Ratepayers, and Taxpayers (Part 1)
Beavers, by damming streams and creating wetlands, greatly enrich their ecosystem and watershed far out of proportion to their numbers.
Read MoreUS Pacific Northwest Offshore Oil and Gas: A Waste of Time, Ocean and Coast
There is an even chance that 0.4 billion barrels of oil and 2.28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are technically exploitable might be discovered under the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Oregon and Washington. At 2017 rates of consumption, this amount of oil and gas would fuel the United States for twenty and thirty-one days respectively.
Read MoreMore Moral Hazard Than Fire Hazard: The Responsibility of Homeowners in the WUI
In the backcountry, fire is wonderful, necessary, and inevitable.... In the frontcountry, fire is awful, unnecessary, and preventable.... The biggest problem with fire occurs where the frontcountry meets the backcountry, the bureaucratically named wildland-urban interface (WUI: “woo-ee”).
Read MoreSelling More Heroin to Pay for Methadone: Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Part 2
As part of the tax bill recently signed into law by President Trump, at the behest Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Congress opened up Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. The next battle over drilling the in the refuge is about to commence. For the caribou and nature, each battle must be won or at least a draw. For the forces of darkness, they must only win once.
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