The Black Hills National Forest is currently seeking candidates for 2 permanent, full-time NEPA Planners at the GS-0401-09/11 level. https://t.co/aNeMFXynpX— Black Hills NF (@BlackHillsNF) February 3, 2020
After a century of fire suppression, a decades-long moratorium on prescribed burns, a lack of environmental litigators and GOP retrenchment the Black Hills National Forest and Grasslands have been broken for decades but the Black Hills Resilient Landscapes (BHRL) project could fix some of that. The first project to receive a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) exclusion in the Black Hills National Forest is the Tepee Canyon project approved July, 2018. The BHNF is in Region 2, based in Colorado.
The Trump administration is trying to undermine NEPA by exempting many government-approved and funded projects from the review process and excluding consideration of the cumulative impacts, which is especially important when considering how projects will influence and be influenced by climate change. [National Resources Defense Council]Pinus ponderosa is not native to the Black Hills and only reached the region less than four thousand years ago. When the Custer Expedition came through the Black Hills bringing invasive cheatgrass for their horses stands of ponderosa pine were sparsely scattered but a century and a half of poor ranching and land management practices have created an unnatural overstory best controlled by the mountain pine beetle, prescribed fires, periodic wildfires, yes even mechanical treatments as long as no new roads are built and burns applied to stimulate hardwood release. Restoring and rewilding American ecosystems are parts of the Green New Deal.
Today, the Trump Organization and Neiman Enterprises are logging and slashing some 2,669 acres of forest on public land between Jewel Cave National Monument and the Custer Highlands residential area. Fuel treatments will include clearcuts or in silviculture parlance: overstory removal. Hulett, Wyoming's Jim Neiman is a member of the
As Bighorn National Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson prepares to head east for a temporary assignment, officials in the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service will work to fill in behind him. Last month, acting Rocky Mountain Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien announced Johnson will serve as the acting Black Hills National Forest supervisor. Johnson will start his new role, which is a temporary promotion due to the higher complexity of the forest, Monday. Johnson said he expects the job in the Black Hills to be similar to his current position, but each forest has different projects in the works. For example, the Black Hills has a much larger timber production program than the Bighorn National Forest and its staff is monitoring gold exploration as well. [USFS details allow for experience, coverage]Note that in the 'timber harvest' section of the maps for BHRL the Moskee portion of the Wyoming Black Hills isn't being logged.
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