This analysis is from Forest Policy – Forest Practice, an interesting blog on forest policy written by a number of academics and “practitioners.”
George Wuerthner Gets it Right on Fire, Ecosystems, Management. By Daver Iverson.
This is a summary of George Wuerthner’s recent letter to Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden who believes that legislation putting more effort into forest thinning is going to have a substantial effect on the growing size and length of the wildfire season in the West.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
That’s interesting Ralph. I was just reading on this blog
http://www.sosforests.com/?p=720 the opposite point of view.
I was starting to warm up (no pun intended) to the idea of thinning and controlled burns that that blog advocates. I thought it was radical until I read the story about the Kootenai and Salish tribes of the Flathead Reservation. According to that the wildernesses we set aside were formerly rigorously managed by spring and fall burns. I’m not sure how much truth there is to that. Interesting nonetheless.