Sort By Category
- 30x30
- Administration
- Antiquities Act
- Book Reviews
- Bureau of Land Management
- Climate Change
- Coasts
- Congress
- Counties & Federal Lands
- Courts
- Courts & Litigation
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Interior
- Deserts
- Ecological Reserves
- Ecosystems
- Elections
- Endangered Species
- Energy
- Estuaries
- Federal Lands
- Fish
- Fish and Wildlife Service
- Forest Fires
- Forest Service
- Forestry
- Forests
- Grasslands
- Land & Water Cons. Fund
- Land & Water Conservation Fund
- Legislation
- Litigation
- Livestock Grazing
- Marine Protected Areas
- Marine Sanctuaries
- Mature & Old-Growth Forests
- Mining
- Nat'l Conservation Lands
- National Forest System
- National Marine Sanctuaries
- 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
- Oceans
Sort By Tag
- 1002 area
- 30x30
- 5th Amendment
- ANWR
- Acadia National Park
- Adam Smith
- Administrative Procedure Act
- Advancing Conservation and Education Act
- Alan Bates
- Alan Deboer
- Alaska
- Alaska National Interest Lands Act
- Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
- Aldo Leopold
- American Forest Resource Council
- American Prairie Reserve
- American Tree Farm System
- American beef supply
- American black duck
- American woodcock
- Ammon Bundy
- Ancient Forest National Park
- Anders Eskil Carlson
- Andrea Salinas
- Andy Kerr
- Animal unit month
- Ansel Adams
- Antiquities Act
- Applegate Primitive Backcountry Area
- Aqua Fria National Monument
- Aquatic Conservation Strategy
- Aquatic Conservation and Riparian Strategy
- Arches National Monument
- Arches National Park
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
- Areas of Critical Environmental Concern
- Army Corps of Engineers
- Association of O&C Counties
- Astoria Canyon
- Astoria Fan
- Atlantic Coast
- Augusta Canal NHA
- Avarna Group
- Avi Kaw Ame
- BLM Conservation Rule
- BLM Zone 3 Lands
- BOEM Oregon Planning Area
- Baboquivari Peak Wilderness
- Baker County
- Bald Mountain Road
About That Vision Thing
When political realities come up against ecological realities, the former must be changed because the latter cannot.
O&C Lands Act, Part 4: Repeal the Act and Transfer the Lands
This is the fourth in a series of four Public Lands Blog posts regarding the infamous “O&C” lands, a variant of public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Part 4 recommends repeal of the O&C Lands Act of 1937 and transferring administration of all BLM lands in western Oregon to either the Forest Service or the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Welcoming Back Pumas to the Eastern United States
Scientists have identified seventeen areas in the eastern US suitable for the recolonization of Puma concolor. Will humans allow it?
It’s About Dam Time
In 2000, Congress told the Bureau of Land Management to remove a small, but fish-damaging, dam on the Donner und Blitzen Wild and Scenic River and in the Steens Mountain Wilderness. The BLM may finally get around to it.
The Unmaking of the Northwest Forest Plan, Part 2: Remaking It for the Next Quarter Century
This is the second installment of a two-part series on the Forest Service seeking to amend the Northwest Forest Plan. Part 1 examined the motivation of Forest Service bureaucrats to release themselves from the shackles of the plan, all the while playing up happy talk about ecosystems and sustainability and downplaying the sad truth of more roading and logging. Part 2 examines how to strengthen the Northwest Forest Plan for the benefit of this and future generations.
Forests in the American East, Part 3: A Vision of the Return of Old-Growth Forests
This is the third of a three-post examination of forests in the American East. Part 1 diagnosed an “environmental generational amnesia” that makes people think it is okay to not have real (old-growth) forests and to tolerate, if not facilitate, massive and repeated clear-cutting and/or deforestation in the name of creating “early successional habitat” for species of wildlife that we need not be concerned about. Part 2 shed light on a conspiracy of self-interested timber companies, misguided public land foresters, misinformed wildlife biologists, and Kool-Aid-drinking conservationists. This Part 3 suggests ways to partially—but significantly—bring back the magnificent old-growth forests that have long been lost.
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.
30x30, Part 3: Forty-Four Tasty Conservation Recipes One Can Make at Home—If One Lives in the White House
This is the third of three Public Lands Blog posts on 30x30, President Biden’s commitment to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. In Part 1, we examined the pace and scale necessary to attain 30x30. In Part 2, we considered what constitutes protected areas actually being “conserved.” In this Part 3, we offer up specific conservation recommendations that, if implemented, will result in the United States achieving 30 percent by 2030.
The Oregon Wildlands Act 2.0
Representatives of many Oregon outdoor recreation industry heavyweights, including but not limited to Columbia Sportswear, the Conservation Alliance, Travel Oregon, and Keen Footwear, testified to the business sense of conserving more of the many treasures found on Oregon’s federal public lands. Many conservationists traveled from afar to make the case for protecting their most cherished Oregon gems for the benefit of this and future generations.
The Hard Case of Hardrock Mining Reform (Part 2): Conservation Areas in Which to Just Say No
This two-part series examines legislation in Congress that would reform the infamous Mining Law of 1872. Part 1 focused on how mining on public lands should be administered in the twenty-first century. Part 2 focuses on pending legislation the conservation areas in which mining should be permanently banned.
Where the Buffalo Roam
The American Prairie Reserve is big, bold, beautiful, and outside the box. It is being assembled by the eponymous conservation organization in a generally inside-the-box way. The organization is buying ranches from willing sellers and continuing to pay the property taxes. It is continuing to lease state and federal lands for grazing and paying the grazing fees.
Zinke’s Move to Defile the Izembek
The protracted battle for the Izembek is now before a US District Court judge. At stake is whether the designations of national wildlife refuge and wilderness actually mean anything, at least in Alaska and/or under a Trump administration.
The Public’s Wolves on Public Lands
The government that would become Oregon got its start in 1843 when some early European invaders met in the mid–Willamette Valley to discuss predatory wildlife attacking livestock. A result was the first bounty on wolves.
Selling More Heroin to Pay for Methadone: Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Part 2
This is the second of a two-part examination of proposed oil exploitation in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Selling More Heroin to Pay for Methadone: Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Part 1
This is the first of a two-part examination of proposed oil exploitation in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Many National Parks Arose From National Monuments
Pinnacles is the nation’s fifty-ninth full-fledged national park. Twenty-five of our fifty-nine national parks, totaling 39.6 million acres, were first seeded by the establishment of a presidentially proclaimed national monument. Fourteen of these monumental twenty-five were established from more than one national monument proclamation, in that national monuments were expanded by later presidents.
Federal Systems for the Conservation and Enjoyment of Lands and Waters
Over the course of more than a century, Congress—or the executive branch using expressed authorities granted by Congress—has established various systems for the conservation, management, and enjoyment of federal and other lands and waters. On the whole, these systems are bold, visionary, and remarkable.
Theodore Roosevelt: The First and Greatest Public Lands Conservationist
The present president doesn’t seem to enjoy the outdoors, unless it is on a great big beautiful golf course. Though the presidential retreat in Maryland does have a modest driving range along with one hole and several tees, don’t bet on Trump spending any time at Camp David, tucked in western Maryland’s forests.
Wilderness: Expanding Concept, Shrinking Supply
Limits have been considered on visitors to Oregon’s Mount Hood Wilderness and Washington’s Alpine Lakes Wilderness, which are within easy reach of the Portland and Puget Sound metropolitan areas. In some cases, the Forest Service has contemplated visitor reductions as large as 60 and 90 percent. Such limits are already common on popular floating rivers including the Rogue and the Colorado.
The National Wildlife Refuge System, Part 3: Time to Double Down
During this Trumpian Quadrennium, with a Congress hostile to conservation, the chances of expanding the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) approach zero. Yet the need to double the size of the system has never been greater, so now is the time to start.