I’m sure you’re as shocked as I am by the news that conservation groups — and even a Federal judge — are fighting with federal political appointees about the future of America’s outdoors (Shocked, I say. Shocked!)

First, a Federal judge in Montana is leaning hard on the top forestry official (an administration appointee and former timber lobbyist) for ignoring a several year-old court order.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge in Montana has ordered the Bush administration’s top forestry official to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court for the U.S. Forest Service’s failure to analyze the environmental impacts of dropping fish-killing fire retardant on wildfires.

I think the judge is pissed off, and you will too once you read this passage:

“It has been six years since Forest Service staff completed a `retardant EA’ — only to have higher-up officials embargo it,” Molloy wrote in an order issued late Friday. “The time I am giving is likely to prove insufficient if: 1) the agency is simply unwilling to follow the law; or, 2) it is prevented from following the law by its political masters, as was the case when Under Secretary of Agriculture Mark Rey ordered that formal (Endangered Species Act) consultation regarding fire retardant not to occur.”

The High Country News’ Goat blog offers an interesting perspective on the situation, including the timelines that suggests political appointees figured the Forest Service could largely ignore the order. I think the judge has other ideas. Worth a look.

Herding Cats? Say Hello to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance

Ed Dentry of the Rocky Mountain News fires up a story about the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership — the eclectic group where hunters, fishers, manufacturers and other groups actually banded together to protect the outdoors.

I mentioned this Missoula-based conservation group in a prior Underground post, where I questioned whether diverse outdoorsmen groups could meet without an elitist firestorm erupting, and I’m glad to see that I was largely wrong.

Dentry profiles some of the group’s recent victories:

The TRCP’s most recent victory came last week, when the BLM announced it would back off leasing 42 parcels of land in Utah for oil and gas drilling.

The TRCP had protested 29 of those parcels because they held valuable wildlife habitat.

In a time when relentless habitat destruction is politically correct, that was something of a miracle. Imagine the BLM calling for directional drilling to save the last natural tip of the Roan Plateau from roads, rigs and pipelines.

Inspired by similar successes in recent months, the TRCP sued the Department of Interior on Friday for approving 1,000 miles of roads and 1,000 miles of pipeline along Wyoming’s Atlantic Rim, in violation of environmental laws.

You can visit the TRCP Web site, and even join the group (it’s free, so I signed up). Anyone who can get fishermen in the same room with hunters probably deserves our support.

[tags]Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, TRCP, ed dentry, mark rey[/tags]

Posted in Environment.