Posts by: George Wuerthner
A recent editorial in the New York Times by Christopher Solomon (7-5-14) suggested that America’s Wilderness System on its 50th birthday was facing a “midlife crisis” as he called it. Solomon suggested that the basic premise of the 1964 Wilderness Act—that we can maintain and protect wild country by leaving it alone–is questionable in an [...]
Continue Reading →I just got back from a mountain bike ride. The trails outside of Bend, Oregon where I reside have numerous loops and degrees of difficulty. Riding my mountain bike is a pleasant way to unwind, get some exercise, and enjoy pedaling without the fear of being hit by a car. The trails are located in [...]
Continue Reading →Recently I received an alert from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) asking me to send a letter to the Montana Dept of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) requesting a slight reduction in their wolf killing/trapping quota outside of Yellowstone Park. The main rationale of the alert was that wolves were important to the local economy [...]
Continue Reading →A few days ago I wrote a column about a funding proposal to create a “wolf stamp” the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks commission (MDFWP) recently approved. The basic idea is for non-hunters and anglers to support the operation of the MDFWP by purchasing the stamp with the money to be devoted to [...]
Continue Reading →President Obama could do a lot here- Here are my suggestions for new national monuments which Obama could designate. I have visited every site I recommend here, so I’m personally familiar with the areas. I have tried to put together a list that I think deserve protection, but also have some substantial political momentum in [...]
Continue Reading →Recently the Montana Dept of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) commission approved a new “Wolf Conservation Stamp”. The purpose of the stamp is ostensibly to get non hunters to pay for wildlife “management”, especially the “management” of wolves. The stamp would be voluntary. Despite the fact that I support the idea of non-hunters/anglers paying to [...]
Continue Reading →There are widely held assumptions that logging will reduce or preclude large wildfires and beetle outbreaks. The recent adoption of the Farm Bill categorical exclusion that will permit logging up to 45 million acres of national forests is based on flawed assumptions about forest health and wildfire.
LARGE WILDFIRE CLIMATE DRIVEN
Large fires are driven [...]
Continue Reading →Some conservationists have forgotten how to be successful-
We do not want those whose first impulse is to compromise. We want no straddlers for in the past they have surrendered too much good wilderness and primeval areas which should never have been lost. -Bob Marshall on founding of the Wilderness Society
INTRODUCTION:
There is an unfortunate [...]
Continue Reading →Is Sustainable Forestry Sustainable?
George Wuerthner
There has been a lot of positive talk about sustainable forestry by the timber industry, politicians, and even among many environmental groups. Everyone is looking for a way to exploit the Earth and pretend they are not impacting anything. While sustainability is an admirable goal most of what I [...]
Continue Reading →The Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is the largest grouse in North America. The grouse is found in sagebrush steppe from Alberta to New Mexico and throughout the Great Basin region of Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. It has been extirpated from much of its former range and is no longer found in [...]
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