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What's New at Wilderness.org
This is a list of stories, news items, maps and other documents posted at Wilderness.org in the past 90 days.
Wild Sky Wilderness Passes Congress
After years of work, supporters of the Wild Sky Wilderness Act (H.R. 886/S. 520) celebrated today as the legislation passed Congress and was sent to the White House for final approval.
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Measuring Forest Carbon: Strengths and Weaknesses of Available Tools Summary
As the U.S. moves toward registering and regulating emissions of greenhouse gases, we are hearing more about the potential for forest carbon sequestration to offset fossil fuel emissions. Whether at the national or project level, good decisions about forest offsets depend upon accurate estimates of the carbon stored in forests and the changes in those stores over time. This Brief examines four carbon measurement tools, and provides some general comparisons for broad regions. It also highlights limitations that users should keep in mind; data are particularly limited for very old forests and for carbon reserves in dead wood and underground.
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State Fire Assistance: Key to Successful Comprehensive Wildfire Management 
State Fire Assistance (SFA) is a key part of a long-term strategy to reduce wildfire suppression costs by
providing funds for proactive community planning, fuels mitigation, preparedness, and education.
| State Fire Assistance Fact Sheet
Communities that are well-prepared for fire are key to
reducing these costs and ultimately restoring functional, and fire-resilient,
wildlands.
| Funding for Non-Federal and Federal Fire Management Needs to Be Better Balanced
Comprehensive fire management inherently transcends land ownership boundaries. Safe communities and healthy landscapes go hand-in-hand.
| Wildfire Suppression Budget Continues to Escalate; Solution is needed
Federal fire suppression costs have increased significantly in recent years, exceeding $1 billion in five of the last seven years. As suppression activities continue to increase, so does the suppression budget since it is based on a 10-year rolling average. Because the agencies’ budgets are essentially flat year to year, to off-set these increases funding for critical programs has been significantly reduced and more and more of the land management agencies’ budgets are being used for wildland fire management.
| Community Fire Assistance Budget Significantly Reduced in FY2009
While fire management is often perceived as a federal issue, fires do not respect jurisdictional lines. Wildland fire management must occur at the landscape scale, with federal agencies partnering with states and communities, and scarce resources must be spent where they are needed most.
| Facts About FY 2009 Wildfire Budget
Over the last five years, over $14 billion has been appropriated to the National Fire Plan (NFP). During this time of large federal deficits and increasing pressure to re-examine federal budget priorities, the question must be asked whether these taxpayer dollars have promoted safer communities and more resilient ecosystems.
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Lakeview Stewardship Group Success Story
The Lakeview Stewardship Group was formed to restore a unit in the Fremont-Winema National Forest. The award-winning collaborative effort that includes conservationists, timber workers, local government officials and other civic leaders has become an inspiration and model in forest conservation by incorporating ecological restoration and community values in land management goals.
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Wilderness Report # 209
1) West Virginia’s Wild Mon Act Hailed at DC Hearings, Concern Expressed for Omitted Areas; 2) Wilderness Brief: Friends of Nevada Wilderness Honors Volunteers; 3) The Wilderness Classifieds
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The Flathead River and Crown of the Continent
A shortsighted proposal to drill for gas in the headwaters of the Flathead River would industrialize a breathtakingly beautiful and biologically crucial river valley in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.
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Climate Change Implications for Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska is experiencing visible signs of climate change, including melting permafrost, drying wetlands, and increased fire activity. To better understand what changes are taking place, and how land managers might deal with these changes on public lands, Dr. Wendy Loya, an ecologist with The Wilderness Society (TWS), initiated a project to apply climate change scenarios to Alaska’s federal wildlands. Together with TWS GIS analyst Anna Springsteen, and in partnership with the University of Alaska’s SNAP (Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning) program, Dr. Loya used temperature and precipitation data from five down-scaled global climate models to estimate how growing season length, climate variability, and water availability might change.
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Wilderness Science News #5
1) The Center for Landscape Analysis: Celebrating 20 Years of Spatial Analysis in Wildland Conservation; 2)Meet Janice Thomson
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Wilderness Report #208
1) Colorado’s San Juan Public Lands Draft Forest Plan Released; 2) Report Illustrates How Protecting Wilderness Benefits WV's Economy; 3) The Wilderness Classifieds
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Forest Management Fact Sheet
Healthy and naturally functioning forests are more likely to survive the effects of a changing climate than heavily harvested ones. This report debunks the logic that aggressive timber harvesting and suppressing all fires is sound forest management practice.
| Carbon Cycling Fact Sheet
This report highlights the adverse effects elevated CO2 levels have on forests ecosystems. Because forests have evolved at slow rates, today's warming climate and elevated CO2 levels are changing the way forests grow and store carbon.
| Fire and Climate Change Fact Sheet
While it's true that fires release emissions as they burn, forests recapture carbon as they regenerate and do not contribute to climate change.
| Kinds of Carbon: Wildland Fires vs. Fossil Fuels Fact Sheet
This report explains how carbon that is released during wildland fires is significantly less harmful to the environment than carbon released by burning fossil fuels.
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