Publication Items

SEJ FOI Chair Talks to Forest Service Chief Tidwell [1]

After proposing a directive that seemed to require permits and fees for journalists working in U.S. Forest Service wilderness lands, the USFS announced that it had never intended the restrictions to apply to journalists. Tim Wheeler, chairman of the Society of Environmental Journalists' Freedom of Information Task Force, talked with USFS Chief TomTidwell to clarify the USFS position. Here's his report. [2]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [3]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [4]
Journalism & Media [5]
Laws & Regulations [6]
Region:
National (U.S.) [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about SEJ FOI Chair Talks to Forest Service Chief Tidwell [1]
Forest Service Seeks To Limit Journalists' Access to Wilderness Lands [9]

The U.S. Forest Service is seeking to harden rules that would require a journalist to get a permit and pay a fee of up to $1,500 in order to report inside a federal wilderness. [Update -- 9/25/14: Forest Service Chief Tidwell says media don't need permit] [10]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [3]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [4]
Journalism & Media [5]
Laws & Regulations [6]
Region:
National (U.S.) [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Forest Service Seeks To Limit Journalists' Access to Wilderness Lands [9]
"For God, Country & Coca-Cola" [11]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [12]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [13]
Consumer [14]
Economy & Business [15]
Forests [4]
Pollution [16]
Water & Oceans [17]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [18]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about "For God, Country & Coca-Cola" [11]
Got Corruption? Data on State Lawmaker Conflicts Hard To Get [19]

A large and diverse array of businesses have an interest in the environmental and energy laws that state legislatures consider: including coal, oil, plastics, chemicals, mining, forest products, and others. The possible financial stake lawmakers may have in the bills before them is fertile ground for investigation. Here's help in finding story ideas.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [3]
Topics on the Beat:
Natural Resources [20]
Laws & Regulations [6]
Government [21]
Forests [4]
Energy & Fuel [22]
Chemicals [13]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Got Corruption? Data on State Lawmaker Conflicts Hard To Get [19]
Global Talks Offer Chance To Improve US Extractive Industries Transparency [23]

An initiative involving some 35 nations aims to solve many complex revenue-reporting problems, including improving the flow of information across national borders. But solutions can't even begin until individual nations get a grip on accurate data about extractive industries within their own borders. The results could illuminate key environmental policy issues.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [3]
Topics on the Beat:
Policy [24]
Natural Resources [20]
Forests [4]
Energy & Fuel [22]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Global Talks Offer Chance To Improve US Extractive Industries Transparency [23]
USFS Offers Climate Change Bird Atlas [25]

The atlas — a database actually — is based partly on climate-related changes in tree cover. It maps out current distribution of 147 species and modeled distribution resulting from climate change.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [26]
Topics on the Beat:
Wildlife [27]
Forests [4]
Climate Change [28]
Biodiversity [29]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about USFS Offers Climate Change Bird Atlas [25]
SacBee Wins Access to Forest-Fire Documents [30]

A federal judge ruled that once the documents — depositions of US Forest Service employees about a 2007 forest fire in California that burned tens of thousands of acres — had been entered into court records as part of the evidence discovery process, they were presumptively public records and had to remain that way.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [3]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [4]
Disasters [31]
Region:
California [32]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about SacBee Wins Access to Forest-Fire Documents [30]
USFS Fire Retardant EIS May Result in Few Changes [33]

The agency would add slightly more acreage to the lists of sensitive land and water areas where fire retardant could be dropped only in cases where human life or public safety is threatened. There would be no significant changes in the formula of the retardant, or the general strategy used to determine when and where it's appropriate to drop retardant.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [26]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [4]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about USFS Fire Retardant EIS May Result in Few Changes [33]
Major Wetland Losses Still Occurring in Forests and Estuaries [34]

Wetland acreage in the US declined during 2004-2009, reversing a slightly positive trend of net wetland gains during 1998-2004, according to the latest assessment from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, released Oct. 6, 2011.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [26]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [17]
Forests [4]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Major Wetland Losses Still Occurring in Forests and Estuaries [34]
Appeals Court Orders Release of Timber-Trade Records [35]

Details and documents on the 2006 US-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement will be released after a federal appeals court ruled Sept. 16, 2011, against claims by the Office of the US Trade Representative that the documents, sought by the Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation Northwest, were exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [3]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [4]
Economy & Business [15]
Region:
National (U.S.) [7]
Canada [36]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Appeals Court Orders Release of Timber-Trade Records [35]

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