Logging roads are a major negative impact on ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner
The latest attempt by the Forest Service to make timber cutting palatable is using the terms “temporary” and “closed” to describe logging roads. The implied message is that road impacts are magically eliminated if they are temporary or closed. Roads, […]
Continue Reading →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 […]
Continue Reading →Livestock grazing in the Great Basin has increased cheatgrass, a highly flammable annual grass. Livestock advocates allege targeted grazing can reduce large wildfires. Photo George Wuerthner
A recent publication in the Journal of Rangeland Ecology and Management, “Evaluating the efficacy of targeted cattle grazing for fuel break creation and maintenance,” perpetuates […]
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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), […]
Continue Reading →The Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. Photo George Wuerthner
New legislation, the Save Our Sequoias Act (SOSA) promoted by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seeks to increase “fuel reductions” such as logging and prescribed burns around California’s iconic sequoia groves.
Who isn’t for “saving” sequoias, the largest and some of […]
Continue Reading →Livestock is one of the major factors in cheatgrass invasion across the West. Photo George Wuerthner
Wildfire is a big issue in Western states. As climate warming has increased temperatures, created severe drought, and increased winds, wildfire has become more challenging to control, and the annual acreage burned is growing over the […]
Continue Reading →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 […]
Continue Reading →Sandstone outcrops and chaparral along Hurricane Deck, San Rafael Wilderness, Los Padres NF, California. Photo George Wuerthner
Chaparral is one of California’s most widespread vegetation communities due to the state’s Mediterranean climate of winter precipitation and summer drought. Chaparral is particularly common in the Coast Range, Traverse Ranges, and western slopes of […]
Continue Reading →New road was created for a forest thinning project. Roads are a major location for human ignition. Photo George Wuerthner
The Biden administration announced it would spend nearly $930 million fighting wildfire in the West. While the plan includes money for everything from hardening homes to paying for more firefighters, the main […]
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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 […]
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