Take a close look at our national forests and you will find that they are scarred by a vast network of unused roads left over from years past. This road system was born of industrial logging practices allowed decades ago, but today it’s an outdated, crumbling and environmentally-harmful vestige on the land. It’s time to start removing these roads, not only because doing so will improve water quality and help decrease a massive maintenance backlog, but because it will give us one more tool in the fight against climate change. more

A troubling recent report from the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) claims that private forestland contributes more to state economies than public land. NAFO draws this conclusion by ignoring most of the diverse economic values derived from public forestland. For Montana, the NAFO report claims that each acre of private forestland adds $570 to annual gross domestic product compared to $190 for a public acre. The NAFO claim should be troubling to Montanans because of the high profile Montana Legacy Project. more

As I sat down at my computer yesterday morning and looked at my overflowing email inbox, a new unread email subject line caught my eye: “Secretary Salazar to Announce Decision on Pacific Northwest Forest Management.” The day had come! The Obama Administration would finally decide the fate of Oregon’s ancient forests, which have been under serious threat from a Bush-era plan that proposed to more than double the amount of logging on some 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management forests. more