George Wuerthner
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Kurt Gensheimer’s Feb. 28th editorial on mountain biking and wilderness in the Sacramento Bee is full of the same misinformation and distortions. http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article202387639.html Mr. Gensheimer suggests that Rep. Tom McClinock’s legislation to open our nation’s wilderness system to mountain bikes and other wheeled contractions “restores” the original intent of the 1964 Wilderness Act and will provide…
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A Feb. 17th article in the Morning Tribune about the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forest proposal to log forests along the Lolo Motorway and Nez Perce National Historic Trail demonstrates clearly the Forest Service Industrial Forestry Paradigm bias. http://lmtribune.com/northwest/forest-service-seeks-input-on-logging-plan/article_d5f4ca5b-dee7-5150-8d17-fd294738b60d.html I see the Industrial Paradigm all the time in statements from Forest Service representatives. Instead of…
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The recent response to my editorial on the ecological value of dead trees by Russ Vaughn and Mike Peterson demonstrated exactly the problem I was attempting to address: that the Industrial Forestry Paradigm, not ecological understanding, drives forestry on the Colville National Forest. http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/feb/21/russ-vaagen-and-mike-petersen-forests-are-a-source/ Their last paragraph illustrates this industrial bias. Vaughn and Peterson wrote: “The…
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Wyoming counties are currently involved the Public Lands Initiative. Ostensibly the purpose is to determine which Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) should be designated as wilderness and which areas will be released to other land exploitation. Across Wyoming, there are 42 WSAs on BLM lands and three WSAs on Forest Service lands, totaling over 700,000 acres.…
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For thousands of years, humans have been reliant and aware that we are all dependent upon other life to support us. If the caribou or bison herd didn’t come near the village or the salmon failed to materialize in the streams, people starved. We humans intuitively understood that we had an obligation and responsibility to…
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One of the only good things about the failure of Congress to agree upon the future of DACA recipients (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is that Trump’s fantasy about a border wall was not funded yet (which you may remember Mexico was going to pay for). Many see the Border Wall controversy as a humanitarian…
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The Idaho BLM is proposing to remove juniper from over 600,000 acres of land in the Owyhee River area of southern Idaho ostensibly to benefit nesting sage grouse. Sage grouse avoid treed areas, so the idea is to cut down juniper to increase sage grouse habitat quality. While there is no doubt from the literature…
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Across the country, the growing popularity of mountain biking is increasingly a threat to our wildlands, even in designated wilderness. Some mountain biking advocates promote the idea that their sport is compatible with the goals, and even the legal obligations of federal land management agencies that manage wilderness. Yet my feeling is that mountain bikers and…