Yellowstone National Park has produced an DEIS on bison management. The Park Service is accepting comments until September 25th. You can read the DEIS and make your own comment here: Attached are the detailed comments of the Wild Bison Restoration Council, however, if you want to make your own comments here are some brief […]
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“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
The Forest Service and Forestry School researchers (funded by the Forest Service) continue to promote the idea that our forests are “unhealthy.” […]
Continue Reading →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 fuel reduction is that the probably that a fire will encounter it during the period when it’s potentially effective is very small–usually around 1%.
A […]
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The word Kobuk means “Big River” in the local native language. Photo George Wuerthner
I just returned from floating the Kobuk River in Alaska’s Brooks Range. The Kobuk headwaters are north of the Arctic Circle in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and flow west to the Bering Sea near […]
Continue Reading →Logging roads are a major negative impact on ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner
The latest attempt by the Forest Service to make timber cutting palatable is using the terms “temporary” and “closed” to describe logging roads. The implied message is that road impacts are magically eliminated if they are temporary or closed. Roads, […]
Continue Reading →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 offers some insights into why the current Forest Service policy of focusing on fuel reduction is misguided.
The wildfire began in grasslands and, driven by […]
Continue Reading →The media and many others, including conservation groups, suggest the cause of today’s wildfires is the result of fire suppression. They point to the cessation of Native American cultural burning as a primary reason for larger blazes. This has led to expensive and often ecologically destructive forest management policies.
A Charles M. […]
Continue Reading →One commonly asserted myth is that frequent burning can substantially reduce the area burned by wildfire across the landscape. Photo George Wuerthner
Poorly informed journalists flood the public with misinformation about wildfire ecology. The common theme insinuates that we can and should manage nature.
I am sympathetic to the plight of journalists […]
Continue Reading →Old Faithful erupting, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Photo George Wuerthner
I just saw the movie Wild Life about Doug and Kris Thompkins’s efforts to protect wildlands in Patagonia.
Doug and Kris Tompkins at Renihue Chile. Photo George Wuerthner
I am very familiar with that effort as I worked […]
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