Blog Archives for February, 2009

By Josh Hurd - February 24, 2009    Environmental protection almost always takes a hard hit during economic recessions.  News abounds around the country of how, especially in energy policy, the gains of the past few years have been offset by cheap gas and a depressed economy.

By Josh Hurd - February 19, 2009    The Puget Sound has been at the forefront of restoration. A recent report, "Action Agenda: Financing Strategy -- Estimates of Spending Related to Puget Sound," released by the Puget Sound Partnership, shows the complicated funding situation that projects such as this face. According to the report:

By Sarah Peters - February 17, 2009    The annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference will be held in Eugene next week, Feb. 26-March 1, and they have postd the schedule on-line at www.pielc.org. Wildlands CPR will be represented on three panels.  If you're going to be at the Conference, stop by and say hi and hear what's the latest with regards to ORVs, road decommissioning funding, and Forest Service travel planning.

By Josh Hurd - February 17, 2009    The concept of a carbon footprint has gained legitimacy within many realms of the governmental and business worlds. A new footprint, however, is gaining popularity: the water footprint.

By Adam Rissien - February 16, 2009    The Montana legislature is set to consider two key bills this week. The first, SB383, would require all off-road vehicles (except motorcycles and snowmobiles) to display a full-sized license plate on both the front and back of the vehicle. The second, HB614, would create a new penalty for anyone violating travel restrictions on any of Montanans public lands whether federal or state owned. The penalty would be a maximum of $500 and up to six month in jail.

By Bethanie Walder - February 13, 2009   Wildlands CPR and colleagues around the country have been working feverishly to ensure that some funding for rural green jobs, through watershed restoration would be included in the stimulus bill.

By adamswitalski - February 5, 2009    There is great debate over postfire logging.  While some argue timber should be “salvaged” following a fire, an increasing amount of scientific literature has documented the ecological consequences of postfire logging (for review see Conservation Biology journal volume 18 issue 4).  One such study recently published in Forest Ecology and Management and conducted in Alberta examined the impact of post fire logging on elk, deer, and moose.   Hebblewhite et al.

By Josh Hurd - February 4, 2009    Market mechanisms to provide for environmental quality are controversial.  The 1990 Clean Air Act, which instated a cap-and-trade system to efficiently decrease acid rain, irked many people, who said that the buying and selling of rights to pollute was morally wrong. However, twenty years later the program is widely heralded as a success. Thus the current interest in cap-and-trade systems for greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide.