Media Resources: In The News

Grants, land at risk if California parks close

July 2, 2009 - Excerpts: Service could seize land in six parks, including Angel Island, if the state goes through with a proposal to close 219 state parks, officials said Wednesday. … Jon Jarvis, the Pacific regional director of the National Park Service, sent a letter to Schwarzenegger on June 8 warning him that the federal government could take back closed parks that were given to California under the Federal Lands and Parks Program. more

Forest Service must reinstate tougher guidelines

July 1, 2009 - Excerpts: U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilkin ruled in favor of a group of 14 environmental organizations that sued the U.S. Forest Service for essentially relaxing regulations in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act. The decision means the Forest Service will have to reinstate rules protecting fish and wildlife and limiting logging in 150 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering 192 million acres, including more than a dozen national forests in California. more

Feds Push Solar Projects in West

June 30, 2009 - Excerpts: Salazar vowed to have 13 "commercial-scale" solar projects under construction by the end of 2010. He set a goal of producing a total of 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity. more

Alaska earns chapter in White House climate report

June 25, 2009 - Excerpts: Sarah James from Arctic Village shared impacts she’s seen from climate change in Northeast Alaska. James is the chairwoman of the Gwich’in steering committee and she has lived in Arctic Village her entire life. She said that people there are still solely dependent on caribou, 75 percent to their food is still wild meat — caribou, moose, fish and other small animals and birds and duck. more

Conservation Wave Builds in the West

June 22, 2009 - Excerpts: Conservationists say they are trying to keep momentum going following the enactment last spring of a massive public lands bill that added more than 2 million acres to the nation's inventory of wilderness and other protected lands. Other legislation has been introduced to designate areas in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and Utah as wilderness and wild and scenic rivers. more

Consider Impact of ATVs

June 21, 2009 - Excerpts: Based on surveys of National Forest visitors, backpackers, car campers, and downhill and cross-country skiers are the most likely groups to come from out of town and spend at least one night. Less than a quarter of ATV trips are nonlocal and overnight, and spending per trip is lower than for other recreationists -- about $162, including $43 for gas. By way of comparison, downhill skiers spend $342, cross-country skiers $335, and hikers and bikers $246. more

Marbled murrelet will keep federal protection

June 18, 2009 - Excerpts: A grapefruit-sized seabird that nests in Oregon's coastal forests is still declining and merits federal protection. That is the result of a review of the marbled murrelet that reverses a 2004 determination by the Bush administration that the birds in California, Oregon and Washington were no different from their more numerous relatives in Canada and therefore not deserving of protection. more

Global warming: Want to see Northwest impacts? Just look around

June 18, 2009 - Excerpts: Global warming is shrinking the winter snowpack. A smaller snowpack means reduction in the runoff that sustains our river flows, makes the desert bloom, allows salmon to reach and return from the ocean, and powers the world's greatest hydroelectric system. more

Oregon’s remaining ancient forests imperiled by Bush-era logging deal

June 17, 2009 - Excerpts: “Through a sweetheart deal with the timber industry, WOPR, as the plan is commonly known, will allow nearly twice the current amount of logging on public lands in western Oregon to occur, despite concerns from scientists and federal agencies that these dramatic increases in logging will harm clean water and healthy streams,” wrote Andrea Imler on June 12, 2009 for The Wilderness Society blog. more

Obama Creates Pacific Northwest Trail

June 16, 2009 - Excerpts: When the national scenic trails system was created four decades ago, the goal was to build a walking path across the United States. That goal came closer to reality in March, when President Obama signed a bill creating the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail and two others. They are the first such trails designated in 26 years. "The dream of a transcontinental pathway across America is 1,200 miles closer to reaching fruition," said Ron Strickland, a former Washington resident who first proposed the Pacific Northwest trial in 1970. more