Dixie Fire
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A previously thinned portion of the area charred by the Dixie Fire, which despite active forest management across much of the burn area, became one of California’s largest blazes. Photo George Wuerthner The Wilderness Society (TWS), founded to promote wildland preservation, has shifted its mission and focus to promoting logging and other activities that destroy…
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The burnt-out Safeway Store in Paradise, California. Even a big parking lot with no fuel could not prevent the loss of this structure due to wind-blown embers. Photo George Wuerthner A new report from Headwaters Economics titled: “Missing the Mark: Effectiveness and Funding in Community Wildfire Risk Reduction” misses the mark in many ways regarding…
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High-severity blazes are critical to healthy forest ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner I read yet another study circulated by UC Davis and doggedly promoted by the national media, encouraging more prescribed burning, thinning, and forest manipulation to reduce large high-severity blazes characterized as “bad.” The headline from UC Davis proclaims that scientists have documented, “Unprecedented…
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The Dixie Fire charred 900,000 acre plus acres in 2021. The fire burned through numerous portions of the forest that had been thinned or even clearcut as seen in this photo. Photo George Wuerthner A December 20th article in the New York Times declared California had a quiet fire season. The report explained why…
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Even the extensive pavement (totally without fuel), extensive clearcutting, and hazardous fuel reductions on public lands did not save this Safeway Store when the Camp Fire burned through Paradise, California. Photo George Wuerthner Recently Bend residents were treated to the wildfire documentary Elemental at the Tower Theater. The movie produced by Trip Jennings and Ralph…
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Typical pole size of trees in the South Plateau “treatment” area. Photo George Wuerthner The Custer Gallatin National Forest (CGNF) proposal to log the South Plateau area bordering Yellowstone National Park near West Yellowstone is another example of the Forest Service’s quack chainsaw medicine policies. The CGNF says the goal of the logging is to…
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Previously logged Plum Creek Timber Company lands which didn’t stop 36,ooo acre plus Jocko Lakes Fires. Photo George Wuerthner Recently Governor Greg Gianforte praised forest management for limiting the spread of two fires near Helena. Gianforte suggested that active forest management (i.e., logging) helped firefighters to keep two blazes, the Grizzly Gulch and Mount…
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Clearcuts along the McKenzie River corridor east of Eugene, Oregon did little to slow the Holiday Farm Fire. Photo George Wuerthner The Holiday Farm Fire began on September 7, 2020. The fire charred 173,000 acres along the McKenzie River Valley in western Oregon’s Cascade Range, possibly due to a fallen power line. The fire destroyed…