Forest Health Archives - San Juan Citizens Alliance

Aug 15 2023

Forests play a role in fighting climate change

By Rane Dickerson Durango Herald Column, Forest Health No Comments

A cherished landscape gained a measure of new protection this month when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed an order creating a 10-mile buffer zone around Chaco Culture National Historical Park that precludes future oil and gas leasing. The decision culminates…

Jun 14 2023

PRESS RELEASE: Lawsuit Targets Timber Sale Threatening Rare Mature Forests, Wildlife in Colorado

By sjca Forest Health, Lands Protection, Press Release, Wildlife 3 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 14, 2023 DOLORES, Colo.— Forest advocates sued the U.S. Forest Service today for violating environmental laws when it approved a nearly 23,000-acre timber sale that would cut large, century-old ponderosa pine trees and threaten wildlife in…

Nov 11 2021

Prioritizing Public Lands

By sjca Forest Health, Lands Protection, Newsletter No Comments

Our work protecting the lands and forests across the San Juan Basin is ever-changing. Here is a quick summary of what we’re working on right now: Bootjack Ranch/Valle Seco Land Exchange The Decision Notice for this sordid and coordinated effort…

Jun 13 2019

Video About Us!

By Erika Brown Climate Change, Coal, Energy Transition, Forest Health, Lands Protection, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Rivers 7 Comments

We made a video about who we are and what we do! A big thanks to Sean Owen of No Special Abilities Productions for making this happen. Of course, it's impossible to get everything we do into a short...

May 19 2019

Wilderness deserves restraint, humility

By Mark Pearson Durango Herald Column, Forest Health, Lands Protection No Comments

The Forest Service’s recent decision to approve using chain saws to cut out downed trees in wilderness areas might strike some as no big deal. But for longtime advocates for the wilderness concept generally, and supporters of the Weminuche and…

Nov 15 2018

Protecting Wildlife and Quiet Use on San Juan National Forest

By Erika Brown Forest Health, Lands Protection, Species No Comments

Photo: Wikipedia Commons We've been advocating for wildlife, quiet use and watershed protections within the Rico West Dolores Travel Management Plan for a decade. Many of you have joined us in demanding that the region be managed for the those…

Oct 21 2018

Energy dominance comes to national forests

By Mark Pearson Durango Herald Column, Forest Health, Lands Protection, Oil & Gas No Comments

The Trump administration unabashedly promotes energy dominance above all else on America’s public lands. But even knowing that, it’s hard not to be astonished by the latest onslaught to prioritize oil and gas development on our national forests. We are…

Sep 27 2018

TAKE ACTION: Call Senator Gardner!

By Erika Brown Forest Health, Lands Protection, Rivers, Species One Comment

Recently, Senator Gardner told a group gathering in Norwood, Colorado that he wouldn't stand in the way of the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act moving forward. We're looking to him now to make to good on his commitment to move…

Sep 15 2018

Fires and droughts should set off alarm bells

By Mark Pearson Climate Change, Coal, Durango Herald Column, Forest Health, Lands Protection, Renewable Energy, Rivers No Comments

Our beloved Animas River has taken a shellacking the past few years, the most recent insults a combination of record low flows and wildfire induced mudslides. The Animas might be the blaring alarm bell for our society’s failure to act…

Jul 21 2018

New leadership at EPA, same rollbacks

By Mark Pearson Climate Change, Coal, Durango Herald Column, Forest Health, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Rivers, Species No Comments

Photo: Wikipedia Commons By the time Scott Pruitt resigned as the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, he was the poster child for bungling personal entitlement. As Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa put it, Pruitt was the swampiest of the Washington,…

Jun 21 2018

Photo of post 416 fire burn area near Hermosa

416 Fire Blog: What We Know

By sjca Climate Change, Forest Health, Lands Protection 21 Comments

Big Picture As we breathe a collective sigh of relief after the prolonged and mostly gentle rains that calmed the fire and cleansed the air over June 16-17, we can begin to assess the 416 wildfire from a couple steps…

Jul 21 2016

Collaboration key in fighting fires in the West

By Erika Brown Climate Change, Durango Herald Column, Forest Health No Comments

Collaboration key in fighting fires in the West It’s summer, it’s hot and dry, and forest fires will burn. Here’s the kicker: That may be a good thing. To unpack this claim, let’s look at two things legions of…

Jan 19 2016

Highlights of 2015

By Erika Brown Climate Change, Coal, Forest Health, Gold King Mine, Lands Protection, Oil & Gas, Rivers, Species No Comments

It’s 3 weeks into January and here at the Alliance we're finally taking a moment to clear the papers off our desks, breathe, and reflect on the past year. We started 2015 knowing there were thousands of people in the region…

Dec 17 2015

Keep your holiday giving close to home

By sjca Climate Change, Coal, Durango Herald Column, Forest Health, Gold King Mine, Green Business, Lands Protection, Of Interest, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Rivers, Species No Comments

This holiday season I’d like to propose a corollary to Durango’s well-loved buy local movement: give local. December is a month awash in fundraising requests, and let’s face it: being on the receiving end can get tiresome. But let’s face…

Mar 03 2015

BLM Tres Rios Field Office: Failed

By sjca Forest Health, Lands Protection, Oil & Gas, Rivers, Species 3 Comments

The day before the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) released its Resource Management Plan (RMP), the Alliance drafted a list of 10 things to watch for in the final document. I’d like to think that…

Feb 27 2015

BLM Tres Rios Field Office Fails Our Community… Again.

By sjca Forest Health, Lands Protection, Oil & Gas, Rivers, Species No Comments

If you've been following the multi-year saga of the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) Resource Management Plan (RMP), then you know a lot is at stake. As we highlighted in a previous post, this planning…

Dec 16 2014

Highlights of 2014

By Erika Brown Climate Change, Coal, Forest Health, Lands Protection, Of Interest, Oil & Gas, Rivers, Species No Comments

Ever wonder what the Alliance has been up to? Or how we put your donations to work? If so, this blog is for you. As we head into 2015, we thought we’d take a moment to recap some of our…

Oct 14 2014

New Conservation International Video Series – Nature is Speaking

By sjca Forest Health, Lands Protection, Of Interest No Comments

Wow. A new and really hard-hitting storyline from Conservation International. Nature Doesn’t Need People, People Need Nature. Check out the storyline – told through a series of short vidoes – at natureisspeaking.org. Here’s one narrated by Julia Roberts: https://youtu.be/WmVLcj-XKnM?list=PL5WqtuU6JrnXjsGO4WUpJuSVmlDcEgEYb

Sep 10 2014

Beetle Kill

By sjca Forest Health No Comments

Here’s a pic from our archive of the type of beetle kill that is advancing throughout the region.

Aug 18 2014

Controversy Over Forest Recovery Efforts Post-Fire

By sjca Forest Health No Comments

Here is a recent blog post from the San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership (SJHFHP). The Alliance is a proud member of this collaborative effort to bring best-available science and forest management practices to play throughout the San Juan Headwaters.…

Mar 04 2014

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear

Ambrose Redmoon

Forest Health