Forest Service
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The Mogollon Mountains of the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico is the heart of the Greater Gila Ecosystem. Photo George Wuerthner I have spent most of my adult life living within, exploring, learning about, and trying to protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It is one of the premier wildlands in the nation and deserves…
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This site by Chester, California was treated by thinning and even clearcutting (seen in the background) and later burned in the Dixie Fire. Photo George Wuerthner A recent article in the Los Angeles Times on November 8th (Prescribed burns are crucial to reducing wildfire risks) Los Angeles Times highlights a California study that advocates…
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Subsidized logging in the name of fuel reductions on the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon. Logging accounts for 35% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner Congress just passed the big infrastructure bill, and I expect President Biden will sign it—maybe before you read this commentary. Funding is for numerous projects including…
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The nearly complete annihilation of vegetation by livestock vandelism seen here should result in the termination of any grazing privileges. Photo George Wuerthner I recently spent a few days on the Dixie National Forest in southern Utah. One of the defining characteristics of the forest is that nearly all the acreage that is not…
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The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon spread across 400,000 acres, burning in a mosaic pattern of burned, lightly burned and unburned areas. Photo George Wuerthner As another summer of large fires spread across the West including the Dixie Fire in northern California and the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon, advocates of “active forest management” have…
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The North Bridger Timber Sale is removing old growth forests to “promote” forest health. Photo George Wuerthner After reading the article in the October 7th Bozeman Daily Chronicle titled “Timber Treatment” about the North Bridger logging project on the Custer Gallatin National Forest of Montana one gets the idea that until the Forest Service and…
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Clearcut in the Ten Mile Drainage near Helena, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner In a recent editorial in the Helena IR, an employee of RY Timber presented misleading commentary in his essay “Forest Service is Right to Restore Forest Health” that deserves a response. First, keep in mind that the timber industry and forestry profession (both…
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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 more prescribed burning…