The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "forest" ...
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Data Before and After a Disaster
Heath lists and describes different federal programs that provide financial assistance after a natural disaster. He discusses where to get records of each program's spending, and how to best incorporate that information into a CAR story. Heath also describes the programs used by federal agencies to run simulations and assess potential damage; most of those programs are available for free and could be useful for reporters covering a recent disaster.
Tags: natural disaster; FEMA; forest service; demographics; geophysical data; SBA loans; flood insurance; housing assistance
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Tracking a Wildfire
The authors discuss how to quickly build maps that will enhance coverage of wild fires. They discuss where to find shapefiles of the affected areas and how to acquire incident command structure reports which include valuable information about how fires were started and fought. The authors then describe how to use those two pieces of data (shapefiles and ICS reports) to create a time line of the fire. The tipsheet ends with a list of other resources that might be useful for reporters covering fires.
Tags: fire; GIS; mapping; shapefiles; Google maps; Forest Service
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Natural Disaster Investigations
This tipsheet describes how IRE Award Finalist authors Kestin and O'Matz gathered information for their story "Cashing in on Disaster." They give hints as to what questions to ask and what money to follow when sorting through information after a storm. For those ordering through snail-mail this tipsheet includes the 55 page story it references.
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Wildfires
Shulyakovskaya offers ways reporters can prepare to cover wildfires before the fire season begins. This tipsheet includes potential data sources and experts.
Tags: wildfires; disasters; California; firefighters; US Forest Service
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Making the Polluters Pay
This tipsheet gives you a lead on databases that will lead you to finding polluters and finding violators of AIRS (Clean Air Act), PCS (Clean Water Act) and RCRIS (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act).
Tags: EPA; CAR; pollution; fines; environment; air; water; forest; USFS
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Cash Cows
This tipsheet explains how the San Jose Mercury News used CAR techniques to discover that federal tax payers spend more than $100 million every year on grazing subsidies to keep cattle and sheep roaming public lands. The newspaper used federal billing records from the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
Tags: CAR; San Jose Mercury News; grazing; public land; taxes; BLM; USFS
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The Environment In Depth
This tipsheet is broken down into a selection of environmental issues, with detailed information on how to cover each. It includes story ideas and Internet resources.
Tags: Superfund; Clean Water Act; EPA; Clean Air Act; hazardous waste; USGS; forest; fish; wildlife; wetlands