In Wednesday's environmental law news, the US Forest Service has signed an agreement to work with The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) to return American chestnut trees to the eastern US ecosystem. The tree had once comprised nearly one-fourth of the trees in the eastern US before being struck by a blight and mostly destoyed by 1950. The agreement will work to introduce blight-resistant trees to the landscape. The press release is not yet online. Background on the trees and the restoration can be found on TACF's website.... In other news, 5 executives of the Newmont Mining Company continue to be jailed in Indonesia facing pollution charges despite a WHO study (reported earlier in JURIST's Paper Chase) that showed no abnormal pollution levels in the Buyat Bay. AP has the story.... The US Fish and Wildlife Service seeks comments on a petition to delist the Ute ladies'-tresses orchid (Spiranthes diluvialis) from the Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants list (the list created by the Endangered Species Act). The orchid was listed as a "threatened" species in 1992 and there is substantial information that the population size and distribution is greater and the threats to the plant are neither as great nor as imminent as known at the time of the original listing. The press release is here. Comments can be made until December 12 here.... US government officials announced that federal land management agencies have exceeded the yearly target goal for hazardous fuels treatment to reduce wildfires as per the President's Healthy Forest Initiative (and paired with the Healthy Forest Restoration Act [PDF]). More on the project can be found here.