• EPA takes steps to curb mountaintop mining
• Tennessee allocates $82 million for forest conservation
• U.S. Park Service reconsiders highway scheme
• NRDC negotiates pact with leading paper producer

Following intense pressure from BioGems Defenders, Bowater -- a giant paper company and the largest landowner on the Cumberland Plateau -- signed a groundbreaking agreement to stop clearcutting natural hardwood forests and converting them to biologically impoverished pine plantations. The company further pledged not to purchase fiber from pine plantations that replace natural forests and to limit its use of harmful chemical herbicides and fertilizers. Now NRDC and our partner, the Dogwood Alliance, will work to persuade other paper producers to follow Bowater's lead.