Interesting story brought to us by the fine folks over at PEER:
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Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
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KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — A company that has built trams in tropical rain forests is considering Ketchikan for a tram in a temperate rain forest.
“We like rain forests,” said Josef Preschel, chief operating officer of Rain Forest Aerial Trams. “We have operations in tropical rain forests and we think it’s an interesting idea to develop our company to temperate rain forests.”
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The revised plant hardiness map, developed by the National Arbor Day Foundation, reflects the U.S. climate change, attributed to global warming, over the past 15 years. The effort is to provide updated information for planting trees, which reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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MORGANTOWN, W.VA. — The Appalachian Trail gives hikers a nearly 2,200-mile trek through mountains, meadows and forests stretching from Maine to Georgia.
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Plum Creek Timber Co., which filed one of Oregon’s largest Measure 37 requests, made way for Suncadia by selling 6,300 acres near Roslyn. A company representative says the area cried for a resort because it offers fishing, hunting and skiing in a breathtaking setting 80 miles east of Seattle in the Cascades.
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Suspicion and alarm should be the immediate response when a government agency cuts back on public access to information and decisionmaking. Changes announced by the U.S. Forest Service deserve just such a reaction.
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A disturbing sidelight is that several destinations are now inaccessible because of damage from the 2003 and 2006 floods, and refusal by the Bush administration and Congress to put money into stewardship of America’s public lands.