Free Republic

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Native American man who was convicted of hunting off-season in Bighorn National Forest. Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices in Herrera v. Wyoming, holding that an 1868 treaty between the U.S. and the Native American Crow Tribe granted the tribe the right to hunt in "unoccupied lands," and that the treaty did not expire when Wyoming became a state in 1890. Crow Tribe member Clayvin Herrera was charged with off-season hunting in 2014, but he argued that the 151-year-old treaty protected his ability to hunt at that time....

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A U.S. court has sided with a New Mexico ranching family in a decades-long battle over access to water on national forest land, providing more certainty that state law allows for the protection of water rights dating back more than a century. The case of the Goss family has been closely watched by thousands of ranchers who hold grazing permits across the West. Attorneys and others say the outcome could have ripple effects on ranchers and rural communities that have often complained about federal land managers trampling property rights. The Goss family claimed the federal government violated...

At a campground in northwestern Montana, 30 people are groggily gearing up for a day of mushroom picking. Most are here because they want an excuse to get outside and taste some of Montana's more exotic wild mushrooms. But others, like Matt Zaitz from Kansas, are here to turn a profit. "It's not easy work," Zaitz says. "It's tough." Zaitz started picking mushrooms in the Midwest this spring and followed them north as the season progressed. He's now hunting morels in the Crown of the Continent region near Glacier National Park. At this point, Zaitz considers himself a professional. "I...

TUCSON – Continuing from the May 1 initiation of fire restrictions across multiple jurisdictions of public lands, all ranger districts of Coronado National Forest remain under campfire and smoking restrictions. Beginning May 1, and until rescinded, the following are prohibited: • Building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire, campfire, charcoal, coal, or wood stove other than in a developed campsite or picnic area where grills are provided. • Smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site/improved site or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all...

Government would clear Manistee National Forest land to help butterfly survive WZZM 13 ONLINE OTTO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WZZM) -- The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public input on a proposal to clear a portion of the Manistee National Forest to give a butterfly a greater chance of survival. The plan would also call for closing motorized access to portions of the forest. Leaders in Otto Township in Oceana County were to hold a community meeting Thursday night to discuss the proposal with neighbors. "Otto Township alone is made up of over 50% Manistee National Forest and state land," says township...

Wildlife officials have killed a grizzly bear in Wyoming and a grizzly bear in Montana to head-off potential lawsuits. The Montana grizzly killed and partially consumed Kevin Kammer at a Gallatin National Forest campground near Cooke City, Mont. on July 29. The Wyoming grizzly killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert on June 17 on the Shoshone National Forest near the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The circumstances were quite different, but the decision to kill the bears was undoubtedly influenced by a 1996 court case over the terrible bear mauling of 16 year-old Anna Knochel at a U.S. Forest...

Border Crackdown Makes Farming in U.S. Forests Attractive; Cartel Links Suspected Marijuana growers, many believed to be affiliated with Mexican drug cartels, are aggressively expanding their illegal farming operations in the U.S., clearing land to plant pot in dozens of national forests from coast to coast. Illicit cannabis farms on public land first sprang up in California more than a decade ago and remain a serious problem in that state. But in the past two years, the U.S. Forest Service has documented a rapid expansion of the practice. Authorities have discovered pot farms in 61 national forests across 16 states...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Wildfire investigators in California are looking for marijuana growers tied to a Mexican drug cartel whom they suspect ignited a blaze that has charred more than 87,000 acres of a national forest. The La Brea Fire, which erupted August 8 in the Los Padres National Forest in the remote Santa Barbara County mountains northwest of Los Angeles, is believed to be the first major wildfire in the state caused by drug traffickers, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Turner said on Monday. A joint statement issued Saturday night by the Santa Barbara County sheriff's office and the...

Some trails and campgrounds are still under several feet of snow, keeping them closed, in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Officials said of the 34 campgrounds normally open for Memorial Day, 24 will be open for the holiday weekend. Snow covers the other 10 and most of the trails. "We had unprecedented snowpack this year and above 2,000 feet elevation you will encounter continuous snowfields, or lower, if the area is shaded," said Rodney Mace, a forest recreation staff officer. Campground openings that have been postponed include Silver Springs until May 30, and the following until June 13: Denny Creek,...

Additional evidence of wolverine found in the Tahoe National ForestSide view of a wolverine photographed in California's Tahoe National Forest by a remote-controlled camera. A wolverine was first photographed on the national forest on Feb. 28, 2008, the first scientific confirmation of the animal's presence in California since the 1920s. Credit: US Forest Service and Oregon State University During ongoing investigations by an Oregon State University graduate student, the Forest Service, and California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), two additional wolverine photographs were captured this past week. A variety of hair, track and scat samples were also sent for...

Before the string of blazes that lay siege this week to nearly all of Southern California, even before the historic firestorms of 2003, then-San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman told his bosses in Washington about the problem before him. The most populous national forest faced a mounting threat of catastrophic fire, and reducing it would cost a lot of money, he said. On Wednesday, Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey, the nation's top fire official, said funds meant to restore forests to health have reached record levels in recent years -- and that the San Bernardino National Forest has received...

Marijuana cultivation on public land in the U.S. is a multibillion-dollar business, run by Mexican drug cartels and guarded by heavily armed members of U.S.-based street gangs and Mexican nationals, says the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). "Our national treasures are now ground zero for international and domestic drug cultivation and trafficking," said drug czar John P. Walters. "We must push back against the invasion of foreign drug-trafficking organizations through increased law-enforcement collaboration, enhanced intelligence and expanded investigations to reclaim our public lands." Mr. Walters made his comments last week during Operation Alesia,...

The U.S. Forest Service has not developed national guidelines to assess the risks communities face from wildfires and is unable to ensure that the most important fire prevention projects are funded first, an independent government audit has found. And while the majority of catastrophic wildfires occur in the West, nearly 58 percent of the total acres treated in fiscal year 2004 were in the southeastern states, the report said. "The Forest Service cannot clearly identify the level of risk to communities from wildfire," it said. "It cannot demonstrate to stakeholders its accomplishments in reducing those risks with the funds provided."...

A small band of archers has been shooting bows and arrows for 37 years on a range in the Pike National Forest north of Deckers, paying the U.S. Forest Service about $450 a year for a permit. This year it will all end because the Forest Service presented the Columbine Bowmen with a bill for $23,000 for the one-year permit, said club president Tom Younger. The same fate faces the 180 or so members of the Buffalo Creek Gun Club, who shoot targets in the Pike forest near Bailey. The club's annual permit fee of $150 over the past 40...

Logging trucks are again rumbling through town after a nearly 15-year hiatus. The Forest Service has reopened - or has plans to reopen - numerous drainages south of Eagle Ranch to logging... There are currently two active sales south of Eagle, with another in the works, said Cary Green, the White River National Forest's timber management assistant for the Eagle area. The 60-acre Beecher Gulch salvage timber sale, on Hardscrabble Mountain, sold in 2005, and about 500,000 board feet of timber is currently being harvested... A typical 2,000-square foot, single-family home requires about 27,000 board feet of framing lumber, paneling...

A massive closure of local national forest recreation areas and campgrounds may be imminent because of equally massive budget cuts. In the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, a shrinking recreation facility maintenance budget is creating a dire situation, potentially forcing the permanent closure of 49 of the GMUG’s 138 recreation areas, said forest public service staff officer Corey Wong. With a $2.7 million recreation facility maintenance backlog, the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests have many old, dilapidated facilities. Water systems in some campgrounds have been removed because they don’t meet standards. “Most of our facilities were...

Federal officials on Friday were tracking 60 large, active fires that were burning more than 1 million acres, or more than 1,500 square miles, across the West. The states in the region with the most number of fires included Idaho, Nevada, and Montana, according to the Web site of the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center, composed of various federal agencies that coordinate to battle wildfires. In Idaho, fires had burned more than 231,000 acres, or 360 square miles, the center reported. State officials toured fire camps to survey the damage -- as well as to tell federal firefighting crews here,...

I was up in the Indian Peaks Wilderness area (Brainard Lake) today for my afternoon training run about 5 miles west of Ward, Colorado which is about 12 miles WNW of Boulder. As I turned off of Peak to Peak highway (Colorado State HWY 72) onto the road leading upto Brainard Lake I immediately noticed cars coming down that were covered with a few inches of snow. A few miles west towards the trailhead were my training run was to start it was snowing, lightning and thundering. There was about 3 to 4 inches of heavy wet snow everywhere. Here...

While beetles at low levels always exist on Grand Mesa National Forest, some foresters worry the area may be on the verge of a beetle disaster. “It’s at the edge of possibly blowing up and killing a lot of trees,” said forester Kitty Tattersall of the Paonia and Grand Valley ranger districts. “We’re worried it could become a problem.” Mostly, foresters are concerned about the spruce beetle, whose outbreaks are normally triggered by blowdowns. Last October, violent winds toppled trees near the Alexander Lake area on the mesa, creating the potential for a spruce beetle epidemic. Spruce beetles usually emerge...

Sheep don't mix well with grizzly bears and wolves. Now they won't mix at all on more than 70,000 acres in the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness. A 74,000-acre sheep grazing allotment south of Big Timber in the Gallatin National Forest has been permanently closed and the ranchers who used it for generations have been paid to move their sheep elsewhere... The agreement is the eighth -- and second-largest -- in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem in recent years that has led to the retirement of about 300,000 acres from grazing. The latest involves the Ash Mountain and Iron Mountain allotments used for generations...