Skip to main content
Geos Institute helps communities build resilience in the face of climate change

Author: eric Gotfrid

Conservationists Win Decision Protecting Local Water Supplies, Fisheries & Wildlife

Bush Rule Exempting Pesticide Application From Clean Water Act Protections Vacated

Cincinnati, Ohio

Contact:

  • Charlie Tebbutt, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-485-2471 ext 110
  • Charles Caldart, National Environmental Law Center, 206-568-2853
  • Cindy Deacon Williams, National Center for Conservation Science & Policy, 541-601-4737
  • Sejal Choksi, San Francisco Baykeeper, 925-330-7757
  • Scott Edwards, Waterkeeper Alliance 914.674.0622, x13

In yet another of a long list of stinging defeats for the Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a clear rebuke against the  administration’s 2006 rule which exempted certain commercial pesticide applications from the oversight provided by Congress under the Clean Water Act.  The Court held that pesticide residuals and biological pesticides constitute pollutants under federal law and therefore must be regulated under the Clean Water Act in order to minimize the impact to human health and the environment.

Continue reading

The Spotted Owl’s New Nemesis

By Craig Welch
Smithsonian Magazine

An epic battle between environmentalists and loggers left much of the spotted owl’s habitat protected. Now the celebrity species faces a new threat—a tougher owl.  Read more…

Oregon’s Rogue River Basin to face climate-change hurdles

GEOS Institute and University of Oregon’s Climate Leadership Initiative collaborate to look at 2030 & 2080

EUGENE, OR   Three major global climate-change projections scaled down to Oregon’s scenic Rogue River watershed point to hotter, dryer summers with increasing wildfire risk, reduced snowpack and more rainy, stormy winters, according to a report coordinated by the University of Oregon’s Climate Leadership Initiative and the GEOS Institute.

 

Continue reading

The owl’s stunning reprieve

Citizens stand up to Bush in defense of ancient forests
 
By Paul Koberstein
Cascadia Times

History is certain to judge the Bush years as a disaster for the nation’s — and the planet’s — environment. But as his second term winds down, it’s worth noting that ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest are still standing, despite the administration’s vigorous efforts to help timber companies cut them down, and thanks to countless citizens who stood in the way.  Read more…

Administration undermines Northwest Forest Plan

By Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Few places on Earth can match a Pacific Northwest old-growth forest. With its giant centuries-old towering trees and rainwater trickling through the thick forest canopy, those ancient forests are a big piece of what makes our region a unique and special place to live.  Read more…

Rethinking our assumptions about wildland fires

By Dominick A. DellaSala, PhD and Chad Hanson, PhD
Medford Mail Tribune

This year, as in every previous year, fires are occurring in the forests of the Western United States. And, as in previous years, we read the predictable headlines about how many acres of forest were “destroyed” by wildland fires.  Read more…

Worth the risk?

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

A deadly helicopter crash in Northern California has some people asking if federal agencies should risk firefighters’ lives battling blazes in remote, sparsely populated areas.  Read more…