Eco-Integrity Alliance

SHORT FILM PREMIERE: “Deer and Elk Hunter on ‘Wildfire Fuel Reduction’ Clearcuts” | Monday, March 23 @ 6 pm MT on YouTube

Join Eco-Integrity Alliance on Monday, March 23 @ 6 pm MT for the YouTube premiere of the short film, DEER AND ELK HUNTER ON “WILDFIRE FUEL REDUCTION” CLEARCUTS.

Join here (you can have YouTube alert you in advance by clicking “notification on” in the bottom left hand corner of the video).

This 6-minute film features backcountry deer and elk hunter, David Loar, who lives in the Rocky Mountains town of Nederland, Colorado an hour outside Denver.

David takes us through massive clearcuts in the Roosevelt National Forest—courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service and your tax dollars—which he says have destroyed his favorite hunting grounds. David reveals the hidden devastation that few locals know about and shares how this once biodiverse forest is now almost empty of deer and elk, which he counts on for a food source.

David also shows us how these government clearcuts on your public lands—supposedly in the name of “wildfire fuel reduction”—have actually grown up MORE DENSELY than before. (An abundance of peer-reviewed science contests the efficacy of such cutting in the name of “community protection” or “reduction of high-severity wildfire.”)

Join us on YouTube on Monday, March 23 @ 6 pm MT to watch the premiere so you can chime in on the live chat with your questions and comments. (Not only will this be a fun—and quick—online event, your participation will help the film be seen through YouTube’s algorithm which often suppresses environmental content.)

New Report on Agency Failure to Protect Canada Lynx

The Yellowstone to Uintas Connection has released a new report on agency management for Canada lynx. The report provides a detailed analysis and critique of agency management and its current Recovery Plan and Critical Habitat Designation.

John Carter notes that “This report illustrates agency deflection around most of the factors that adversely affect Canada lynx, its habitat and prey base. It shows that the science has been largely ignored or misapplied in developing recovery plans and critical habitat designations, resulting in vast areas of lynx habitat being omitted from protections.”

The report focuses on the Greater Yellowstone Area and its connections to the Northern and Southern Rockies.

“I used the Forest Service models that are the basis for revised critical habitat designation that reduced critical habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Area by 88% by ignoring historical lynx occupancy and claiming that little habitat exists. Yet the models show some of the best habitat in the Northern and Southern Rockies occurs in the GYA.”

The report also addresses the degradation of lynx habitat by logging, motorized recreation, mining, livestock grazing, and other uses while applying the agency and other models to illustrate corridors and core areas that need protection and restoration if lynx populations are to be sustained.

Colorado House Bill to Route Funding from Logging to Home Protection from Wildfires

On March 2, Rep. Tammy Story (District 25, Jefferson County) introduced HB 26-1310 into the Colorado House of Representatives to reroute a portion of the state’s “wildfire mitigation” taxpayer funding away from controversial and scientifically-contested “fuel reduction” logging towards proven home hardening protections, prioritizing grants to low-income residents along with seniors and those with disabilities.

Instead of reimagining the purpose of the “Wildfire Mitigation Capacity Development Fund,” the bill would merely require that the Colorado Department of Natural Resources stop shirking its legal mandate to “prioritize those projects with the greatest potential to protect life, property, and infrastructure,” namely home hardening rather than logging forests. HB 26-1310 will be heard by the Agriculture, Water, and Natural Resources Committee on March 16.

Tree Species Facing EXTINCTION?

Sam Hitt with Santa Fe Forest Alliance warns about the dual threats to the unique southwestern U.S. tree species known as the white pine from logging and exotic disease.

NASA Climatologist Dr. James E. Hansen Speaks Out against Wildfire “Fuel Reduction” as “Trojan Horse” for Logging

Dr. James Hansen, former Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and current Director of the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at Columbia University, penned a January 29, 2026 opinion piece in the Boston Globe speaking out against wildfire “fuel reduction” in forests and opposing the “Fix Our Forests” Act, which would bypass bedrock environmental laws to ramp up public lands logging as proposed by the Trump administration.

Comments Needed on U.S. Forest Service’s “Post-Fire Recovery: by Monday, Jan. 26

-By Rocky Smith, Forest Management Consultant (Denver, Colorado) & Eco-Integrity Alliance

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing a nationwide Environmental Assessment (EA) “to analyze the effects of post-fire recovery actions”—i.e. destructive logging and roadbuilding—in National Forests.

Specifically, the agency wants to log “fire-killed and damaged trees before they lose their economic value” (including clearcutting and old-growth trees) and rebuild permanent roads or build new temporary roads as needed to do so.

The federal effort appears designed to lock in the idea of doing actions—especially “salvaging” fire-damaged trees—on lands affected by fire, potentially in essential wildlife habitat and important forest ecosystems, and to encourage large-scale actions, including those that occur on more than one Ranger District or even National Forest/Grassland. Given potentially low budgets and lack of personnel, the danger is that the agency will use the national EA as an excuse for doing minimal or no NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) analysis for projects.

Some post-fire actions may be justified, such as: emergency erosion control, legitimate actions to maintain public safety, and responding to early stages of invasive species. However, the scientific literature is clear that burned forests are vital living ecosystems, and that any logging, roadbuilding, and/or use of heavy equipment accelerates soil erosion and slows or even prevents natural tree regeneration.

TALKING POINTS FOR COMMENTS (feel free to use any or all of these):

-Areas that have recently experienced wildfire vary greatly across the National Forest system making a one-size-fits-all analysis impossible. If a nationwide analysis occurs, it should be a more in-depth Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), not just a simplified Environmental Assessment (EA). The public should be allowed to comment on the draft document.

-Post-fire logging and road construction is an ecological disaster, as burned forests—even severely burned—are crucial components of forest ecosystems and necessary habitat for an abundance of wildlife species (some of which require burned forests for survival). Post-fire logging destroys forest ecosystems and wildlife habitat, and the use of heavy equipment disturbs fragile soils recovering from fire. This slows recovery of vegetation, including reforestation.

-If projects are approved, there must be money and qualified personnel available to monitor and evaluate impacts.

Comments are due on Monday, January 26. Please submit them through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FS-2025-0034-0001

Green Root Podcast #108: Democrats Greenwashing Trump’s Assault on Public Land?

On episode 108 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), host Josh Schlossberg tries to figure out why so many supposedly pro-environment Democrats not only refuse to fight Trump’s onslaught on public lands but ACTIVELY PROMOTE the unprecedented extraction.

Josh talks about:

-The danger of Democrats greenwashing some of the most disastrous anti-environmental policies we’ve ever seen.

-How Biden-era legislation opened the door for Trump to expand a fake “emergency” across 112 million acres—59 percent of National Forests—to fast-track Wildfire Pretense Logging and roll back the Roadless Rule.

-How Democrat members of Congress are pushing the Orwellian “Fix Our Forests” Act and other extreme nature-destruction bills.

-How a handful of corporate foundation-funded “conservation” groups are trying to commandeer more tax dollars for Democrat-backed industrial extraction on public lands.

-Whether the Democratic party can be reformed or if a third party is needed for our government to ever genuinely protect and preserve the natural world.

Green Root Podcast #107: DO COWS BELONG ON PUBLIC LAND? (with Dagny Signorelli, Western Watersheds Project)

On episode 107 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), Dagny Signorelli, Wyoming/Northern Utah Director with Western Watersheds Project, exposes the severe and worsening ecological, wildlife, and watershed impacts from ranchers grazing livestock on public lands across the West.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Dagny about:

-How supposedly protected public lands—including wilderness areas—run rampant with destructive domestic livestock (cattle and sheep).

-How ranchers only pay a monthly fee of $1.35 per cow and calf to graze on National Forests and BLM lands.

-How government “Wildlife Services” kills hundreds of thousands of wolves, coyotes, bears, mountain lions, bobcats, foxes, skunks, and other native wildlife every year at the behest of ranchers.

-How public lands grazing and feedlots spread disease.

-How less than 1.6% of U.S. beef consumption comes from public lands.

-Dagny’s take on a root cause of the ecological crisis.

Conservationist Files Lawsuit Against Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper for Alleged Violation of Colorado Open Records Act

Ecosystem advocate, Josh Schlossberg, filed a civil complaint in District Court in Jefferson County, Colorado last week alleging that Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper deleted and/or withheld emails requested in a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) filing.

Green Root Podcast #106: IS THE PUBLIC LANDS MOVEMENT SELLING OUT “PRIVATE” LANDS?

On episode 106 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), host Josh Schlossberg wades into an old but ongoing debate within the environmental movement about whether it’s ethical for ecosystem advocates to focus exclusively on public lands protection at the expense of “private” land extraction.

Josh talks about:

-The arbitrary yet currently legal definitions of public vs. private lands in the U.S.

-The gaps and overlaps between a “deep ecology” philosophy and on-the-ground organizing.

-Whether it’s possible for advocates to carry out practical, step-by-step, mission-based actions without compromising a wholistic vision of ecological integrity.