Tag: Logging
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Indian Iron Curtain (Or the Emperor Has No Clothes)
How many people know that in the state of Washington, more wolves are killed by Native people than any other group? You probably haven’t heard about this, even from wolf advocacy groups. How many conservationists know that Native people are among the staunchest advocates for oil development on Alaska’s North Slope, including in the Arctic…
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New Strategies Needed For Wildlands Urban Blazes
The Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise, California, was an urban blaze driven by high winds. Photo George Wuerthner A new paper, “Wildlands-urban fire disasters aren’t a wildfire problem,” published in PNAS, challenges traditional approaches to wildfire management strategies. The researchers note that most of the large blazes that destroyed homes, including Lahaina, Hawaii, Talent and…
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Preserving The Carbon Stored On Alaska’s Tongass and Chugach National Forests
Tracy Arm and Ford’s Terror Wilderness, Tongass NF, Alaska. Photo George Wuerthner A new paper, Southern Alaska’s Forest Landscape Integrity, Habitat, and Carbon Are Critical for Meeting Climate and Conservation Goals, published in AGU Advances, outlines the reasons why Alaska’s Tongass and Chugach National Forests should be given protection as carbon reserves. Both…
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Logging Creates “Unhealthy” Forests With Less Resilence
“Thinning” project on the Wallowa Whitman NF in Oregon. The removal of trees by chainsaw medicine eliminates evolutionary agents that would otherwise naturally “thin” the forest. Photo George Wuerthner The Forest Service and Forestry School researchers (funded by the Forest Service) continue to promote the idea that our forests are “unhealthy.” It is an…
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How Thinning Impacts Fuels
A few years ago, the Custer Gallatin National Forest thinned the area on Kirk Hill by Bozeman to reduce fuels. As has been reported, one of the problems with any fuel reduction is that the probably that a fire will encounter it during the period when it’s potentially effective is very small–usually around 1%. A…
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Lesson from Maui
Wildfire ravaged the community of Lahaina on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, and the death toll mounts. Are there any lessons to be learned from this tragedy? The Lahaina fire offers some insights into why the current Forest Service policy of focusing on fuel reduction is misguided. The wildfire began in grasslands and, driven by…
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Missing the Mark–A New Wildfire Report by Headwaters Economics
The burnt-out Safeway Store in Paradise, California. Even a big parking lot with no fuel could not prevent the loss of this structure due to wind-blown embers. Photo George Wuerthner A new report from Headwaters Economics titled: “Missing the Mark: Effectiveness and Funding in Community Wildfire Risk Reduction” misses the mark in many ways regarding…
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Wallowa Whitman National Forest Deforestation Projects
This “thinning” is a clearcut all but in name. Wallowa Whitman National Forest, Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner I recently gave a talk on wildfire issues in Baker City, a small town in Eastern Oregon. On my way home, I drove the Elkhorn Scenic By-way, traversing the Wallowa Whitman National Forest (WWNF), and encountered shocking…