George Wuerthner
-
Roadless Rule and Wildfires
Brooke Rollins, US Secretary of Agriculture with the Trump administration, rescinded the Roadless Rule. The Roadless Rule was established during the Clinton Administration to protect nearly 59 million acres of undeveloped land from resource extraction. In general, these roadless lands were deemed uneconomical to develop or had other values. They are prone to erosion or…
-
National Prescribed Fire Act Flawed
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is a co-sponsor of the National Prescribed Fire Act of 2025. The bill is ill-advised and based on flawed assumptions about the effectiveness and efficiency of prescribed burning. Prescribed burning is promoted as some magic bullet that can preclude large wildfires, but it has many disadvantages that are seldom discussed. The presumed…
-
TNC Misinformation On Wildfire
The recent June 18th editorial in the Oregon Capital Chronicle by the Nature Conservancy representatives, “Oregonians deserve a smarter approach to wildfires: Both suppression and risk reduction are necessary,” was based upon flawed assumptions about wildfire. It is worth noting that TNC has a conflict of interest since it receives significant funding from the federal…
-
Should One Remove Adjacent Vegetation By Homes?
Over the years, I’ve visited dozens of major wildfires to examine how they burned and what they didn’t burn. One noticeable pattern in urban settings is how houses burn to their foundation, while nearby trees and shrubs remain green. Global climate change is exacerbating urban wildfire risks. For instance, between 2003 and 2023, the global…
-
Protect Communities Not Log The Forest
A recent article in the Daily Montanan State wildfire briefing indicates fire season ‘could be significant’ that promotes misguided information about wildfire. It starts with Montana Governor Greg Gianforte’s claim that the state firefighters have been able to keep “95% of wildfire starts to 10 acres or fewer since 2021.” What is missing from such…
-
Rewilding a Mountain
How removing cattle led to a massive ecological recovery
-
Public Lands Welfare Ranchers Again Subsidized By Taxpayers
Livestock are grazed on all federal lands, including national parks and wildlife refuges. Still, most livestock grazing occurs on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service. Even specially protected landscapes that are supposed to be managed for natural conditions, like designated Wilderness areas, are grazed by domestic animals.…
-
How Common Were Low Severity Blazes in Western Ecosystem?
A recent article in the Arizona Republic, “The only way to save Arizona forests is to let them burn,” repeats the misguided idea that low-severity/high-frequency fires keep the forest open and park-like, with limited fuels to sustain tree-killing wildfires. In other words, if a fire kills most trees, it is “lost” and “destroyed.” In the…