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 […]
One Hundred Years of Fire Suppression Narrative Challenged
Roberts Fire near Glacier National Park, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner A few weeks ago, I attended a panel discussion about wildfires. All the panelists and the moderator suggested that large […]
New Strategies Needed For Wildlands Urban Blazes
The Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise, California, was an urban blaze driven by high winds. Photo George Wuerthner A new paper, “Wildlands-urban fire disasters aren’t a wildfire problem,” published in […]
Logging Creates “Unhealthy” Forests With Less Resilence
“Thinning” project on the Wallowa Whitman NF in Oregon. The removal of trees by chainsaw medicine eliminates evolutionary agents that would otherwise naturally “thin” the forest. Photo George Wuerthner […]
How Thinning Impacts Fuels
A few years ago, the Custer Gallatin National Forest thinned the area on Kirk Hill by Bozeman to reduce fuels. As has been reported, one of the problems with any […]
Lesson from Maui
Wildfire ravaged the community of Lahaina on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, and the death toll mounts. Are there any lessons to be learned from this tragedy? The Lahaina fire […]
Community Hardening Instead of Logging the Forest
Thinning the forest is often less effective than eliminating human sources of ignition. Photo George Wuerthner The Deschutes National Forest wildfire policies are misdirected towards logging while ignoring the real […]
Missing the Mark–A New Wildfire Report by Headwaters Economics
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 […]