** Tongass in the crosshairs
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Tongass National Forest, Alan Wu ([link removed]) , CC BY-SA 2.0 ([link removed])

The Trump administration wants to open more than half of North America's largest temperate rainforest to logging and road-building. The Forest Service announced it has completed a draft environmental review that would exempt Alaska's Tongass National Forest from the roadless rule ([link removed]) , which has protected intact forests since the Clinton administration.

The Tongass, at 16.7 million acres, is America's single largest national forest, and spawns 40 percent of wild salmon on the West Coast. The proposed rule change would open 9.5 million roadless acres to development.

While politicians in Alaska praised the move, conservation groups vowed to sue, saying the plan would smother salmon streams. Earthjustice attorney Eric Jorgensen noted that courts had previously reinstated the 2001 roadless rule.

“The bottom line is the agency will face a heavy burden to justify this exemption,” Jorgensen told the Washington Post. “President Trump’s attack on the Tongass National Forest threatens an irreplaceable national treasure.”
Quick hits


** Grand Teton among a dozen national parks most at risk under Trump
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Jackson Hole News & Guide ([link removed])


** Trump administration vows to open Tongass National Forest to logging
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Washington Post ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed]) | Anchorage Daily News ([link removed]) | Axios ([link removed]) | The Hill ([link removed])


** Utah's Grand County, Moab unite against off-road vehicles in national parks
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])


** Trump administration doesn't know what its own e-bike order means or will do
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** White House delays Grand Canyon uranium decision by 30 days
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E&E News ([link removed])


** Congress moves closer to issuing subpoenas for Interior and EPA records
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The Hill ([link removed])


** Conservation group seeks to protect Joshua trees from climate change
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Desert Sun ([link removed])


** Study of Death Valley's wild burros reveals a complicated ecological situation
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Undark ([link removed])
Quote of the day
They went to the easy places first. Now they’re going to have to build roads to get to the next round of timber. You put the roads in, and that tends to change everything.”
—U.S. Forest Service Emeritus scientist Gordon Reeves
The Washington Post ([link removed])
Picture this

@USFWS ([link removed])
Some of the greatest wonders, like bugling elk and amazing migrations, happen like clockwork every season — many at national wildlife refuges. Try these this fall: [link removed] ([link removed]) Photo from Bosque del Apache NWR in NM by Kim Hang Dessoliers [link removed] ([link removed])


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