The wind-driven pattern of fire in the 1988 Yellowstone fires. Photo George Wuerthner
A new documentary titled The West Is Burning continues to promote a flawed narrative that large blazes are a consequence of “fire suppression” and “fuel build-up.” Starting from this perspective, it promotes policies like thinning the forest and prescribed […]
Continue Reading →The Idaho side of the Tetons, much of it in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness or proposed additions. Photo by George Wuerthner.
The Caribou-Targhee National Forest plan to implement prescribed burns on 1.7 million acres along the Tetons’ west slope deserves a response.
As reported in the Jackson Hole Guide, the “problem,” according to […]
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Forest Service using drip torch for prescribed burning. Photo by George Wuerthner
There has been a spate of articles in various newspapers and magazines, asserting that if the Forest Service were following burning practices of Indigenous people, the massive wildfires we have seen around the West would be tamed.
Here are some […]
Continue Reading →The April 25th article in the Yakima Herald “Fewer low-intensity fires means more severe fires” quotes Ryan Haugo, director of conservation science at The Nature Conservancy and contained many misstatements that lack context about wildfires. https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/study-low-intensity-fires-way-down-in-northwest-s-dry/article_aef38135-95ca-5689-aaab-5fc9906c3818.html
It is possible that Haugo stated more ideas and simply wasn’t quoted in the article, but since he […]
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