The Mill Creek area where the Forest Service’s proposes a dry forest restoration. Photo George Wuerthner
The Ochoco National Forest proposes what they call a “dry forest restoration” on approximately 23,015 acres in the Mill Creek Dry Forest Restoration Project area east of Prineville, Oregon. https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/113632_FSPLT3_5569731.pdf
As with almost everything […]
Continue Reading →FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2020
Contacts: Gary Macfarlane, Friends of the Clearwater, (208) 835-5426
Adam Rissien, WildEarth Guardians, (406) 370-3147
Conservation groups call for more species protection, less logging and roadbuilding
Request to get deadline extended due to COVID-19 falls on deaf ears
Moscow- Despite the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping […]
Continue Reading →The recent Durango Herald article about the proposal for aggressive logging of Southwest Colorado Forests supported by the Rocky Mountain Restorative Initiative (RMRI) is a classic example of the Industrial Forestry worldview. https://durangoherald.com/articles/306885
The (RMRI) implies that trees killed by drought, beetles, or anything other than a chainsaw are somehow abnormal. Not surprisingly, the membership […]
Continue Reading →MYTH: FUEL BUILD UP IS RESPONSIBLE FOR LARGE BLAZES?
A conventional narrative is that wildfires in the western U.S. are unprecedented and more extensive than in the past. This increase in fire acreage is attributed to “fuel build-up,” presumed to be the result of successful fire suppression. However, such assertions lack context. Compared to the […]
Continue Reading →The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is proposing to log the Lostine Wild and Scenic River corridor. The basic justification is to reduce the potential for large wildfires.
Yet according to the Oregon Department of Forestry, in 2019 only acres 67,795 acres burned in the state, compared to 846,411 acres burned last year. Why the […]
Continue Reading →I’ve visited Wendell State Forest in Massachusetts to explore the area the state proposes logging for “forest health”. In a recent article in the Greenfield Recorder, Leo Roy, State Department of Conservation & Recreation has argued that he fears the forest will become too homogenous and healthiest in the long run.
As a forest ecologist, […]
Continue Reading →The recent guest commentary by Joe Prinkki and Joe Skinner, members of the Custer-Gallatin Working Group, supporting the logging of Bridger Canyon was full of misleading and scientifically inaccurate common myths about forest health and wildfire.
The editorial asserts that the forest is “unhealthy” and at risk of death from wildfires and bark beetles. That […]
Continue Reading →A Feb. 17th article in the Morning Tribune about the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forest proposal to log forests along the Lolo Motorway and Nez Perce National Historic Trail demonstrates clearly the Forest Service Industrial Forestry Paradigm bias. http://lmtribune.com/northwest/forest-service-seeks-input-on-logging-plan/article_d5f4ca5b-dee7-5150-8d17-fd294738b60d.html
I see the Industrial Paradigm all the time in statements from Forest Service representatives. Instead of […]
Continue Reading →The recent response to my editorial on the ecological value of dead trees by Russ Vaughn and Mike Peterson demonstrated exactly the problem I was attempting to address: that the Industrial Forestry Paradigm, not ecological understanding, drives forestry on the Colville National Forest. http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/feb/21/russ-vaagen-and-mike-petersen-forests-are-a-source/
Their last paragraph illustrates this industrial bias. Vaughn […]
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