Friends of the Norbeck recently commissioned professional statistician Grant Foster to look at possible relations between large fires, on the one hand, and weather, logging, and beetle tree-mortality levels on the other.  We provided him with a century of data from the Black Hills National Forest, 1910-2009.On February 10, 2012, Grant completed his analysis, and produced a detailed "white paper" entitled…See More

Last Norbeck Option is Supreme CourtAnyone driving west from Mount Rushmore on Highway 244 is confronted by the severe damage being inflicted upon the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve, not by pine beetles but by the US Forest Service.  Friends of the Norbeck and Native Ecosystems Council have one last option to stop this senseless logging damage: appealing the Norbeck case to the US Supreme Court.…See More

Photos below show logging damage visible from Highway 244 just west of Palmer Creek bridge, in logging Unit 21 of the Palmer Gulch Timber Sale. Photos were taken during October, 2011.Looking towards Elkhorn Mountain:Before:After:…See More

Forest Service Vandalizes Norbeck Preserve The Forest Service has begun destruction-by-bulldozer within the Norbeck Preserve in the Palmer Gulch Timber Sale, beginning in the area proposed for Wilderness designation by environmental groups in 1991.  The first of 39 miles of unnecessary and destructive “temporary” haul roads are being created by driving bulldozers over the area east of Willow Creek Horse Camp in Palmer Gulch. Road work and logging operations in the Palmer Gulch Timber Sale are…See More