The federal district court for the Southern District of New York so-ordered a stipulation and order of settlement and dismissal in a lawsuit brought in February 2025 against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) challenging the removal of climate change-related information from the USDA website after President Trump’s inauguration. In May 2025, the parties notified the court that USDA would restore the content. In the February 2026 stipulation setting forth the terms of the dismissal of the case, USDA agreed to provide the plaintiffs with certain data sets used to generate the Forest Service Climate Risk Viewer and to provide certain records created since the publication in April 2023 of an initial inventory of mature and old-growth forests on lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management pursuant to President Biden’s Executive Order 14072, “Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies.” The records USDA must provide include “records of continued work on the definitions of mature and old-growth forests, the Forest Inventory Growth Stage System methodology, the special resolution of the inventory, and the data enabling or supporting increased accuracy or a finer spatial resolution.” USDA also agreed to maintain public access to the Climate Risk Viewer until the release of records is completed.

Lawsuit challenging the Trump administration U.S. Department of Agriculture's allegedly unlawful "purge" of climate change-focused webpages.

Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York v. U.S. Department of Agriculture

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Department of Agriculture Agreed to Provide Climate Information to Plaintiffs to Resolve Litigation that Challenged the Removal of Data from Agency Websites

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

Agriculture mitigation refers to practices used to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions at every level of the agrifood systems, from production to consumption.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Department of Agriculture Agreed to Provide Climate Information to Plaintiffs to Resolve Litigation that Challenged the Removal of Data from Agency Websites

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience