The state of Colorado and U.S. Forest Service today announced yet another draft version of the controversial Colorado Roadless Rule (pdf) that has been hotly debated for nearly six years. Already environmental groups indicated the new draft rule falls short of protecting some of the state’s 4.2 million acres of roadless national forest land.
Gov. John Hickenlooper today issued an emergency disaster declaration for the Indian Gulch Fire in Jefferson County, authorizing $1.5 million in state funding to help pay firefighting costs. The executive order also directs the state to seek federal funds if needed to fight the tenacious wind-blown wildfire near Golden.
The U.S. Forest Service Friday released the results of new aerial mapping showing the mountain pine bark beetle epidemic raging since the mid 1990s has now consumed more than 4 million acres of pine trees in Colorado and southern Wyoming. In Colorado alone, more than 400,000 acres of trees were killed last year, mostly in the Arapaho, White River, Roosevelt, Medicine Bow and Routt national forests.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for delaying for three years carbon dioxide emissions permits for biomass boilers that convert wood and other plant material into energy. The move is significant in Colorado because backers of biomass energy say that more 2 million acres of national forest land hit hard by a mountain pine park beetle epidemic could be tapped to generate hot-water heat and electricity that would actually replace dirtier fuel sources like coal and natural gas. The EPA delay makes that process more realistic.
Citing last month’s wildfires near Boulder and Loveland and the ongoing Church’s Park Fire in Grand County, U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet are asking U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to treat the pine bark beetle epidemic…
Another wildfire burning in Colorado’s high country has raised the alarm over how crispy and dry the recent fall weather has been, and rekindled the debate about climate change and the ongoing pine beetle epidemic.
According to 9News.com, a 450-acre…
So who spends more when they’re out recreating in the woods, Carhartt-clad “sled-necks” or Lycra-encased cross-country skiers?
According to one study being used to back the controversial Hidden Gems wilderness proposal, skinny skiers (who are allowed to flit about in…
Sen. Mark Udall promised to keep battling for beetle kill funding Friday after his bid for $50 million in emergency funds for the Forest Service and National Park Service was rejected as an amendment to the emergency supplemental bill.
Udall…
Badly needed snowfall is expected in Colorado’s high country this week, but one expert says the state will need much more than the amount in the forecast to stave off drought on par with the one that marked the parched…
Tuesday’s announcement by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that the U.S. Forest Service is pumping $40 million more into coping with the ongoing pine bark beetle epidemic predictably stirred up the same old tired climate change debate.
The rice-sized beetles…
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