February 2012

After a circuitous litigation path, the legality of the Sawtooth Minidoka Ranger District travel plan has finally been decided.  On February 21, Judge Lodge issued his ruling determining that the Forest Service failed to provide enough analysis to justify its decision to move forward with the Minidoka travel plan. 

     Here is an interesting new report on adapting to climate change on the Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park (WA).  Chapter 4 specifically addresses road management in the face of a changing climate.  This appears to be the first example of a national forest specifically addressing their road system in the context of climate change in a formal report.  There is a nice summary of their key points on page 36 (Box 4.3).  

To view the report go to: http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr844.pdf