Upper Echo Lake: A Bird's Eye View

This you tube video provides a wonderful, bird's eye view of Lower and Upper Echo Lakes.  Among other things, it reinforces the indisputable fact -- set forth in the Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Multi-Jurisdictional Fuel Reduction and WildfirePrevention Strategy  -- that the lands adjacent to Upper Echo Lake are at low risk for wildfire as a consequence of the low density of forest at this high elevation.

The premise for the Upper Echo Lake Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project is that those lands are at high risk for wildfire. Once that premise is falsified, both as a legal and practical matter, it becomes clear that the Forest Service acted improperly by pursuing the project.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Context for Forest Service Action

Image
This image provides wonderful context to assess the Forest Service's ill-conceived Upper Echo Lake Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project. Notice how sparse the vegetation is at this elevation.  Certainly when one thinks about wildfire risk, this is not the image the mind conjures.
Read more

FOIA Reform: Will It Improve Agency Transparency and Responsiveness

This summer, Congress and the President enacted the FOIA Improvement Act.  The language of the Act is available here .  One article describing the Act by Josh Gerstein of Politico is here .  The Act includes a provision to amend the existing law creating a presumption of disclosure. While the Act has symbolic value, the federal agencies so routinely violated FOIA prior to passage of the FOIA Improvement Act that it remains to be seen whether transparency and responsiveness will improve.
Read more