Public Lands
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The cost of a hamburger does not reflect the cost of this cowbombed land in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Photo George Wuerthner Do you know what a Big Mac costs? If you say $4.50 or whatever the current price posted at the McDonald’s restaurant may be, you are vastly under-estimating the real price. That’s…
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The Mogollon Mountains of the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico is the heart of the Greater Gila Ecosystem. Photo George Wuerthner I have spent most of my adult life living within, exploring, learning about, and trying to protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It is one of the premier wildlands in the nation and deserves…
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North Fork of Pogo Agie River, Cirque of the Towers, Wind River Range, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. Photo George Wuerthner The Shoshone National Forest lies directly east and south of Yellowstone National Park. It contains some of the most important wildlife habitat in the country, including significant numbers of elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose,…
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Cattle tend to congregate in riparian zones because they provide food, water, and shade. Photo George Wuerthner One of the biggest problems in conservation is that people do not miss what they don’t know. How many people really miss the Ivory-Billed woodpecker or Stellar’s sea lion? And I’ve found that people living in the eastern…
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This site by Chester, California was treated by thinning and even clearcutting (seen in the background) and later burned in the Dixie Fire. Photo George Wuerthner A recent article in the Los Angeles Times on November 8th (Prescribed burns are crucial to reducing wildfire risks) Los Angeles Times highlights a California study that advocates…
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Subsidized logging in the name of fuel reductions on the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon. Logging accounts for 35% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner Congress just passed the big infrastructure bill, and I expect President Biden will sign it—maybe before you read this commentary. Funding is for numerous projects including…
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The nearly complete annihilation of vegetation by livestock vandelism seen here should result in the termination of any grazing privileges. Photo George Wuerthner I recently spent a few days on the Dixie National Forest in southern Utah. One of the defining characteristics of the forest is that nearly all the acreage that is not…
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Prescribed fire and cultural burning by Native Americans is often promoted as a means of reducing large blazes across the West. There are many reasons to question such assumptions. Photo George Wuerthner Here are seven articles (attached below) from today’s news cycle. They promote the idea that our forests need to be “gardened” by human…