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 →Ponderosa pine in New Mexico Blue Range Wilderness. Photo George Wuerthner A new paper, Indigenous fire management and cross-scale fire climate relationships in the Southwest United States from 1500 to 1900 CE, was recently published. Based on solid scientific research, it makes the important point that indigenous fire management was local rather than landscape […]
Continue Reading →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 […]
Continue Reading →Prescribed burns are perceived to be a panacea for reducing wildfire, but there are many problems with implementation. George Wuerthner
Many people in New Mexico are calling for an investigation of the practice of prescribed burning in light of the recent immense Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak wildfires that began as […]
Continue Reading →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 […]
Continue Reading →Prescribed burning is often seen as a way to reduce to the large climate-driven blazes now occurring across the West, however, there are many problems that proponents fail to acknowledge. Photo George Wuerthner
It seems everyone is grasping for some “solution” to big fires. And one of the common assertions is that […]
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The aftermath of the Las Conchas Blaze in 2011 in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Photo George Wuerthner
An excellent overview of wildfire issues was published in the Revelator. https://therevelator.org/wildfire-archive/
I encourage folks to review it.
I especially appreciate the linkage of recent large fires to drought and […]
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Forest Service using drip torch for prescribed burning. Photo by George Wuerthner
There has been a spate of articles in various newspapers and magazines, asserting that if the Forest Service were following burning practices of Indigenous people, the massive wildfires we have seen around the West would be tamed.
Here are some […]
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