From this overlook 1,400 feet above the the river, one can understand why the New River Gorge is known by many as the Grand Canyon of the East. Sky Noir Photography / Moment / Getty Images
By Mary Caperton Morton
The only thing "new" about West Virginia's New River Gorge is its national park status: In 2021, the New River Gorge became our latest national park, but in geologic terms, the New River is anything but new. Dating back to the days of the supercontinent Pangaea, it is one of the oldest rivers in the world and one of the few waterways in North America that runs north.
<p>A lot can happen when a river keeps its course for over 300 million years. The New River's unusual north–south orientation serves as a corridor for animal migration, fueling a biodiversity hot spot that is home to an impressive array of endemic species, many of them endangered.</p><p>Millions of years of fluvial erosion have also carved a deep gorge lined by long tracts of bituminous coal and steep cliffs of quartzite sandstone. In the late 1800s, dozens of coal mines and company towns were built along the New's raging river canyon, accessible only by railroad. Today their vine-covered ruins are being reclaimed by the regenerating forest, and the ecological impacts of mining and deforestation on the New River's watershed are slowly healing.</p><p>A mere 30 kilometers from the New, however, deep scars blasted into the landscape by modern mountaintop removal mining operations may prove more or less permanent, even on geologic timescales.</p>
New River, Old Course
<p>"The New River might be the most inappropriately named river on Earth," said <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/nathaniel-hitt?qt-staff_profile_science_products=0#qt-staff_profile_science_products" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nathaniel Hitt</a>, a fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Kearneysville, W.Va.</p><p>The New was born when the North American and African plates collided to form the supercontinent Pangaea. The impact uplifted the Appalachian Mountains to Himalayan heights, and a mighty river named the Teays formed to drain the western slopes of the range. From its headwaters in what is now western North Carolina, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/29/science/a-great-lost-river-gets-its-due.html?&pagewanted=all" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Teays flowed</a> north through the Virginias before turning west into the Ohio River Basin, eventually draining into a vast inland sea.</p><p>Today the New River begins in the same headwaters carved by the Teays and follows roughly the same northward path. "These headwaters and this basin have remained in their current configurations for over 300 million years of evolutionary time," Hitt said.</p><p>Around 60 million years ago, the diagonally trending ridges of the Appalachians went through a period of uplift, but the highly erosive Teays kept cutting into the mountains faster than the uplift rate. Thus, the river's south-to-north course runs counter to the west-to-east flow of most Appalachian waterways, carving a formidable 400-meter-deep river canyon directly through the Appalachian Plateau.</p><p>The 580-kilometer-long New River carves the longest and deepest canyon in the Appalachian Mountains; the new 295-square-kilometer national park and preserve is headquartered along an 85-kilometer stretch of the river near Fayetteville, W.Va.</p>A Speciation Superhighway
<p>Downstream—to the north—the New joins the Gauley to form the Kanawha River. Just downstream from this confluence, the wide and turbulent Kanawha Falls present a natural barrier to migration, leading to many aquatic species above and below the falls being genetically distinct from one another.</p><p>For instance, "when you look at the fish of the New River, you're seeing how evolution plays out over long geologic timescales," Hitt said. "The New River highlights the potential of deep evolutionary time to produce uniquely adapted species." The New River Basin is home to seven endemic species of fish—fish that are found nowhere else on Earth. These fish are uniquely adapted to thrive in turbulent white water and have lived through several major extinction events and an ice age that froze the northern reaches of their habitat.</p><p>The New's deep canyons also function as a biogeographical corridor for terrestrial animals, facilitating north–south movement in a landscape where most valleys run east–west. The New River Gorge's unusual orientation "lies at the core of one of the largest intact temperate forests in the world," said <a href="https://ecosystems.psu.edu/directory/dmanning" target="_blank">Douglas Manning</a>, a terrestrial ecologist at the national park. "The gorge has a lot of niche habitats for different organisms to occupy," supporting a diverse assemblage of plants, mammals, birds, and aquatic species.</p><p>Whereas the New River allows for north–south migration, its steep and rugged topography presents a significant barrier to east–west movement. Historically, even humans have found the New a formidable obstacle. The turbulent waters are not safe for most river-based transportation, and steep cliffs can impede navigation on foot or horseback.</p><p>Although people have been living in southern West Virginia for at least 11,000 years, the main travel routes of early Indigenous communities "were not through the gorge, because it's so circuitous and dangerous to travel along the river," said Dave Fuerst, cultural resource program manager for the park. "They were using routes that went around the gorge, following ridges and stream drainages." Communities thrived in the ecologically rich area, however, and today more than 400 archaeological sites are documented along the New, Gauley, and Bluestone Rivers, connected by an elaborate network of footpaths.</p><p>It wasn't until the completion of the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/16210658540" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway</a> in 1873 that people were able to travel the length of the gorge efficiently. Even then, east–west travel across the gorge remained harrowing until 1977, when the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/neri/planyourvisit/nrgbridge.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New River Gorge Bridge</a> was completed just east of Fayetteville, shortening the cross-gorge travel time from over an hour to less than a minute. This impressive 923-meter-long steel arched span soars 267 meters above the New, making it one of the highest vehicular bridges in the world.</p>Coal Mining in My Mitochondria
<p>The rock layers exposed by the New River span over 350 million years. Historically, the most sought-after layers in the gorge were bituminous coal, a relatively soft black coal that burns readily, producing little smoke. These layers date to the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/pennsylvanian-period.htm" target="_blank">Pennsylvanian subperiod</a> of the Carboniferous, when vast swamps covered large regions of the globe, producing thick layers of peat that eventually formed coal.</p><img
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Coal miners pose on an electric-powered mine locomotive at Kaymoor, W.Va., in 1914. National Park Service
<p>The downward cutting of the New River did a lot of the work to expose bituminous coal seams along the gorge. After the C&O railroad was finished, dozens of coal mines sprang up along the New. From the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, miners hacked millions of tons of coal from the walls of the gorge. The work was brutal, and the pay was around <a href="https://www.nps.gov/neri/learn/historyculture/royal.htm" target="_blank">45 cents a ton</a>. Strong miners could earn $2.00 a day.</p><p>For a time, New River coal was one of the most abundant on the market, fueling everything from steel mills to power plants. More than 60 coal towns were built along the New River to support the mines. Some of these towns boasted hundreds of buildings and were home to thousands of people.</p><p>The downward cutting of the New River did a lot of the work to expose bituminous coal seams along the gorge. After the C&O railroad was finished, dozens of coal mines sprang up along the New. From the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, miners hacked millions of tons of coal from the walls of the gorge. The work was brutal, and the pay was around <a href="https://www.nps.gov/neri/learn/historyculture/royal.htm" target="_blank">45 cents a ton</a>. Strong miners could earn $2.00 a day.</p><p>For a time, New River coal was one of the most abundant on the market, fueling everything from steel mills to power plants. More than 60 coal towns were built along the New River to support the mines. Some of these towns boasted hundreds of buildings and were home to thousands of people.</p><img
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In the late 1800s and early 1900s, dozens of coal company mining towns were built along the New River. All of the railroad-accessed towns were abandoned by the 1960s. Coalcampusa.com.
<p>My family history runs deep in these New River mining towns: The town of Caperton was named for one of my relatives, my maternal great-grandmother was born in Fire Creek, and my paternal grandparents lived and worked in Ames, where New River Gorge Bridge pylons now stand on the east side of the gorge. When my dad was 2 years old, the family moved to Fayetteville, on the west side of the gorge, where my uncle still lives in the family home.</p><p>I spent the summers of my childhood exploring the woods and creeks around the gorge, hunting for salamanders and seashell fossils from a long-gone ocean that predates the Appalachians. Every time I visit the New, I feel like a salmon returning to its home stream; I imagine my great-grandmother's mitochondria in my cells vibrating in tune with one of the world's oldest rivers. I've hiked all over the New River Gorge, visiting the overgrown sites and ruins of Ames, Kaymoor, and Nuttallburg, but I have not yet made it farther upriver to Caperton or Fire Creek. Someday an anadromous upriver backpacking trip awaits (although I have no plans to spawn).</p>Making the Leap from Coal Mining to BASE Jumping
<p>All of the mines and coal towns in the New River Gorge were abandoned by the 1960s, and today the still-inaccessible ghost towns are fading into the rapidly regenerating forest.</p><p><span></span>"The New River Gorge faces a lot of legacy impacts from all sorts of land use history in the gorge," Manning said. Vast areas of forest were stripped of trees to fuel the coal towns' woodstoves and coke ovens, and timber operations in the gorge continued for decades after mining operations ceased.</p><p>"If you look at photos from around the turn of the century and the Great Depression, [you will see that] the forest here was stripped bare," said <a href="https://www.nps.gov/gari/learn/news/eve-west-named-chief-of-interpretation-at-new-river-gorge-national-river-gauley-river-national-recreation-area-and-bluestone-national-scenic-river.htm" target="_blank">Eve West</a>, chief of interpretation at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. And now, "this is considered to be the most botanically diverse river system in the central and southern Appalachians. There's not a lot of virgin forest here, so that's all come from regrowth in the past 50 years. This place bounces back fast."</p><p>Regrowth and resiliency are proving to be a hallmark of this landscape and for its people. Two generations removed from the dark and dangerous coal mines, I find myself drawn upward, to the New River's second most famous rock: Nuttall sandstone, a hard, quartz-rich variety that erodes into vertical cliffs with thin cracks perfect for rock climbing.</p><p>More than 1,400 traditional and sport climbing routes snake up the walls of the gorge, making it one of the premiere climbing localities in the eastern United States. I cut my teeth on these rocks in more ways than one; in 2008, fresh out of graduate school with a newly minted master's degree in science journalism, one of <a href="https://www.climbing.com/news/a-waste-free-new-river-rendezvous-no-problem/" target="_blank">my very first assignments</a> was to cover the <a href="https://www.newriverclimbing.net/" target="_blank">New River Rendezvous</a>, an annual 3-day rock climbing festival in the gorge, for <em>Climbing</em> magazine.</p><p>I have not yet rafted the raging rapids of the highly technical New River. Even after braving <a href="https://eos.org/features/will-earths-grandest-canyon-keep-getting-grander" target="_blank">22 glorious days rafting</a> the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, I am still intimidated by the New's legendary hydraulics.</p><p>I have even less desire to try the gorge's other adrenaline-fueled sport: BASE (buildings, antennas, spans, and Earth) jumping from the New River Gorge Bridge into the river, 267 meters below. Watching dozens of people eagerly leap from the dizzying span on <a href="https://officialbridgeday.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bridge Day</a> is enough of a rush for me.</p><p>The New River's potential as an adventurer's paradise is still expanding, with new mountain biking and hiking trails added every year. In 2019, around 1.3 million people recreated at the New, and tourism now drives Fayetteville's once-faltering economy. "The New River Gorge is a fascinating place—geologically, ecologically, and historically—in a majestic setting," Hitt said. "I hope people will be inspired by this elevated [national park] designation to come visit."</p>
We All Live Downstream
<p>The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve encompasses almost 295 square kilometers of land around the river corridor, but the New River's entire watershed is more than 18,000 square kilometers. "One of the ongoing challenges is that we can protect and manage the gorge itself, but we don't own the headwaters upstream," where the river is "undoubtedly" still affected by ongoing mining, Manning said.</p><p>The New River's upstream watershed includes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal_mining" target="_blank">mountaintop removal mining</a>, in which the tops of entire mountains are removed to access buried coal seams, and the overburden is pushed into a neighboring valley, destroying thousands of kilometers of mountain streams. Across southern West Virginia, <a href="https://today.duke.edu/2018/07/mapping-mountaintop-coal-mining%E2%80%99s-yearly-spread-appalachia" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1.5 million acres</a> of land have been affected by mountaintop removal mining operations, which have buried more than 3,200 kilometers of streams in rubble, a tactic called valley fill.</p><p>As groundwater trickles through the jumbled subsurface of a valley fill, it picks up minerals, metals, and salts from the debris, increasing the salt and mineral content of the water downstream. A <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/676997?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2014 study</a> by Hitt and colleagues in <em>Freshwater Science</em> found "fewer species, lower abundances, and less biomass" downstream from mining operations.</p><p>Trees seem to be the key in kick-starting the healing process. "We've found that restoring trees to the postmining landscape helps restore the hydrologic function" within a matter of years to decades, said <a href="https://nres.ca.uky.edu/person/chris-barton" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chris Barton</a>, a forest hydrologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Trees pull a lot of water out of the groundwater system, keeping it from mobilizing minerals, salts, and pollutants.</p><p>"As the forest regrows, we're seeing a return to the natural hydrology of these sites, along with improvements in the water quality that [are] needed to support aquatic life," Barton said.</p><p>One reforestation project, at a former mountaintop removal mine that was replanted in 2009, went from looking like "the surface of the Moon" to a lush green forest in less than a decade, Barton said. Last year, Barton observed minnows in the stream he and his team created out of the moonscape of rubble.</p>New, Forever
<p>Even with restoration and reforestation, the scars left on the landscape by mountaintop removal mining are permanent, Barton said. "Reforesting helps hide the scars, but they're still there. I do wonder about how erosion over geologic timescales will work on those valleys filled with loose, unconsolidated rock," he said. "It seems likely they will erode much faster than the mountains themselves" and may result in deep gorges and holes in the landscape.</p><p>In terms of pollution, the legacy of mining in Appalachia will linger essentially forever, said <a href="https://palmerlab.umd.edu/" target="_blank">Margaret Palmer,</a> a restoration ecologist at the University of Maryland. "Replanting offers the best hope for restoring stream biodiversity, but no matter what you do, it's crystal clear that mining poisons streams and that mined land will continue to release toxins into the ecosystem in perpetuity."</p><p>With a 300-million-year history, the New is no stranger to perpetuity. The river's deeply entrenched course is likely to stay that way for eons longer, perhaps until the North American continent is reconfigured into a new landmass in a few hundred million years. The New's steady presence may prove crucial to plant and animal species as climate change progresses, Manning said, because species are projected to <a href="https://maps.tnc.org/migrations-in-motion/#4/28.19/-78.93" target="_blank">migrate north</a> in response to warming temperatures.</p><p>"The New represents one of the most direct avenues for species migration in the Appalachian Mountains," he said. "In the future, I can see the New River Gorge harboring species on their northward migration. I think we'll see how important and resilient the forests of the Appalachians really are, as landscapes and climate continue to change."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in </em><em><a href="https://eos.org/features/the-new-river-gorge-ancient-river-old-mines-new-national-park" target="_blank">Eos</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Fossilized wood found on Old Faithful's geyser mound suggests that the geyser once stopped erupting long enough for trees to grow there. Ingo Drenberg / EyeEm / Getty Images
In Yellowstone National Park, large crowds watch in awe as Old Faithful erupts with a roar, launching a spire of water about 150 feet in the air.
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<p>Old Faithful erupts at regular intervals throughout the day, but it was not always so predictable.</p><p>Fossilized wood found on Old Faithful's geyser mound suggests that the geyser once stopped erupting long enough for trees to grow there.</p><p>"Trees do not grow on active geyser mounds," says Shaul Hurwitz of the United States Geological Survey.</p><p>His team sent samples of the wood for radio carbon dating, and <a target="_blank" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL089871">found that all were from the 13th and 14th centuries</a>.</p>
<p>"So looking into it, we found out that that was probably one of the driest periods in the region for last 1,200 years," Hurwitz says.</p><p>He says that as climate change causes more severe droughts, something similar could happen again.</p><p>"There's a chance that some of the geysers will change their frequency of eruptions and maybe even stop erupting, depending on the availability of water," Hurwitz says.</p><p>A complete shut-off is not likely – it would take many years of continued drought. But Old Faithful could erupt less frequently, and eager tourists might have to wait longer to see the show.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/03/severe-drought-could-make-yellowstones-old-faithful-geyser-less-faithful/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Delta-8 THC is a cannabis product that has become a bestseller over the past few months, as many consumers find they can legally purchase it from CBD retailers. Its proponents say that Delta-8 THC will give you a nice little buzz, minus some of the more intense feelings (including paranoia) that are sometimes associated with marijuana.
Delta-8 THC is being marketed as a legal option for consumers who either don't live in a state with legal cannabis, or are a little apprehensive about how traditional psychoactive THC products will affect them. But is it all it's cracked up to be? Let's take a closer look, exploring what Delta-8 THC is, how it differs from other THC products, and whether it's actually legal for use.
<h2>What is Delta-8 THC?</h2><p>To better understand <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/health/marijuana-hemp-delta-8-thc.html" target="_blank">Delta-8 THC</a>, it helps to cover some basics about THC and cannabis.</p><p>Cannabis plants come chock full of different <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/cannabis-marijuana-and-cannabinoids-what-you-need-to-know" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>cannabinoids</em></a>. These are naturally-occuring chemical compounds that bind with receptors throughout your body. They can offer a wide range of mental, emotional, and physical effects; indeed, the healing and therapeutic properties marijuana or <a data-linked-post="2648563694" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/strongest-cbd-oil-2648563694.html" target="_blank">CBD products</a> offer can be attributed to cannabinoids.</p><p>One of the most common cannabinoids is what's known as Delta-9 THC. Simply put, this is the part of marijuana that gets you "high." It's worth noting that Delta-9 THC remains illegal in many states, except for in the most minute doses, and is still illegal at the federal level. CBD products are made with trace amounts of THC, ensuring that consumers can enjoy positive health effects in a perfectly legal way, without the risk of getting high.</p><p>On a chemical level, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/health/marijuana-hemp-delta-8-thc.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Delta-8 THC</a> is not too different from Delta-9 THC; the distinction comes down to just a few molecules. But those molecules make a big practical impact: Delta-8 THC will give you a buzz, but the psychoactive effects are considerably milder than with Delta-9 THC.</p><p>More specifically, many cannabis enthusiasts report that Delta-8 THC helps them feel good but also leaves them relatively clear-headed; and, it doesn't produce the anxiety or jitteriness that often characterize a Delta-9 THC high.</p><p>Additionally, because of the way the law is written regarding Delta-9 THC, some CBD companies now sell Delta-8 THC products in places where traditional cannabis is still illegal.</p><h2>What's the Difference Between Delta-9 THC and Delta-8 THC?</h2><p>Here are the primary differences to note between Delta-9 and Delta-8 THC:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Delta-9 THC is the primary psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana. In other words, it's the part that gets you high.</li><li>Though some states have found workarounds, Delta-9 THC is still illegal under federal law.</li><li>Delta-8 THC is also found in the cannabis plant, though it's not quite as powerful or as well-known. </li><li>Delta-8 THC is milder in its psychoactive effects. And, it's not <em>technically </em>illegal under current law.</li></ul><p>These are just a few of the key distinctions to keep in mind. Delta-8 THC is popular among consumers who want a smoother high, and don't want to violate federal law.</p><h2>Is Delta-8 THC Legal?</h2><p>We noted that Delta-8 THC is not <em>technically </em>illegal. Here, we need to get into some of the nuanced legal considerations that surround this substance.</p><p>First of all, there are plenty of cannabis companies that actively promote Delta-8 THC as a legal way to get high. Again, that's technically true, but is still a point of debate for some.</p><p>For one thing, it's not explicitly listed as an illegal substance. While federal laws, and some state laws, specifically ban Delta-9 THC, Delta-8 THC is never mentioned. More to the point, though, many proponents will cite the<a href="https://www.usda.gov/farmbill" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> 2018 Farm Bill</a>. This law legalized several industrial hemp products on a national level, including CBD.</p><p>The Farm Bill also includes some fairly nuanced positions regarding THC. In summary, the law says that hemp and cannabis-derived products are legal so long as they contain less than 0.3 percent Delta-9 THC.</p><p>With that said, some lawyers contend that Delta-8's heyday may soon come to an end. That's because the Farm Bill clears it only so long as it's derived directly from hemp; most of the Delta-8 THC products sold today aren't made from hemp, but rather from synthetically-altered CBD.</p><p>Some of these issues are a little fuzzy, and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/delta-8-thc-legal-weed-explained-1113859/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the legal future of Delta-8 THC</a> remains a little uncertain. For now, though, many experts would argue that it is legal to purchase.</p><h2>What Kinds of Delta-8 THC Products Are Available?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><p>If you're looking to try Delta-8 THC products, you'll certainly find plenty of different products. Dispensaries and legal cannabis stores currently have a trove of products that use this cannabinoid. Some examples include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Vape cartridges, tinctures, and capsules.</li><li>Beverages made with Delta-8 THC, including some seltzers.</li><li>Edibles, including Delta-8 THC gummy bears, chocolate bars, and more.</li></ul><p>The cannabis industry has really been running with Delta-8 THC, finding creative ways to bring it to market. And chances are, even more products will be springing up in the weeks and months to come. </p><p>It's very important to note that you should only purchase Delta-8 THC products from reputable brands and established cannabis retailers. We do not recommend purchasing any products that contain Delta-8 THC from gas stations or vape shops. If you are looking for a reputable place to explore these products, here are a few brands that we trust and recommend:</p>
<h2>What are the Pros and Cons of Delta-8 THC?</h2><p>As you consider whether Delta-8 THC is worth your time, it may be helpful to weigh the pros against the cons.</p><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><p>Let's start with some of the positives:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Delta-8 THC does have psychoactive effects, but it's a milder effect than with traditional Delta-9 THC.</li><li>Delta-8 THC is currently legal and widely accessible in multiple states.</li><li>There are a wide number of products that use Delta-8 THC.</li></ul><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><p>Now, a few of the downsides.</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Delta-8 THC isn't quite as commonplace as other cannabis products, including CBD, and some of the options on the market are expensive.</li><li>While this substance is technically legal, there are plenty of uncertainties over its legal future. It's something you want to keep in mind.</li><li>As a relatively new product, Delta-8 THC products are not regulated by the FDA and there is not independent testing in place to verify that it is safe or pure.</li></ul><p>As with any cannabis product, Delta-8 THC has its pros and cons. As you seek the cannabis product that's best for you, it's largely a matter of personal preference.</p><p>Also note that smoking, vaping, or otherwise imbibing any kind of cannabis-related product can carry some medical risks and negative health consequences. If you have any specific concerns, we recommend consulting with your doctor before you try any Delta-8 THC product.</p><p><em><strong>Josh Hurst </strong></em><em>is a journalist, critic, and essayist. He lives in Knoxville, TN, with his wife and three sons. He covers natural health, nutrition, supplements, and clean energy. His writing has appeared in Health, Shape, and Remedy Review.</em></p>
NuLeaf Naturals Full Spectrum Delta 8 THC Oil
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<p><a href="https://nuleafnaturals.com/product/full-spectrum-delta-8-thc-oil-30mg-ml/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NuLeaf Naturals Full Spectrum Delta 8 THC Oil</a> is made from organic hemp and organic virgin hemp seed extract. It's available in a 150 mg bottle and a 450 mg bottle, which both provide 15 mg of Delta 8 THC per serving. This formula is also available in a soft gel.</p>
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Botany Farms Delta-10 THC Vape Cartridge
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzNjE2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2OTcwNTgzM30.opm4l5-rSqV1HfvrbVE16EEVZvqxI42xgqnsQfL9p2M/img.jpg?width=980" id="2c749" width="400" height="400" data-rm-shortcode-id="a678e76d8cd5e13bae95d9c3ae664b85" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />botanyfarms.com
<p>The <a href="https://www.botanyfarms.com/product/delta-10-thc-vape-cartridge/?aff=14" target="_blank">Botany Farms Delta-10 THC Vape Cartridge</a> actually contains both Delta-10 and Delta-8 THC.This is designed to provide the desired effects of Delta-8 THC but without the drowsiness. They also offer a vape cartridge with a 1:1 concentration of <a href="https://www.botanyfarms.com/product/delta-10-delta-8-thc-vape-cartridge/?aff=14" target="_blank">Delta-8 THC</a> and Delta-10 THC. Note that while vape products can be used to aid in smoking cessation, we do not recommend vaping or smoking because of the negative health effects they can cause.</p>
$60
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Yosemite Firefall at Sunset, Yosemite National Park, California. heyengel / iStock / Getty Images Plus
There are very few places that capture the essence of American beauty better than Yosemite National Park. Millions of people visit each year to explore its mountainous terrain, or to experience Yosemite's unique natural wonders such as the giant sequoia groves or the hundreds of waterfalls that nourish the protected landscape.
<p>One such waterfall takes the mainstage in mid-February as the park's most popular winter attraction. Known as the "Firefall," or Horsetail Falls during the spring and summer months, this waterfall glows fiery red in the wintertime as the sunset reflects off its waters. However, to see it in 2021 you'll have to make reservations soon.</p>
<p>Starting February 8, Yosemite will put a reservation system in place for day use of the park. The park is taking extra steps to ensure social distancing protocols are followed and risks are minimized during COVID-19, and encourage visitors who want to see Firefall to <a href="https://www.recreation.gov/timed-entry/10086745" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">book soon</a>.</p>
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heyengel / iStock / Getty Images Plus
<p>The expected viewing dates begin February 13th and end February 25th. Due to the short timeframe that the Firefall is visible, reservations are expected to book quickly.</p> <p>For those unfamiliar with the Firefall, it is a bizarre and beautiful natural phenomenon that can only occur for two weeks out of the year. At sunset, the waterfall transforms from an icy shower to a glowing flame that appears to flow like lava from the heights of El Capitan. This occurs due to the unique angle of the waterfall against the sunset during mid-February. </p> <p>Despite its massive appeal, the Firefall is actually quite elusive. In order for the illusion to occur, Horsetail Falls must be experiencing a clear Western sky, have enough snowfall the night before, and experience warm temperatures to melt the snow and sustain the waterfall. Due to the angle of the sunset against the waterfall, it can only occur for approximately two weeks in February, but a cloudy day or freezing temperatures can get in the way of the incredible display. </p> <p>Not only are the Firefalls rare, but they're also short-lived. The sunset will only be at the right angle for five to ten minutes, giving visitors a very short window to observe. However, those who have witnessed the Firefall believe it is always worth the effort.</p><p>Yosemite's Firefall was first discovered in 1978 by photographer Galen Rowell. He was driving past Horsetail Falls at sunset, and witnessed the anomaly long enough to capture the first photos. After sharing them with a soon-to-be worldwide audience, Firefall became the #1 <a href="https://www.yosemite.com/a-guide-to-yosemites-natural-firefall-horsetail-fall/" target="_blank">attraction at Yosemite</a> during the month of February.</p><p>Since then, the natural wonder that occurs on Horsetail falls has become a global spectacle, coveted by <a href="https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2020-01-27/yosemite-firefall-glow-horsetail-fall-photo-camera" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">photographers, artists, and nature enthusiasts</a> alike. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/visitation.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Thousands of people visit</a> the park during mid-February each year solely to chase the elusive majesty of this waterfall at sunset.</p><p>Horsetail Fall is located over the eastern edge of El Capitan, which is not possible to reach by car. The closest parking is one and a half miles from the actual viewing site, so it is important to book your reservation and arrive early if you want to catch a glimpse of it at sunset.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="51fdff480eca43b9514e4b165932261f"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/59PJ-DxrpbE?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p><em>Savannah Hasty is an environmental writer with more than six years of experience and has written thousands of articles for clients around the world. Her work focuses on environmental news, lifestyle content, and copywriting for sustainable brands. Savannah lives on the sunny coast of Florida and is inspired by this to play an active role in the preservation of the state's marine life and natural ecosystems.</em></p>
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A fallen tree in Yosemite National Park following a Jan. 18 windstorm. Yosemite National Park
California's iconic Yosemite National Park will remain closed until at least Saturday, Jan. 30 after a windstorm caused millions of dollars of damage in the park and toppled two giant sequoias.
<p>The storm that struck Yosemite also battered most of California beginning Monday, Jan. 18, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-california-3956a26917aeafea70950fb218c8dff6" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. It toppled trees and power lines. Around 300,000 homes and businesses lost power from the storm directly, while tens of thousands of people had their power shut off by utilities to prevent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">wildfires</a>.</p><p>Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman told <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article248673265.html" target="_blank">The Sacramento Bee</a> that the storm was the biggest he had observed in his 25 years of working for the park, in terms of both wind speed and damage caused.</p><p>Yosemite originally said it would reopen Tuesday, Jan. 26, but <a href="https://twitter.com/YosemiteNPS/status/1353886012594905088" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced Monday</a> it would delay its reopening until at least Saturday.</p><p>"Park staff continue to work toward restoring safe conditions after last week's Mono wind event," the park tweeted.</p>
<div id="76dfd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="19570e684388562e1a7eca24ec4b32d6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1353886012594905088" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Yosemite will remain closed at least until Saturday, January 30. Park staff continue to work toward restoring safe… https://t.co/1dAPmCwaL9</div> — Yosemite National Park (@Yosemite National Park)<a href="https://twitter.com/YosemiteNPS/statuses/1353886012594905088">1611626554.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The storm hit Yosemite the night of Jan. 18, The Associated Press reported. The winds knocked over hundreds of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trees" target="_self">trees</a> in the park, according to The Sacramento Bee. The fallen trees included two giant sequoias from the lower grove of Yosemite's Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, Gediman said.</p><p>Fallen trees in the lower grove also crushed a boardwalk and bathroom that had been added during a $40 million restoration completed in 2018. All told, Gediman estimated that damage to vehicles, employee homes and facilities was in the millions of dollars.</p><p>Gediman said the hardest hit area was the Wawona community, which saw wind speeds of up to around 80 miles per hour. It was still without power three days after the storm.</p>
<div id="251bc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7cedc91c11805f0a4cf334dc79a3c69e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1352401931403104259" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Yosemite National Park will remain closed at least until Tuesday, January 26, as a result of damage to park facilit… https://t.co/AOIwF5HIIv</div> — Yosemite National Park (@Yosemite National Park)<a href="https://twitter.com/YosemiteNPS/statuses/1352401931403104259">1611272721.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Fortunately, no one was injured in the area, and the closure comes during a slow time for Yosemite. The park usually sees fewer visitors in the winter, and this year numbers are even lower because of the coronavirus pandemic. Before the storm, the park was only open for day visitors, and lodges and campgrounds were closed.</p><p>When the park reopens, it will be open for 24 hours a day, the park said on Twitter. However, not every part of the park will open at once. The Yosemite Valley Lodge and the Ahwahnee will open Feb. 5, and the Upper Pines Campground will open on Feb. 8.</p><p>Areas south of Yosemite Valley, including Wawona and Mariposa Grove, will stay closed until further notice, the park said.</p>
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A wolverine in Finland on June 19, 2019. yrjö jyske / CC BY 2.0
A Yellowstone National Park trail camera received a surprising visitor last month.
<p>An elusive wolverine triggered a camera near the Mammoth Hot Springs area, the park announced on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/YellowstoneNPS/posts/4279714232043898" target="_blank">Facebook Wednesday</a>.</p><p>"This is the first video footage of a wolverine since remote cameras have been deployed in the park," the park wrote.</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2bdd266fcee4b2242c8bbd8ed9257b16"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/YellowstoneNPS/videos/399150214715661/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div>
<p>Yellowstone National Park first began installing cameras to track the movement of cougars in 2014. In the seven years since, the cameras have also proved useful for detecting and studying a variety of species. But never before have those species included wolverines.</p><p>Wolverines (<em>Gulo gulo) </em>are mid-sized carnivores in the weasel family who thrive in snowy environments. Worldwide, they are found in Scandinavia, Russia, China, Canada and the U.S., according to <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/9561/45198537" target="_blank">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a> (IUCN). In the U.S., the southernmost part of their range extends into the lower 48 states, particularly the North Cascades in Washington and the Northern Rocky Mountains in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming, according to the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/wolverine.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> (FWS). This includes the greater Yellowstone area, where they prefer mountainous areas with forest or tundra habitats, the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolverine.htm?fbclid=IwAR2zmzVYPN-dgY9Opq4HDnOy_99_WCNLBN8lICxMUAK_IMfec6D5L_l_XM8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">park explained</a>. Between 2006 and 2009, seven wolverines (two females and five males) were documented in the eastern Yellowstone area and nearby national forests.</p>
<p>In the Facebook post, the park wrote that they lived in "low densities" in the park itself and were "rarely detected."</p><p>The elusive mammals are hard to document because they tend to live in remote areas and can move quickly over a short period, FWS explained.</p><p>"Wolverines are so rarely seen and inhabit such remote terrain at low densities that assessing population trends is difficult and sudden declines could go unnoticed for years," Yellowstone National Park warned.</p>
<p>And they may become even more elusive because of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>. By 2050, the only places in the lower 48 states that will have enough spring snow pack for the animals will be greater Yellowstone, the southern Rocky Mountains and California's Sierra Nevada, but there are no wolverine populations currently in the latter two locations.</p><p>Despite this, the FWS refused Endangered Species Act protections to wolverines in October of 2020, as <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/endangered-species-wolverines-denied-endangered-species-protections" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">High Country News reported</a>. The department argued that enough snow would last in the lower 48 states to allow the animals to remain living there.</p><p>Conservationists disagreed, and <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/American_wolverine/pdfs/20-12-14-Wolvernine-Complaint-for-Declaratory-and-Injunctive-Relief.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sued</a> the department to reverse the ruling in December of 2020.</p><p>"For years scientists have been sounding the alarm on how wolverines are severely affected by climate change," said Andrea Zaccardi, a senior attorney at the <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, said in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/conservation-groups-sue-feds-over-failure-protect-wolverines-2020-12-14/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release</a> announcing the lawsuit. "The future of the wolverine in the lower 48 now stands on a knife edge thanks to the Fish and Wildlife Service refusing to do its job. We hope this lawsuit finally puts the species on the road to recovery."</p>
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Panorama of Horseshoe Bend from Grandview at New River Gorge National River, West Virginia. National Park Service
The U.S. is beginning the new year with a new national park.
<p>The nation's 63rd national park is also the first to be designated as such in the state of West Virginia, <a href="https://www.veranda.com/luxury-lifestyle/a35132939/new-river-gorge-national-park/" target="_blank">Veranda reported</a>. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/neri/index.htm" target="_blank">New River Gorge</a>, in Fayetteville, was officially changed from a national river to a national park as part of the COVID-19 relief bill that passed on Dec. 27, <a href="https://www.cntraveler.com/story/new-river-gorge-national-park-is-made-for-rafting-and-rock-climbing" target="_blank">Condé Nast Traveler reported</a>.</p><p>"Redesignation of the National River to a National Park and Preserve will shine a brighter light on West Virginia and all that it has to offer, and provide another catalyst for our tourism industry and local businesses," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said in a statement reported by <a href="https://www.wboy.com/top-stories/new-river-gorge-set-to-become-63rd-national-park-and-20th-national-reserve-with-redesignation-legislation/" target="_blank">12 WBOY</a>.</p>
<p>The New River Gorge is already a beloved destination for outdoor enthusiasts. It sees almost one million visitors every year and boasts activities like hiking, fishing, rafting, rock climbing and camping, according to Veranda.</p><p>Despite its name, the river is actually believed to be one of the oldest in North America. It has been important for West Virginians throughout the state's history, serving both Indigenous Americans and railway and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a>-mining communities.</p><p>It has been managed by the National Park Service as a national river since 1978, but West Virginia's Congressional delegation hopes its new status will attract more visitors.</p>
<p>Capito, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and U.S. Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) originally proposed the status upgrade in a 2019 bill, <a href="https://www.wvpublic.org/government/2020-12-22/new-river-gorge-to-be-designated-as-a-national-park" target="_blank">WV Public Broadcasting reported</a>. Capito noted that outdoor recreation is a $9 billion industry for West Virginia, and making the gorge a national park could boost visits by 21 percent.</p><p>Condé Nast Traveler also noted that the efforts to redesignate the river represents a signal that West Virginia is shifting its economy from coal mining to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> and recreation. The Congress people met with small business owners and outdoor enthusiasts in the state to build support for the new park, and emphasized its economic benefits.</p>
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Rafters enjoy a scenic stretch of the New River Gorge National River. National Park Service
<p>"This designation will increase the international recognition by highlighting West Virginia's world-class beauty and resources. Over the last two years we have met with outdoorsmen, businesses and local leaders and other interested groups to ensure this designation will promote the beauty and rich history of the New River Gorge, while ensuring that the longstanding traditions of hunting and fishing are protected for generations to come," Manchin said in a statement reported by 12 WBOY.</p><p>To accommodate hunting and fishing, the new park will also double as a National Preserve, according to Condé Nast Traveler. It will feature 7,021 acres of protected riverfront and a 65,165 acre preserve where hunting and fishing can take place. </p><p>"The New River Gorge is home to all West Virginia has to offer – our beauty, small businesses, and adventurous tourism opportunities. This legislation will preserve and protect the New River Gorge for generations to come and make our state an even better place to live, work, and raise a family," Miller said in a statement reported by 12 WBOY.</p><p><em>An earlier version of this article said that New River Gorge was the first dual national park and preserve outside of Alaska. However, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve</a> in Colorado also has dual status. </em></p>
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National Park Ranger Condemned for Attacking Unarmed Indigenous Man on Sacred Native Land
31 December 2020
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Darrell House, an Indigenous man and Marine Corps veteran, was tasered by a National Park Service ranger on Dec. 27, 2020 in New Mexico's Petroglyph National Monument after he walked off a trail and failed to cooperate with the ranger's requests. Darrell House / Instagram
By Brett Wilkins
Indigenous and wilderness conservation groups were among those on Wednesday responding with outrage to video of a National Park Service ranger tasering an unarmed Indigenous man after he walked off a trail in Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico on Sunday and then refused to comply with the ranger's orders.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Darrell House, a Diné (Navajo) and Oneida U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was hiking with his sister and his dog in the Albuquerque park — which features many petroglyphs, or ancient stone carvings that are sacred to tribes — so that he could harvest dirt for ceremonies and pray.</p><p>House said he walked off a marked trail in order to socially distance himself from a large group of walkers when "this park ranger started following me."</p><p>"I guess he was upset about me going off trail before, you know, doing my prayers for the rocks," House <a href="https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/video-park-ranger-tases-native-american-man-at-petroglyph-national-monument/5962472/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> KOB. In a <a href="https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=4B790080-56B4-4959-AE31-36D3B80D6EE4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">video</a> released by the National Park Service, House repeatedly refuses to disclose his real name to the rangers.</p>
<div id="ac72e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="525e4c22c3310d3918c260a411080137"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344422262544367616" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A park ranger in New Mexico repeatedly tased an Indigenous man and former marine for not showing ID and allegedly v… https://t.co/b0TSySZ7Ba</div> — AJ+ (@AJ+)<a href="https://twitter.com/ajplus/statuses/1344422262544367616">1609370220.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"I didn't see a reason to give my identification," House <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-park-ranger-tasering-native-american-man-new-mexico-n1252477" target="_blank">told</a> NBC News. "I don't need to tell people why I'm coming there to pray and give things in honor to the land. I don't need permission or consent. And I don't think he liked that very much."</p><p>A ranger House identifed by his last name Graden then fired his Taser at him. In a video recorded by his sister, House is seen writhing on the ground in agony next to his dog while the woman pleads for the attackers to stop.</p><p>"I don't have anything; I apologize for going off the trail," House says between cries of pain.</p><p>House said the attack left him "traumatized" and bleeding.</p><p>"I'm shaking," he wrote in an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJVMGdglspI/?utm_source=ig_embed" target="_blank">Instagram post</a>. "What hurt me the most was when my baby Geronimo felt the shock," he said, referring to his dog.</p><p>"Here, you will see a white man abuse his power," House. "The law doesn't work for the Indigenous ... You would think with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, with the Black Lives Matter Movement, authorities would try to avoid having to pull a weapon out. Imagine I disarm him from the taser then what, I get charged with assault, or worse he grabs for his gun and ends me."</p><p>"These scenarios have been going through my head since this afternoon," he added. "I'm a son, I'm a brother, I'm a father. More importantly, I'm a human being."</p>
<div id="a8acd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6f99f0e9d315563653f46758f5633f50"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344433705201381377" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">CW—Police brutality
Darrell House is a Navajo & Oneida veteran. He was on sacred land that he visits to pray, when… https://t.co/z3Ie852ZNW</div> — Cori Bush (@Cori Bush)<a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/statuses/1344433705201381377">1609372948.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="c34cb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7117cbd1c890b0653c04ebabbd70dfa0"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344052998809341952" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">I am shocked by the video of a National Park Service ranger tasing Darrell House at Petroglyph National Monument on Sunday.</div> — Martin Heinrich (@Martin Heinrich)<a href="https://twitter.com/MartinHeinrich/statuses/1344052998809341952">1609282180.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Indigenous liberation group Red Nation released a <a href="https://therednation.org/we-condemn-racist-national-park-service-for-brutalizing-darrel-house/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=we-condemn-racist-national-park-service-for-brutalizing-darrel-house" target="_blank">statement</a> on Wednesday condemning the attack on House. It read, in part:</p><blockquote>The Petroglyphs National Monument, which is home to ancient Indigenous rock art that still retains spiritual and cultural significance to Indigenous people today, was initially created at the request of Native activists to protect the area from vandalism and developers. Instead, the NPS under the authority of the Department of Interior is policing Native people on Native land.<br>Public lands are stolen lands. Indigenous people have the right to practice their culture and spiritual ways on Indigenous land without fear of repression, discrimination, or violence. In consultation with our dear relative Darrell House, The Red Nation calls for a full investigation of NPS actions of racial terror that day, the termination of rangers Wineland and Graden, and restitution and a full apology to Darrell and his sister.</blockquote><p>"<a href="https://landback.org/" target="_blank">LandBack</a> begins with defunding racist police on Indigenous land, the Department of the Interior is no exception," the group added. </p>
<div id="50a51" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b52cf833a09133e9c30030356bbf3878"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1344330082312187904" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Last Saturday, December 27, a National Park Service (NPS) Ranger tasered our Diné and Oneida relative Darrell House… https://t.co/07xcOEH8xK</div> — The Red Nation #TheRedDeal (@The Red Nation #TheRedDeal)<a href="https://twitter.com/The_Red_Nation/statuses/1344330082312187904">1609348242.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Michael Casaus, New Mexico state director at the Wilderness Society, also released a <a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/press-release/wilderness-society-response-video-showing-park-ranger-tasing-native-man-petroglyph-national-monument" target="_blank">statement</a> condemning the incident:</p><blockquote>Park rules are there for protecting the lands but the enforcement of those policies should not come at the expense of protecting the humanity of all those who visit, especially if these are their traditional homelands. Our parks and open spaces should be welcoming and inclusive places of healing and comfort, yet they are not for so many, especially for Black and Indigenous people and people of color.<br>The original purpose of the monument was to protect and promote the understanding of the petroglyphs in relation to the cultural and natural features of the West Mesa and to further the heritage of traditional communities connected to these lands. Petroglyph National Monument is a place where Native people should be able to visit and honor the past, the present, and the future on the very lands their ancestors stood without fear for their safety.</blockquote><p>House said the incident would not deter him from returning to walk and pray in the park again.</p><p>"I will go back, he <a href="https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/native-american-man-tased-while-hiking-at-petroglyph-national-monument/" target="_blank">told</a> KRQE. "I am going to continue to do my prayers, going off trail without permission. Without consent. That is my right."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/30/national-park-ranger-condemned-attacking-unarmed-indigenous-man-sacred-native-land" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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The iconic giant sequoia trees are seen at Sequoia National Park. lucky-photographer / Getty Images
By Emily Lin
Editor's note: As wildfires came dangerously close to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in September 2020, the curator of the archives there worked with Emily Lin, librarian and head of digital curation at the University of California Merced, to evacuate the archives to keep them safe. In this interview, Lin explains how they evacuated the records, what's in them and why they're worth preserving.
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<h2>Why were the archives of Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks evacuated?</h2><p><a href="http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/herbarium-details/?irn=125890" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ward Eldredge</a>, the curator of the archives of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and I had been talking about the potential partnership around digitization of collections that had been housed there for a couple of years now. There's been a concern about the safety of these records because <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/why-does-california-have-wildfires.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildfires in the past few years</a> have been an annual threat. So the long-term safekeeping of the records was very much on Eldredge's mind. And he pointed out that the UC Merced campus is located in one of the few areas in California that are outside of a high-risk fire zone and also outside of the risk of earthquakes. There was just no question that we would do whatever we could to bring them here for safekeeping.</p><p>In September, when the fires got really close to the park, Eldredge was trying really hard to find a way to move the materials. He just couldn't find a van or a truck because the residents in the area were also being called to evacuate, and there was a shortage. So in the course of a day, we managed to make arrangements to take our moving truck from campus, and he was able to secure a U-Haul truck. We were able to pack everything and move it out of the mountains to the UC Merced campus, which is two and a half hours away.</p>
<h2>What's in these archives?</h2><p>There were hundreds of boxes of collections, about 600 linear feet, and also cabinets of plant specimens and artifacts.</p><p>It's a complete record of the administrative history of the park. Sequoia was the second-oldest national park in the U.S., established in 1890. So there are records related to its founding and through to the 20th century. In letters written by the park directors to the U.S. president and the secretaries of the Department of the Interior, one can see how the thinking around managing public lands, conservation, fire and forest management changed over the last century.</p><p>Before the park was established, people would cut the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/cook/sec9.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sequoias down for timber</a>. The city of Los Angeles wanted to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/dilsaver-tweed/chap7a.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">build a dam</a> in Kings Canyon up until 1965. So you can see how the thinking changed and how we got from that way of thinking to really establishing the National Park Service and protecting these unique environments.</p>
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Kings Canyon is a rugged glacier-carved valley more than a mile deep. Crd637 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
<p>There's an incredible photographic record – tens of thousands of photographs that cover pretty much every place within the park. There are maps of the sequoia groves, maps related to how trails and roads and other buildings were constructed. We take these trails for granted, but they were huge undertakings involving hundreds of workers breaking rocks, cutting trees and excavating for years. They worked through the winter sometimes to do it within schedule. These projects also provided jobs during <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/dilsaver-tweed/chap6a.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Great Depression</a>.</p><h2>Who will find them useful?</h2><p>Anyone, from those within the parks who want to better understand the history of the park, to the rangers and the interpreters who want to provide and present that history to the general public. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWrNMyR30GM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ken Burns</a>, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker, accessed these records while he was making his television series about the national parks.</p><p>They'll also be more widely available for students to use. There's plenty of material in there for lots of Ph.D. students working on dissertations and for those who want to really investigate how best to manage public lands and determine what's effective. That knowledge is going to benefit the broader public and help conserve these national parks for all of us. There's a rich record that can help us understand what is unique about the environment that allows these trees to survive.</p><h2>What are the plans for keeping the archives at UC Merced?</h2><p>When the records were kept in the park, it was just one person, Ward Eldredge, maintaining the records. That's a lot of work. You could make an appointment and he could provide access if you wanted to come to the park, but it's in a very small space within the park headquarters, so the accessibility was definitely limited. Now that these collections are at the library at UC Merced, it will be easier for people to be able to access them.</p><p>Our vision is to be able to digitize much of this material. Once it's online, it will be a lot easier for people to at least see and maybe answer some of their immediate questions. And if there's a need for them to see the physical material, they can still make arrangements to do that.</p><p>There's still a long way to go, because normally, we would have to make a plan with the National Park Service, raise funds, build the facilities to store them safely and so on. Because we had to evacuate them, we still have to work on formalizing an agreement, but our goal is eventually to make sure that these records will be safe.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152367/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation"></p>
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<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emily-lin-1189924" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emily Lin</a> is Head of Digital Curation and Scholarship, UC Merced, <em>University of California, Merced.</em><br/>
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<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>Emily Lin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-curators-transferred-sequoia-and-kings-canyon-national-parks-archives-to-escape-wildfires-152367" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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Trump Administration Sued Over 'Outrageous Assault' on Tongass National Forest Protections
24 December 2020
Politics
A humpback whale in Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Danita Delimont / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
A coalition of Indigenous groups, businesses, and conservation organizations on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its "arbitrary and reckless" removal of roadless protections for the nearly 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska, warning that the rollback could devastate local communities, wildlife, and the climate.
<p>Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/forests/pdfs/Tongass-NF-Roadless-OVK-et-al-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lawsuit</a> in the U.S. District Court in Alaska on behalf of regional tribes, businesses, and conservation groups. The complaint notes that the largest national forest, located in Southeast Alaska, "is central to the life ways of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people who have lived in and depended on the forest since time immemorial."</p><p>The U.S. Forest Service's move to exempt the forest from the Roadless Rule, finalized just days before President Donald Trump lost reelection to President-elect Joe Biden, would open up more than nine million acres of the Tongass — with its centuries-old trees that provide crucial carbon sequestration — to logging and roadbuilding.</p>
<div id="bb1ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4e7ad98f94e433b5c7d5ffafa79b1888"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1341844503783636992" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here's the legal complaint, which lists just about everyone under the sun as a plaintiff: https://t.co/0Vmazdm6hM… https://t.co/3uzhWST8E2</div> — James Brooks 🗞️ (@James Brooks 🗞️)<a href="https://twitter.com/AK_OK/statuses/1341844503783636992">1608755634.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"The Tongass Forest is my home. Home to the ancient Tlingit and Haida Indigenous Nations, it is where my ancestry originates. My bloodline is Indigenous to this land — its DNA is my DNA," <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/12/23/womens-climate-justice-group-joins-lawsuit-targeting-trump-administrations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> Kashudoha Wanda Loescher Culp, a Tlingit activist and Tongass coordinator for the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). "The air we breathe, the water we depend on, the land we live upon, all pristine. It is a life to cherish. It is a way of living worth fighting for."</p><p>"The repeal of the Roadless Rule will only lead to the destruction of our homelands, and subsequently the destruction of our communities who depend upon the abundance of the forest," she said. "This is an attack on our peoples and the climate. The Trump administration's decision to open the Tongass to roads, logging, and mining is an underhanded misuse of congressional authority and the battle will go on — we will continue to rise in defense of our homelands."</p>
<p>Robert Starbard, tribal administrator of the Hoonah Indian Association, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/12/23/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administration-decision-gut-tongass-national-forest" target="_blank">declared</a>: "The need for this litigation is a mark of shame upon the federal government for violating the trust and responsibilities it has to the Indigenous peoples of the Tongass. It is equally a stain upon the state of Alaska, which colluded with the Trump administration to circumvent scientific analysis to achieve a desired political outcome."</p><p>Though the Hoonah Indian Association had accepted a government invitation to weigh in during the rulemaking process, "we ultimately withdrew as a cooperating agency when it became clear that our involvement was purely to provide political cover and lend legitimacy to a corrupted process with a preordained outcome," Starbard explained. "The Roadless Rule decision is fatally flawed and ignores the advice and expertise of the tribal cooperating agencies and omits significant issues and concerns."</p>
<div id="550fa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ee0c5a8137a173e1cce9f22e9e4e1c03"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1339988024558542854" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This is yet another example of a flawed process that ended with a flawed result.
We encourage the incoming Biden a… https://t.co/AUJm9KG3qz</div> — The Wilderness Society 🌳 (@The Wilderness Society 🌳)<a href="https://twitter.com/Wilderness/statuses/1339988024558542854">1608313015.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"The Tongass Forest is my home. Home to the ancient Tlingit and Haida Indigenous Nations, it is where my ancestry originates. My bloodline is Indigenous to this land — its DNA is my DNA," <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/12/23/womens-climate-justice-group-joins-lawsuit-targeting-trump-administrations" target="_blank">said</a> Kashudoha Wanda Loescher Culp, a Tlingit activist and Tongass coordinator for the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). "The air we breathe, the water we depend on, the land we live upon, all pristine. It is a life to cherish. It is a way of living worth fighting for."</p><p>"The repeal of the Roadless Rule will only lead to the destruction of our homelands, and subsequently the destruction of our communities who depend upon the abundance of the forest," she said. "This is an attack on our peoples and the climate. The Trump administration's decision to open the Tongass to roads, logging, and mining is an underhanded misuse of congressional authority and the battle will go on — we will continue to rise in defense of our homelands."</p><p>Robert Starbard, tribal administrator of the Hoonah Indian Association, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/12/23/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administration-decision-gut-tongass-national-forest" target="_blank">declared</a>: "The need for this litigation is a mark of shame upon the federal government for violating the trust and responsibilities it has to the Indigenous peoples of the Tongass. It is equally a stain upon the state of Alaska, which colluded with the Trump administration to circumvent scientific analysis to achieve a desired political outcome."</p><p>Though the Hoonah Indian Association had accepted a government invitation to weigh in during the rulemaking process, "we ultimately withdrew as a cooperating agency when it became clear that our involvement was purely to provide political cover and lend legitimacy to a corrupted process with a preordained outcome," Starbard explained. "The Roadless Rule decision is fatally flawed and ignores the advice and expertise of the tribal cooperating agencies and omits significant issues and concerns."</p>
<p>Andrea Feniger, Sierra Club Alaska chapter director, emphasized that "preserving the Tongass is a matter of survival."</p><p>"It is essential to the subsistence culture and food security of Indigenous peoples," she said. "As one of the planet's major carbon sinks, it is also essential for mitigating the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> that threatens us all."</p><p>Other advocates from groups that have joined the suit also highlighted how wildlife and the climate could be impacted by what NRDC senior attorney Niel Lawrence called "an outrageous assault on America's environment and all those who benefit from it, now and in future generations."</p><p>"Trump's reckless plan to clearcut old-growth trees in the Tongass will irreversibly damage our climate, kill wildlife, and devastate Southeast Alaska communities," warned Randi Spivak, public lands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "We're in the midst of climate and wildlife extinction crises and the Tongass is a lifeline for our planet."</p>
<div id="ea5ec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="84d8bcdc0caf651231fe7cc8e89cef3c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1341873740620054528" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“Stretching 16m acres…the Tongass is unique for its size and #biodiversity, with thousands of islands, waterways, g… https://t.co/xQtXpv5oOM</div> — Lili (@Lili)<a href="https://twitter.com/climateleaf/statuses/1341873740620054528">1608762605.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>As for the impact on local businesses, Dan Blanchard, CEO of UnCruise, a small vessel company providing outdoor recreation experiences, pointed out that "Southeast Alaska hosts two-thirds of all Alaska visitors, making it the most visited region of the state."</p><p>"Forest Service lands, particularly inventoried roadless areas, are critical to drawing these visitors, and generate roughly $245 million annually — over two-thirds of Tongass National Forest visitor spending," Blanchard said. "We depend on the ability to market and provide unique recreation experiences, and our clients expect to see 'wild' Alaska and prefer intact natural landscapes."</p><p>"Clearcutting and timber road construction would force us to divert our travel routes to avoid seeing or being around clearcuts," he added. "This would negatively affect the outdoor recreation economy and Southeast Alaska's reputation as an adventure travel destination."</p><p>According to Earthjustice attorney Kate Glover, "The Trump administration ignored tribes and Alaskans throughout this process, and is instead prioritizing illusive timber industry profits over the interests of Alaska Native people who have stewarded the land since time immemorial, small business operators whose livelihoods depend on an intact forest ecosystem, and everyone who benefits from this national forest's unique ability to serve as a natural buffer against climate change."</p><p>Dubbing the Roadless Rule a "landmark achievement in conserving our natural heritage, our climate, and our public resources," Lawrence of NRDC vowed that "we're not going to let Trump get away with this illegal effort to strip America's great temperate rainforest of these vital protections."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/23/coalition-sues-trump-administration-over-outrageous-assault-tongass-national-forest" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The mountains above Paradise Valley at the gateway to Yellowstone National Park are now protected from gold mining. Walt Snover / Getty Images
The gateway to Yellowstone National Park is now safe from mining.
<p>A <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54919e5ae4b057e73fb9016d/t/5fd11f7fa907cd28a345a888/1607540608412/MTSupremeCourt_Decision_12082020.pdf" target="_blank">ruling</a> issued by the Montana Supreme Court Wednesday has effectively squashed a plan by Canadian company Lucky Minerals to search for gold in the mountains above Paradise Valley, the northern entryway to the iconic national park.</p><p>"Never underestimate the power of a community united to preserve its values to move mountains — and to protect them," Michelle Uberuaga, executive director of the <a href="https://www.pcecmt.org/" target="_blank">Park County Environmental Council</a>, one of two <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> groups behind the winning lawsuit, told <a href="https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/environment/montana-supreme-court-upholds-decision-to-block-mining-north-of-yellowstone/article_8fe4b13a-eff9-5d09-99a1-55b55c4e7058.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Bozeman Daily Chronicle</a>.</p><p>For the Park County Environmental Council, co-plaintiff <a href="http://greateryellowstone.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greater Yellowstone Coalition</a> (GYC) and their legal representatives <a href="https://earthjustice.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a>, Wednesday's victory was a long time coming. Here is a brief timeline of key events.</p>
<ul><li>2011: The Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) was amended to stop district judges from halting projects approved by state agencies while new environmental reviews were being conducted, even if the approval was ruled to be illegal.</li><li>2017: Environmental groups sued after Montana's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved a drilling permit for Lucky Minerals to look for gold near Emigrant Peak, north of Yellowstone.</li><li>2018: A Park County District Court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and said the permit was illegal because the DEQ did not fully consider the environmental impacts of the project. However, the judge could not block the exploratory drilling from taking place because of the 2011 amendment. The conservation groups then asked the judge to rule the amendment unconstitutional.</li><li>2019: The district judge <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/montana-court-blocks-gold-mining-yellowstone-2634854258.html" target="_self">ruled</a> in favor of the conservation groups and tossed out the amendment.</li><li>2020: The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision that the amendment was unconstitutional after the DEQ and the company brought an appeal.</li></ul>
<p>"Years in the making, this is a momentous win for GYC, our partners and the people of Montana who know the Greater Yellowstone is more valuable than gold," GYC Senior Montana Conservation Associate Joe Josephson wrote in a <a href="http://greateryellowstone.org/blog/2020/mtsupremecourtwin?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtcourtwin_120920" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release</a>. </p><p>"By closing this loophole, the Court has substantially strengthened protections against irresponsible mining practices, and has affirmed that Montana laws enacted to protect places like Emigrant Gulch are a critical part of protecting our constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment."</p><p>Mining opponents argued that Lucky Minerals' exploration and mining plans would pollute the Yellowstone River with acid runoff and toxic metals; interrupt essential habitat for species like grizzly bears, lynx, elk and wolverines; and harm the local community by disrupting recreation areas and ruining views of Emigrant Peak from Yellowstone National Park itself, <a href="https://earthjustice.org/blog/2018-may/montana-court-agrees-yellowstone-gateway-more-valuable-than-gold?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=page&fbclid=IwAR2vlP0K61z45STTk2TUUy4UpzlD6wBsGAQbRtV6DWzaCNxcggM-d8sBLbY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Earthjustice explained</a>.</p><p>In Wednesday's decision, the Supreme Court also upheld the District Court's decision that the project required an updated environmental review from the DEQ, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. It agreed that the initial review did not consider the project's impacts on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> or develop an adequate plan for capturing polluted water during the drilling process. It disagreed that the original approval did not do enough to consider the project's impact on water quality or nearby public lands.</p>
<p>Lucky Minerals' lawyer KD Feeback declined to comment on their behalf, but did say that the ruling on the MEPA amendment would be disappointing to the mining and timber industries.</p><p>"As the Legislature indicated at the time of the subject amendment, meritless and continual litigation over every project proposal is inefficient and uneconomic," he told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. "The Court's decision otherwise will continue that inefficiency to the detriment of Montana's economic well-being and work force."</p><p>If Lucky Minerals wants to continue with its mining plans, it will have to submit a new proposal, according to GYC. But Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine thinks the gig is up.</p><p>"This latest ruling ensures that Lucky Minerals can't harm clean water and native wildlife at the gateway into Yellowstone National Park under cover of a license that was never legally issued in the first place," Harbine said in a press release. "Lucky Minerals should have read the writing on the wall a long time ago."</p>
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747 is the big winner of Fat Bear Week 2020 in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Katmai National Park and Preserve
For bears and the people that love them, it's the most wonderful time of the year.
<p><a href="https://www.nps.gov/katm/index.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska</a> wrapped up its annual <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/fat-bear-week-katmai-park-2640911327.html" target="_self">Fat Bear Week</a> competition Tuesday, in which online fans vote for the coastal brown bear that has had the most success bulking up ahead of winter hibernation.</p><p>"The votes are in! You've crowned the Earl of Avoirdupois, bear 747, the 2020 Fat Bear Week Champion," the park announced on Twitter.</p>
<div id="b2c7f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6a66711f5acee75ef45787edb3f12cc7"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313660315893141504" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Match 11: Lardaceous Leviathan Levels Chunky Challenger The votes are in! You’ve crowned the Earl of Avoirdupois,… https://t.co/4SlXOpVBcH</div> — Katmai National Park (@Katmai National Park)<a href="https://twitter.com/KatmaiNPS/statuses/1313660315893141504">1602036000.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>This is the first time bear 747 has won the competition, though he was last year's runner-up, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/10/06/fat-bear-week-winner-2020/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>. He was first identified in 2004, according to his <a href="https://explore.org/meet-the-bears" target="_blank">bio</a> on the competition website. At the time, he was still a growing bear who could not compete for the choice fishing areas along the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-parks" target="_self">national park</a>'s Brooks Falls. He has significantly beefed up since then, and is now so big that no other bear dare challenge him for prime riverfront real estate. In fall 2019, park workers estimated that 747 weighed more than 1,400 pounds, and they think he likely weighs as much or more this year.</p><p>"Many staff who've worked at Katmai for many years say that [747] is the biggest bear they have ever seen," Katmai media ranger Naomi Boak told The Washington Post. "It's pure coincidence that he has the same name as a jumbo jet, but he is the size of a jumbo jet."</p><p>To earn his crown, 747 faced off against runner-up Chunk, or bear 32.</p>
<div id="bc390" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ec387bc0962cc207aae4e2fa0a5488b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313513386878152705" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Today’s the day we will crown 2020’s Fat Bear Week Champion. Where 747’s sedulous quest for salmon secured him a st… https://t.co/tBnlt5eyCS</div> — Katmai National Park (@Katmai National Park)<a href="https://twitter.com/KatmaiNPS/statuses/1313513386878152705">1602000969.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Chunk was estimated to be more than 1,100 pounds in 2019, but he has become something of a gentle giant.</p><p>"In recent years he's shown a tendency to wait patiently to scavenge leftover <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" target="_self">salmon</a> and even play with other bears," his bio reads. "These are two uncommon behaviors for a dominant bear to display. Due to his size and strength, 32 Chunk is poised to take advantage of opportunities not available to most other bears. Yet, it is only by observing his full range of behaviors that we can get a true sense of his individuality."</p><p>Fat Bear Week started in 2014 in order to honor the bears of Katmai National Park in their efforts to fatten up for winter. During hibernation, a bear loses a third of its body mass, the <a href="https://explore.org/fat-bear-week" target="_blank">competition website explains</a>, so the summer and fall feasting serves a vital purpose.</p>
<p>At Katmai National Park, the bears' preferred food is sockeye salmon. These fish have about 4,500 calories each, and the bears can eat more than two dozen per day, <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/10/06/fat-bear-week-2020-declares-747-fat-and-fabulous-winner/3637634001/" target="_blank">USA TODAY reported</a>. The bears of Katmai are especially lucky, because the park has one of the biggest sockeye salmon runs in the world, the park said. And this year, the salmon run broke records, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alaska-fat-bear/wide-bodied-747-crowned-alaskas-fattest-bear-idUKKBN26S0BT?il=0" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Katmai National Park has the world's densest concentration of brown bears. The bears like to feast along Brooks River, where people from all over the world can watch them on a <a href="https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls" target="_blank">webcam</a>.</p><p>Since its debut, Fat Bear Week has become increasingly popular. A record 187,000 people voted in 2019, while more than 550,000 voted this year, The Washington Post reported.</p><p>"What a curative healing pleasure it is to, one, be able to laugh, and, two, be connected to nature by understanding the achievements of these individual bears," Boak told the Post. "I think such a cheerful release. And, quite frankly, how often does one get to celebrate fatness?"</p>
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A black bear cub climbs a tree at Tongass National Forest in Alaska. sarkophoto / iStock / Getty Images Plus
America's largest national forest, Tongass National Forest in Alaska, will be opened up to logging and road construction after the Trump administration finalizes its plans to open up the forest on Friday, according to The New York Times.
<p>The plans to open up the forest to logging have been in the works for years. In March, the Trump administration faced a setback when a federal judge halted plans to open 1.8 million acres to logging and road building because the administration had failed to evaluate the environmental impact fully, as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/national-forest-trump-logging-tongass-%202645476974.html" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> reported at the time.</p><p>The roughly 9 million acres that the administration wants to open up now have been protected since the 2001 by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, or Roadless Rule, which prohibits construction in nationally protected wild areas, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/24/tongass-national-forest-trump-administration-logging" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. The U.S Forest Service is expected to release a full environmental impact statement later on Friday, saying that lifting the rule will not damage the 16.7 million-acre temperate rainforest in southeast Alaska. The administration will consequently revoke the Roadless Rule and move forward with plans to lease the land for logging.</p>
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Aerial view of the Tongass National Forest. Alan Wu / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
<p><br></p><p>The drive to open up Tongass National Forest to logging, as well as energy and mineral exploration, started in 2018 when Alaska's Governor Bill Walker asked the federal government to consider removing protections for the forest. While Alaska's senators have supported the idea, environmental advocates have criticized it, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/environment-juneau-bill-walker-forests-alaska-14542223458790b775b98c1384cb333a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a>.</p><p>The U.S. Forest Service evaluated several plans, including more moderate ones that would maintain protections for 80 percent of the forest and another that would have opened up logging and road construction to 2.3 million acres. The Forest Service, however, decided to fully remove the Roadless Rule protections and open 9 million acres to developers and loggers, according to a <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2020/09/24/us-department-agriculture-releases-final-environmental-impact" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a> from the Department of Agriculture, as The New York Times reported.</p>
<p>"This administration has opted to take the road well traveled by continuing to spend tens of millions of dollars every year to expand logging roads for a dying old-growth timber industry," said Andy Moderow, a director for the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement, as The Guardian reported. "This is bad for people, bad for a sustainable economy and bad for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a>."</p><p>Earthjustice, an environmental legal-advocacy group that successfully stopped development in Tongass in March, said it would fight the plan in the courts. Katie Glover, an attorney for Earthjustice, said, "We will use every tool available to continue defending this majestic and irreplaceable national forest," as the AP reported.</p>
<p>Scientists have also criticized the plan, saying that Tongass is one of the world's largest carbon sinks, absorbing nearly 8 percent of the greenhouse gas pollution that the U.S. emits. Scientists also note that cutting down the old growth trees will put trapped greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere, which is particularly imprudent when the world is grappling with increasingly severe heat waves and wildfires triggered by the climate crisis, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>"The Forest Service's environmental impact statement is junk science on assessing the impacts of releasing the carbon," said Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist and president of Geos Institute, a nonprofit organization that studies climate change, to The New York Times. "They are saying that the carbon that would be released by logging the timber is insignificant. There's no science that supports their analysis."</p><p>That sentiment was echoed by Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity, who vowed to fight the lifting of the Roadless Rule, as the AP reported. She said in a statement that the new plan will pour "gasoline on the inferno of climate change. These towering ancient trees take enormous amounts of carbon out of the air and we need them now more than ever. We'll do everything possible to keep these magnificent giants standing for centuries to come."</p>
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