The Wilderness Blog

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Report: Climate Change Threatening a Third of North American Bird Species

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Secretary Salazar Issues Timely Reminder of Climate Threat The issue of forest protection, species survival and climate all come together in a just-issued report from the US Department of Interior. “State of the Birds” is a timely reminder of the looming threat of Climate Change to Hundreds of Species. more

Gale Norton: Was She a Shill for Shell on Shale?

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A remarkable news item surfaced this past week that Gale Norton, President George W. Bush’s first Secretary of the Interior from 2001-2006, is under a federal criminal probe due to her potentially inappropriate, unethical, and illegal relationship with Royal Dutch Shell over the federal lands that a Shell subsidiary was awarded for oil shale development when Norton was Secretary. more

What’s changed in national fire policy and why it matters

Areas of the Prescott National Forest in Arizona are getting a long overdue visitor called fire. Normally, this wouldn’t be news — the type of ponderosa pine forests that make up places like the Prescott are naturally thinned out and tidied up by low-intensity fires every five years or so. It’s like nature’s maid service. more

Bush’s Last Assault: Guns in national parks? Better rethink that one! (Part 6 of 6)

Right now, visitors can carry a gun in a National Park as long as it is unloaded and stored. These are the rules that many Americans have been following for decades. So, if you hunt in a National Forest and cross into a park, that is how you have proceeded. This year, the Bush Administration announced its intent to change these rules. It should not surprise anyone to know that the administration is altering the rules without any analysis of how this might affect visitors and wildlife. more

Oil Shale: setting the rules of the road before there’s a road

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French satirist Voltaire once cautioned against hasty action saying, “Burn not your house to frighten away the mice.” Pushing a scorched Earth energy policy during its last days in office, the Bush Administration is prematurely rushing toward commercial leasing and production of oil shale resources in the Rocky Mountain West. The Department of the Interior Nov. more