Tag: carbon storage

  • The Gifts of the Snag Forest

    The snag forests that result from high-severity blazes are a unique and critical habitat for numerous species. Photo George Wuerthner I was backpacking with a friend up the Yellowstone River in the Teton Wilderness of Wyoming a couple of years ago. At various times, we passed through areas that had burned severely, likely in the…

  • The Logging Juggernaut

    Logging lodgepole pine on the Deschutes NF in Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner    Across the West, the Forest Service and logging proponents continue to mischaracterize forest health by the standards of the Industrial Forestry Paradigm. Under this logging juggernaut paradigm, any natural evolutionary agent that kills a tree, such as a drought, wildfire, insects, or…

  • Oregon’s Eagle Creek Wildfire–Six Years Later

      Eagle Creek six years after the wildfire. Photo George Wuerthner In September 2017, the Eagle Creek Wildfire scorched 50,000 acres in the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland. Numerous media accounts suggested the blaze “destroyed,” “damaged,” and devastated the forest communities. Wildflowers are favored by wildfire. Photo George Wuerthner  As one reporter suggested, the…

  • What’s Wrong With Biomass Burning? Everything.

    The McNeil Biomass Burner in Burlington Vermont,  is the state’s single source of air pollution. Photo George Wuerthner  Presently around the West, the Forest Service, timber advocates, and far too many conservation organizations are promoting biofuels and biomass energy as “Green Energy.” The FS and its allies want to cut more wood (which they term fuels…

  • The Douglas Fir National Monument Proposal

    The western slope of the Cascades contains some of the greatest concentrations of old-growth Douglas Fir forests in the United States. Photo George Wuerthner  Some of the most spectacular forests of Douglas fir in the West are found on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. Though heavily logged by the timber industry…

  • Rewilding the West and the 2023 Farm Bill

    The Rewilding the West proposal calls for the restoration of wolves across federal lands. Photo George Wuerthner  The current Farm Bill, which Congress passed in 2018, is set to expire in 2023. Congress will undoubtedly enact a new Farm Bill. The Farm Bill provides an opportunity to incorporate the provisions of the Rewilding the West…

  • Yosemite and Logging in the Park

    Giant sequoia in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park. Photo George Wuerthner I visited Yosemite National Park recently. I was dismayed to see the logging of large trees in the valley. According to the Park Superintendent, the justification for logging is “to use every tool at our disposal to save the forests and to save the…

  • A Maine Woods National Park?

    I helped to create RESTORE the North Woods in 1991 which put forth a proposal for a 3.2 million acre national park in the Maine Woods. I’ve been a board member and now president for a long time now. We still are advocating for a large national park in Maine and achieved the beginnings of…

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