George Wuerthner
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The House Subcommittee on Natural Resources chaired by Tom McClintock (R) of California is advocating more active management of our national forests based on the presumption that logging/thinning will reduce large wildfires. A clear indication of McClintock’s perspective is found in the title of a recent hearing he chaired called “Oversight Hearing on Burdensome Litigation…
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Many rural counties with sizeable amounts of federal lands within their jurisdictional boundaries depend on federal payments to support basic services like fire, police, schools, and the like. The main programs include the Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILT), Refuge Revenue Sharing, Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act (SRS). One of the…
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This week Donald Trump withdrew the United States support and leadership in the Paris Climate Accords, demonstrating that he prefers buggy whips to automobiles. There is overwhelming agreement by scientists and most of the world’s leaders that climate change is real and is occurring. It is not a “hoax” as Trump asserts. The consequence of…
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Fed by giant springs in many of its tributaries, historically the Deschutes River of Central Oregon had one of the most constant flows of any river in the West. Even in “flood” the Deschutes rarely rose more than a foot. Due to its cold, clear, and steady flow, the Deschutes was once one of the…
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Most environmental/conservation groups are climate change deniers. Specifically, I am talking about the numerous organizations that give lip service to the threat posed by climate change, but don’t even mention to their membership or emphasize to the media the contribution that livestock production has with regards to rising global temperatures. While most organizations are calling…
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A CNN news report on the most damaging foods to global climate is welcome. http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/15/world/gallery/climate-damaging-foods/index.html To those of us paying attention, it confirms what we have stated for quite some time, the production of beef and dairy products is one of the greatest sources of GHG emissions. Indeed, any number of earlier reports have found livestock…
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http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/some-hate-parks-and-national-monuments-until-they-love-them Last week, President Trump launched an unprecedented assault on America’s public lands when he ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to evaluate whether dozens of national monuments should be rescinded or reduced in size. Trump was responding to pressure from Utah’s Congressional delegation, which has long hated the Teddy Roosevelt-era Antiquities Act, the law that…
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When I was in college at the University of Montana in Missoula, I had a housemate named Tom. Tom was a wilderness fanatic like myself. We both loved exploring the wildlands that surround Missoula. Tom had a map on the wall where he drew a circle that encompassed a hundred-mile radius around Missoula. Tom…