Issue #1
Three Threats Thursday: Arctic drilling rules, Mount Taylor uranium mine, Fall Creek salmon
Public Lands are under attack like never before. Plans are being implemented to steal, abuse, and destroy these lands - YOUR lands. With this weekly email update, I seek to give a “fast-action shortcut” on the three most urgent issues of the week.
🔴 The Big One: A fast lane for oil drilling in Alaska’s Western Arctic
Where: National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), Bureau of Land Management
What’s happening: BLM has proposed a rule to speed up permits for new oil production sites across the reserve: gravel pads, roads, wells, and pipelines. It was written in response to a petition from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. The public can comment on only the first two chapters of the environmental review; the chapters on effects haven’t been released.
Why it matters: Iñupiat hunters and fishers in Nuiqsut, Atqasuk, and Utqiaġvik, whose caribou and fish feed their families. BLM itself scheduled subsistence hearings in those villages. And every American who owns this land loses a say: once permitting is fast-tracked, it’s very hard to slow down again.
Deadline: Monday, Nov 9
Take action (2 minutes): Open PLAN’s page, answer two quick questions, and paste the letter it writes into BLM’s official form.
⏰ Closing Soon: A uranium mine on Mount Taylor
Where: Mount Taylor Ranger District, Cibola National Forest, near Grants, New Mexico
What’s happening: The Forest Service is taking scoping comments on Roca Honda, an underground uranium mine with a 21-year life. Treated mine water would flow into the Rio San Jose, and the Forest Plan would be amended to exempt the mine from protections for tribal, cultural, and water resources. The agency hasn’t said which protections it would waive.
Why it matters: Downstream water users along the Rio San Jose. Residents of San Mateo, about three miles away, who’d live near radon vented from mine shafts. Pueblo and Diné communities, for whom Mount Taylor is sacred. And the elk hunters and Continental Divide Trail hikers who know this mountain.
Deadline: Wednesday, Oct 14
Take action (2 minutes): Ask the Forest Service to name every protection it plans to waive and to analyze radon and water impacts before going further.
📍 From the Field: Fall Creek, Oregon
Where: Fall Creek watershed, Middle Fork Ranger District, Willamette National Forest, east of Eugene
What’s happening: The Forest Service plans to commercially thin 11,906 acres and sell about 190 million board feet of timber, including 8,649 acres in Late-Successional Reserves set aside for old-forest wildlife. Logs would be hauled over 325 miles of road, some of it in the wet season, and about 21 miles of new temporary road would be built.
Why it matters: Anglers and the Spring Chinook salmon that already struggle here. Fall Creek and two tributaries are listed as too warm for fish, and about 65% of returning Chinook die before spawning in an average year. The agency’s own analysis says the project is likely to harm them. Hunters lose too: the review never looks at deer and elk habitat.
Deadline: Wednesday, Oct 28
Take action (2 minutes): Ask the Forest Service for a real sediment and stream-temperature analysis, and to keep log hauling out of the wet season near Chinook habitat.
A fair note: Some forest groups support thinning young plantations like these. The fight here is over the scale, the wet-season hauling, and fish that are already in trouble.
Last week, 320,000 voices showed up
The comment period on repealing the 2001 Roadless Rule closed Monday, Oct 6. By PLAN's count, more than 320,000 comments went on the record about the fate of 44.7 million acres of roadless national forest. The Forest Service aims to finalize its rule in 2027. When the next chance to weigh in opens, you’ll hear about it here.
Next week, this space is yours. When you take one of this week’s actions, reply “done” or drop a 🌲 in the comments, and I’ll share the count next Thursday.
Pass it on
Know a hunter, angler, hiker, or rider who’d do one thing a week for public lands? Forward this email. It’s free, and it takes ten minutes a week.