Forest Service
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The Sangre De Cristo Mountains of New Mexico where the Hermit Peak Fire occurred. Photo George Wuerthner The Forest Service released a review of the Hermit Peak Fire, which began as a prescribed burn designed to reduce fuels in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico. The Gallinas Watershed Prescribed Fire, Las Dispensas…
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The cost of a hamburger does not reflect the cost of this cowbombed land in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Photo George Wuerthner Do you know what a Big Mac costs? If you say $4.50 or whatever the current price posted at the McDonald’s restaurant may be, you are vastly under-estimating the real price. That’s…
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Large old growth grand fir like this pictured could be cut if the 21-inch rule is discarded. Photo by George Wuerthner Old-growth fir trees in the Lookout Mountain Proposed Wilderness, Ochoco National Forest, Photo by George Wuerthner The Forest Service is proposing to remove the prohibition against logging trees larger than 21 inches that grow…
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A forest stand on the Deschutes NF which has been ecologically damaged by logging. Note the absence of tree age diversity, lack of dead wood and snags, and any shrub layer. This is what the Forest Service and Deschutes Collaborative calls a “healthy” forest. Ecologically speaking this is a human-caused disaster. (Photo by George Wuerthner)…
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When I was a kid, one of the favorite games we played in elementary school was “dodge ball.” In the game, a circle is made around a person who attempts to “dodge” a ball thrown by the other kids. You get to stay in the middle of the ring until a ball hits you, and…
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Across the West, livestock grazing is one of the most destructive land uses. Some 250 million acres of public lands are grazed by domestic livestock including those administered by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as national wildlife refuges and even some national park units. This use is not benign.…
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In the recent Public Lands legislation that was passed by Congress, Oregon got some new protected landscapes including the Devil’s Staircase Wilderness, 250 miles of new Wild and Scenic River segments on the Rogue and Molalla rivers and measures such as a mining ban on the Chetco River. This legislation was a good but a…
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I recently went on a Forest Service tour with a collaborative which demonstrated how ignorance and industrial forestry paradigms dominate most forest management activities, including the mindset of so-called environmental representatives on these collaboratives. Among the things we discussed was what to do about mistletoe. Mistletoe is a tree parasite that is common in forests…