Last week, the Bush administration proposed allowing logging on 1.5 million acres of federal old-growth forest lands in the Pacific Northwest previously protected under 1994’s Northwest Forest Plan. It had been designated as habitat critical to the survival of the endangered northern spotted owl.

In what some environmentalists are calling a welcome adjustment, Honda announced last week that it is scrapping the slow-selling performance-oriented hybrid version of its Accord sedan, which debuted in 2004.

Joe must have been in his 80s but didn’t really seem to care how old he was. He had been running the little shanty beach-bar for decades, and told me he’d been a prisoner of both the Japanese and the British during World War II. His speciality was a Singapore sling of lethal strength, and as I sipped gingerly he told me what had gone wrong with Rantau Abang and the turtles. Fifty years ago, apparently, female turtles nested on this beach in their hundreds during July and August. Now it had fallen to a handful.

Starting June 12, I will be crisscrossing the country with 12 other college-age riders to honor Mo Udall’s legacy by highlighting young public servants nationwide who are finding solutions to pressing environmental and Native American issues. In New York City, we"ll be looking at ecologically landscaped post-industrial sites; in New Orleans, we"ll be working with Replant New Orleans to restore soil health and the urban canopy; in Denver, our tour’s arrival is timed to coincide with the launch of an art show centered on the theme of sustainable transportation and urban planning. At each site, the initiatives we are highlighting are being moved forward by activists and advocates under the age of 30.