Tao Orion is the author of “Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration.” She is a permaculture designer, teacher, homesteader, and mother living in the southern Willamette Valley of Oregon. I interviewed her on May 18, 2020, for my podcast, “Voices for Nature & Peace.” What follows is a partial transcript of that conversation, edited for clarity. […]
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(Complying with President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14072 directing federal agencies to define and conduct an inventory of them for conservation purposes.)
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Eric KlosterMay 14, 2022 During a visit to Seattle, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14072 on Earth Day, April 22, 2022, mandating that the government categorize and monitor old-growth trees on federal lands. Executive Order 14072 consists of five sections. Section 1 is a statement of the new federal policy regarding the protection of old-growth forests. […]
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The National Roadless Rule was rolled back for America’s last great rainforest by the Trump administration, threatening millions of acres of undeveloped national forest lands JUNEAU, Alaska (Áakʼw Ḵwáan Territory) — In a win for Southeast Alaska communities, wildlife, and the climate, the U.S. Forest Service reinstated Roadless Rule protections across the Tongass rainforest in Southeast […]
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Marisa EndicottTHE PRESS DEMOCRATSeptember 23, 2022 The mayor of St. Helena is asking the Napa County District Attorney’s Office to step in and investigate wildfire and contamination risks at a Napa Valley landfill and another dumpsite run by the waste management company Upper Valley Disposal Service. In a consumer complaint, St. Helena Mayor Geoff Ellsworth, […]
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The timber industry and the U.S. Forest Service aggressively market the idea that reducing fuels through logging/thinning programs will result in a significant decrease in acreage burned, firefighting costs and the number of high-severity fires. However, it is climate/weather, not fuels, that drive all large wildfires. The factors responsible for all large wildfires are drought, low humidity, high temperatures and, most importantly, wind. If you have those ingredients […]
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February 25, 2022 Panama City, Panama: On February 24, 2022, Laurentino Cortizo, President of Panama, signed http://files.harmonywithnatureun.org/uploads/upload1168.pdf. Panama now joins a number of countries who recognize the Rights of Nature at the national level. The list also includes Bolivia, which passed the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth (071) in 2010 and Law of […]
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A controversial plan to poison rodents on the Farallon Islands is coming up for a key vote after years of debate. The federal government proposes to airdrop poison pellets on the islands to kill tens of thousands of invasive house mice that have wreaked havoc on seabirds and the local ecosystem. The islands are a wildlife refuge with the largest seabird breeding colony in the contiguous United States. In a twist, the plan has […]
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The Forest Trends report shows a 50 percent increase in deforestation of tropical woodlands, most of it for agriculture and much of it illegal, since the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests. By Georgina GustinMay 19, 2021 In the seven years since governments and corporations promised to stop deforestation, the clear cutting of critically important tropical […]
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March 21, 2021 Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times environment reporter Part of a 180-acre timber sale auctioned off for $4.2 million last November by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), their next stop was a plywood mill. Then, something unusual happened. Hilary Franz, state commissioner of public lands, pulled back nearly 40 acres with most […]
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George Plaven, Capital PressFeb 19, 2021 When it comes to critical water infrastructure in the West, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet says it is about more than dams, pipes and canals. Water security begins in the forest, along streams and rivers that flow through farms and communities, Bennet, D-Colo., said during the Family Farm Alliance annual […]
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I am a ghost of coho salmons past, once born and raised in Dutch Bill Creek, below Occidental. My last reported sighting there was in the 1960’s. I speak for all salmon and wildlife species not able to attend your meetings. Do you realize that as public servants and supposed stewards of the Russian River […]
Read MoreIn January of 2020, Forest Unlimited planted 1400 redwood seedlings on two different properties, one near Occidental and the other near Sebastopol. The plantings that took place over two days and involved the efforts of about 100 volunteers. Forest Unlimited has been doing these large plantings for at least 20 years. We estimate that the […]
Read MoreSierra Club One of the ironies of living in an era of climate change is that it underscores how much we humans have to change. We cannot stop, reduce or adapt to climate change unless we change. Yet, because change is hard, policy influencers who can make a big difference—even the best intentioned—are having a […]
Read MoreGUY KOVNERTHE PRESS DEMOCRAT | December 24, 2018 Ambling through a forest on his rural Mark West area property, Ray Krauss bent over to pinch a fir tree sprout and pull it from the rain-damp ground. If the tiny green seedling grew much larger, Krauss would have to nip it with pruning shears, and were […]
Read MoreCourt Rejects Claim That SGMA “Displaces” Public Trust’s Application to California Groundwater RICHARD FRANK, August 29, 2018 The California Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District has issued an important decision declaring that California’s powerful public trust doctrine applies to at least some of the state’s overtaxed groundwater resources. The court’s opinion also rejects […]
Read MoreAfter years of work, the state’s Mokelumne River has been awarded Wild and Scenic status. It’s a significant win for conservationists and local residents, as well as an important example of consensus building. Written by Steve Evans Published on July 26, 2018 The Mokelumne River became California’s newest Wild and Scenic River when Governor Jerry Brown signed the natural resources budget […]
Read MoreJuly 10, 2018 by John Talberth One of the world’s leading climate scientists joined a coalition of 18 conservation, scientific, and community organizations calling on Oregon’s new Carbon Policy Office (CPO) and the Department of Forestry (ODF) to do an about-face on the state’s evolving forest carbon policy and to immediately implement measures to curb the harmful […]
Read MoreWhat has been described as “America’s most-important conservation program” is set to expire Sept. 30. Established in 1964, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has provided—at no cost to U.S. taxpayers—millions of dollars for conservation, land acquisition, park access, infrastructure improvements, and much more. But in December 2015 Congress struck a deal to reauthorize the LWCF […]
Read MoreCelebrate Wild & Scenic Rivers @ River Rally 2018 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. Join us for these meetings, keynotes, and workshops. River Rally Apr 29-May 2, 2018 Learn more Wild & Scenic Rivers Pre-Meeting River Rally this year will include a focus on the Wild and Scenic Rivers […]
Read MoreJudge Strips State Food Agriculture Agency of Authority to Use Chemicals SACRAMENTO, Calif – A judge has ordered the California Department of Food and Agriculture to stop using chemical pesticides in its statewide program until the agency complies with state environmental laws. The injunction, issued late last week, is a sweeping victory for 11 public-health, conservation, citizen and food-safety groups and the city […]
Read MoreWill Parrish, 2016 The day after an unseasonal June rain swelled the streams of the northern Sierra Nevada, Marily Woodhouse steered her 2003 Dodge Dakota through 65 miles of winding mountain roads near Mount Lassen. Woodhouse first traversed the area on horseback shortly after moving here 25 years ago. Back then, the land was lush with life, and its towering conifer forests […]
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | FRIDAY, JUL 22, 2016 Wishtoyo Foundation filed a lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the State Water Resources Control Board over the use and management of recycled water throughout California. Wishtoyo alleges that new regulations issued by the State Board on June 7, 2016, fail to adhere to the requirements […]
Read MoreSource watersheds will now be acknowledged as infrastructure By Pacific Forest Trust – September 28, 2016, 08:27:08 AM SACRAMENTO, California September 27, 2016 – Governor Jerry Brown took a significant step today to preserve and maintain the key sources of the state’s water supply. With his signature, Assembly Bill 2480 became law, requiring recognition of […]
Read MoreA battle is brewing over whether cutting down trees will increase California’s water supply. By Will Parrish The day after an unseasonal June rain swelled the streams of the northern Sierra Nevada, Marily Woodhouse steered her 2003 Dodge Dakota through 65 miles of winding mountain roads near Mount Lassen. Woodhouse first traversed the area on […]
Read MoreNorth Coast timber conflict flares up—again By Will Parrish After an era of relative quiet compared to the so-called timber wars of the 1980s and ’90s, conflict over logging in the forests of Northern California has returned. A plan to log 100- to 150-year-old redwood trees across 320 acres of northwestern Sonoma County in the […]
Read MoreRichard Schultz/Corbis Trees — including California’s giant redwoods — add an increasing amount of mass every year. Many foresters have long assumed that trees gradually lose their vigour as they mature, but a new analysis suggests that the larger a tree gets, the more kilos of carbon it puts on each year. “The trees that […]
Read MoreOctober 29, 2015 Kate Poole California is not just dragging its feet when it comes to updating and enforcing water quality standards for the beleaguered San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. Instead, the State appears to be up to its neck in cement, paralyzed in its ability to enforce and update critical water quality standards for the […]
Read MoreApril 23, 2016, Maven From the NRDC: Conservation groups filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today – on Earth Day – for failing to protect water quality in the San Francisco Bay-Delta under the Clean Water Act. This failure could result in several native fish species going extinct, toxic algal blooms becoming […]
Read MoreAugust 19, 2015, Maven Urban areas in best shape; Farmers adapting but vulnerable If the California drought continues another two to three years, the state will face increasingly acute challenges in two areas: water supply in some low-income rural communities, where wells are running dry; and ecosystems, where the state’s iconic biodiversity is under severe […]
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