News, Links, & Commentary

Please note that all links to news stories in this section and in the archived sections were accurate and working at the time of their posting and subsequent archiving, however, the Guardian has no control on the length of time that a respective news source will continue to maintain any story online, so be advised that you may encounter non-working links.
Bill McKee - Editor. 
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05-Sep-2005

Forest Service and Industry Dishonesty
and Fraud Exposed

The Native Forest Council’s aerial photographs (which can be seen at http://forestcouncil.org/learn/aerial/index.html) reveal that even our country’s publicly owned forests are a war-torn mosaic of endless logging roads and clearcuts. These photographs portray the startling truth about the dishonesty of corporate logging in the United States. Importantly, they are irrefutable evidence that building more than 400,000 miles of roads in tax-payer owned forests to facilitate extreme overcutting has created environmental havoc, all without any inventory accounting whatsoever for our forests and streams that are being , damaged, lost or destroyed. One thing we can all agree on is that our forests and watersheds are not worth zero as claimed in the Forest Service’s accounting.

BLM disputes Wyoming split estate law

Interior Department plan would destroy national parks

Forest Service firing official concerned about pesticide misuse

Excellent Timber Market Analysis

U.S. slashes estimated recreational value
of national forests 90% ;
Environmentalists fear more logging could result

 25-Feb-2005

FOREST SERVICE BECOMING ROGUE AGENCY
Forty-Four Recent Court Rulings Find Environmental Lawbreaking
[actually, the FS has been a rogue agency for quite a number of years now, its so-called  "management" is almost entirely unfit for forest stewardship of any kind - there's literally a generation of logging-crazed FS "management" that ought to be retired immediately before they do any more harm to the nation's forests - Ed.]

Montana:
Bitter Feelings Over Logging Big Trees on the Bitterroot

A Hard Look at the Bitterroot
"Burned Area Recovery Plan" (pdf).

Final report also blames Forest Service safety lapses for deaths in Cramer fire

Forest Service Off-road Vehicle Rulemaking

Dirty Deals: Secret Wilderness Land Swaps

Utah loses key battle over N-waste
Federal panel rejects last state objections to Skull Valley storage

Lawsuit Filed Against New National Forest Rules

Buffalo Field Campaign - West Yellowstone, MT
Weekly Update from the Field February 24, 2005

 

 

17-Dec-2004

Terry Barton, the USFS employee, who was found guilty of intentionally starting the Hayman Fire in Colorado  gets her ...

Wildfire sentence tossed 

 

USFS "management" throughout this shoddy agency is, no doubt, smiling today - Ed.

 

 4-October-2004

Interior drops Front drilling plans

Washing Away  

from the latest
West Fork Bitterroot River Bridge Project Status
 
The new bridge will be opened to traffic on Monday, October 4th.  Minor work on the deck curb remains and traffic will be limited to a single lane during work hours.  Westway will continue work on the subgrade and ditches during the week.  Flaggers will be present during work hours to control traffic through the project site.  
 

Save the vanishing forests

Appeals court temporarily halts Gallatin timber sale

Study of beluga whales elicits more questions than answers

Experts track wolverine's wanderings

Canada's whale of a dilemma

Idaho will oversee wolves before packs are delisted

Bush order eases rules protecting wildlife in forests

Death, Be Not Cloud

 

 29-September-2004

Safety rules developed for Hamilton lab

Next best delisting

Mining firm chief declines debate

Call of the wild: Is it cellular?

Protection from roads vital to forest

Report details Plum Creek's MDF plant emissions
"Plum Creek's medium density fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls emitted about 710,000 pounds of toxic chemicals in 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency reported last month."

Bush's gatekeeper weighs costs,
benefits of new regulations

Forest service takes advantage of categorical exclusion on Hayes Creek project 
C.E.s : if the FS wants your input on a project (and they don't); they'll ask for it - more FS pro-logging 'Bull' - Ed.

New fee-demo bill advances to full House

In a warming West, expect more fire

Environmentalists say prairie dog poisoning
would hurt ferrets

The Loss of Property Rights - A chain of events

Intelligence network worries the right, left

Huntin' News

Official: FWP Department to recommend
a limited hunt  
 walk right up and kill a dangerous herbivore

 27-September-2004

Poll shows cyanide ban still favored

Quakes at Mount St. Helens prompt warning

Quake : Magnitude 3.7 WESTERN MONTANA
Sunday, September 26, 2004 at 21:46:41 UTC

Proposed subdivision concerns wildlife biologist

Anaconda slag in high demand

Officials set largest-ever planned burn
in Zion National Park  

Cell-phone towers belong outside our national parks

Cell money misspent, group says

SUWA petitions BLM for closure of certain off-road trails

Bush switches nation's tack on protecting species

 

News Archives
In order to keep the news page loading time short, we regularly archive the stories appearing on this page. You can see other News, Links, & Commentary stories by selecting the appropriate available archive period in the table below. 

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in the stories above is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

About the Painted Rocks Guardian's
News, Links, & Commentary Section
It is a daily look at environmentally related stories from around the country, many of which are illustrative of the high level of incompetence (and worse) existing within most of the government entities currently charged with administering our nation's parks, forests, other public lands, waterways, and airsheds.  As you read these news stories from many different sources, you will note that almost all environmental protection/preservation efforts and programs to save our nation's public treasures originate from private environmental organizations, often times via court order, and NOT through the respective governmental agencies with primary administration responsibilities. Most of these governmental entities (e.g., the Forest Service) have become top heavy with many levels of career bureaucrats who, instead of protecting and preserving the nation's priceless resources, are 'busy' catering to consumptive/extractive industry interests in the course of administering politically designed social welfare employment programs and wealth redistributionist grant programs. While the current system is almost hopelessly corrupt at many levels, it is being increasingly understood as such by the general public. Increased general public awareness of the problem is necessary to trigger environmentally informed political actions that will eventually save the nation's public treasures.  Effective solutions to the current situation will most likely involve the deconstruction of several bureaucratic agencies as they exist today with a functional redesign that will shift major policy development and administrative direction authority into the hands of environmental groups/organizations (as contrasted with agency hand-picked and selected 'citizen groups' dominated by consumptionists) and out of the hands of self-interested bureaucrats and extractive industry interests.
- Bill McKee - Editor.


"Terry Barton's theme (aka burning love)"