Tongass old growth forest

Credit: Sitka Conservation Society

We were sitting at the kitchen table of a B&B on Prince of Wales Island a few years ago when the owner – a former logger – looked me straight in the eye and asked about an idea that could improve his future: “Do you think other people want to do this?” Read more

We prefer to inform you about advances in wild land conservation, but this week that opportunity has been denied for Idaho’s magnificent backcountry forests. At the end of January, a federal district court upheld a dangerous federal rule that eliminates protection for 400,000 acres of Idaho’s wild backcountry and exposes more than 5 million acres in the state to greater threat of development. Region:  Northern Rockies Read more

Rogue-Winema National Forest Brown Mountain Roadless Area. Courtesy USFS.

A decade after it was first adopted by the U.S. Forest Service, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule has proven to be remarkably successful in protecting the 58.5 million acres of national forest roadless areas from road building and logging. Only about 75 miles of road building has occurred in the roadless areas — far less than the Forest Service had predicted a decade ago — and just a miniscule fraction of the unroaded forests has been logged, mostly in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Read more