skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Groups File Protest against BLM Plan for Western Ore. Forests

play audio
Play

Tuesday, May 17, 2016   

PORTLAND, Ore. - Conservation groups filed a protest yesterday against the Bureau of Land Management's latest proposal to change forest management in western Oregon.

The BLM's revision eliminates some protections against logging near streams, and could put the state out of step with the Northwest Forest Plan, the 100-year plan coordinated with Washington state and California.

Susan Brown is an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, which filed the protest on behalf of 22 conservation groups.

"Our concern there is that by essentially pulling out of a range-wide, regional plan, the BLM is leaving a huge hole in conservation and protection on those federal lands, and that may have all kinds of repercussions," says Brown.

The Northwest Forest Plan was adopted in 1994. If the BLM moves ahead with its revision, 2.6 million acres of land would be removed from the regional plan.

Brown says the Northwest Forest Plan faced a similar challenge in 2008, when the BLM proposed the Western Oregon Plan Revision, which would have increased logging on BLM-managed land.

However, a federal judge declared that revised plan illegal in 2012. Brown says the newest proposal feels like a rehash of the last, unsuccessful revision.

"We seem to be having these conversations over and over again, and I wish that there was a more proactive attempt to really try to manage these lands in a way that would work for more of the public than what the BLM is attempting to do now," she says.

The conservation groups' protest says the BLM's newest plan reduces the buffer zones between logging activities and streams in certain areas, which could threaten water quality and wildlife.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021