Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

On April 9, 2004 a letter sent to stakeholders proclaimed the Forest Service’s desire “to solicit ideas from a cross section of Forest Service stakeholders as to what type of direction and/or guidelines would be appropriate from the Regional level to guide national forest management during periods of drought such as that experienced throughout the Southwest Region for the past number of years.” Comments on the policy are requested by May 3, 2004.

Read the Letter to Stakeholders 4/9/04 (PDF)

WildEarth Guardians and other stakeholder organizations submitted comments to the agency on 5/11/04, summarized below:

As stated in its petition, WildEarth Guardians believes the Forest Service should develop drought policies utilizing the Palmer Drought Index and/or the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), both objective scientific methodologies, to determine those areas that are afflicted with drought.

Much of the Southwestern United States has been facing drought conditions since 1996, of a severity that has not been witnessed in decades. Throughout New Mexico and Arizona, precipitation levels have been exceptionally low, with potentially devastating consequences for native vegetation and wildlife. We regard the lack of a regionwide drought policy, particularly given the increased susceptibility of the land to human abuse during drier times (Thomas 1997), as a significant oversight. Given the severe nature of the drought over the last decade, and the fact that the effects of this drought will be exacerbated by many human activities-particularly livestock grazing permitted by the Forest Service-we are concerned that the Southwestern Region has no systematic policy in place for addressing inevitable drought situations.

Read the Comments by the coalition of stakeholders 5/11/04 (PDF)

Read the Petitions submitted to the Forest Service by WildEarth Guardians:

Petition to USFS Region 2 – 6/24/02 (PDF)

Petition to USFS Region 4 – 6/26/02 (PDF)