High-severity blazes are critical to healthy forest ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner
I read yet another study circulated by UC Davis and doggedly promoted by the national media, encouraging more prescribed burning, thinning, and forest manipulation to reduce large high-severity blazes characterized as “bad.”
The headline from UC Davis proclaims that […]
Continue Reading →
The Dixie Fire charred 900,000 acre plus acres in 2021. The fire burned through numerous portions of the forest that had been thinned or even clearcut as seen in this photo. Photo George Wuerthner
A December 20th article in the New York Times declared California had a quiet fire season. […]
Continue Reading →Even the extensive pavement (totally without fuel), extensive clearcutting, and hazardous fuel reductions on public lands did not save this Safeway Store when the Camp Fire burned through Paradise, California. Photo George Wuerthner
Recently Bend residents were treated to the wildfire documentary Elemental at the Tower Theater. The movie produced by Continue Reading →
Typical pole size of trees in the South Plateau “treatment” area. Photo George Wuerthner
The Custer Gallatin National Forest (CGNF) proposal to log the South Plateau area bordering Yellowstone National Park near West Yellowstone is another example of the Forest Service’s quack chainsaw medicine policies.
The CGNF says the goal of the […]
Continue Reading →
Previously logged Plum Creek Timber Company lands which didn’t stop 36,ooo acre plus Jocko Lakes Fires. Photo George Wuerthner
Recently Governor Greg Gianforte praised forest management for limiting the spread of two fires near Helena.
Gianforte suggested that active forest management (i.e., logging) helped firefighters to keep two blazes, the […]
Continue Reading →Clearcuts along the McKenzie River corridor east of Eugene, Oregon did little to slow the Holiday Farm Fire. Photo George Wuerthner
The Holiday Farm Fire began on September 7, 2020. The fire charred 173,000 acres along the McKenzie River Valley in western Oregon’s Cascade Range, possibly due to a fallen power line. […]
Continue Reading →Fuel reductions are a major part of the Forest Service’s wildfire reduction plan. Photo George Wuerthner
Recently the Federal government released its Confronting Wildfire Crisis plan to control wildfires in the West. As with all previous programs, it focuses on removing “fuels” as its solution and calls for escalating fuel reductions […]
Continue Reading →Active forest management is viewed as a solution to large blazes, but fails to acknowledge that climate is driving wildfire. It is true that if you completely remove forests, you won’t get a forest fire. Photo George Wuerthner
Proponents of “active forest management” or logging as a means of reducing […]
Continue Reading →Thinning/logging at Newberry Crater National Monument, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner
One of the arguments alleged by proponents of thinning or logging forests is that it will reduce the size of wildfires and hence carbon emissions from blazes. Proponents argue that more trees survive a fire if there has […]
Continue Reading →In May, 2021 I happened to be traveling through northern California on my way to Lassen National Park. When I drove out of Chester, California, I encountered a number of forest thinning projects along the highway. So I photographed some of them, in part, because in many cases large fire-resistant trees were being removed.
Then […]
Continue Reading →
