California
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The aftermath of the Las Conchas Blaze in 2011 in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Photo George Wuerthner An excellent overview of wildfire issues was published in the Revelator. https://therevelator.org/wildfire-archive/ I encourage folks to review it. I especially appreciate the linkage of recent large fires to drought and warming temperatures. That is…
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Large blazes like the Camp Fire which leveled this McDonald’s in Paradise CA are driven by extreme fire weather, particularly wind. Active forest management including thinning and prescribe fire does nothing to prevent such blazes. Photo George Wuerthner Recently California Governor Newsom came out with a proposed fire budget of over a billon dollars.…
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Dairy and beef cattle are grazed at Point Reyes National Seashore sixty years after the properties were purchased by American citizens. Photo George Wuerthner Fences. Everywhere I went during a recent trip to Point Reyes, I encountered fences. Why are there fences in a national park unit? They exist to facilitate the private use of…
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Dust and air pollution from particulates is a threat to the health of nearby residents. Photo George Wuerthner On March 18th, the California Coastal Commission appeared to settle a long-simmering dispute over Thrillcraft use of the Oceano Dunes Vehicular Recreation Area near Pismo Beach, California. For forty years, the Coastal Commission has been arguing…
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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” What should we call the diverse, wild, inspiring but scarred peninsula sliding very slowly past us, jurisdictionally in West Marin County, California, but geologically across the San Andreas Fault, on the Pacific Plate, going steadily its own…
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Previously logged and thinned forest that burned at high severity in the Jocko Lakes Fire, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner There are daily news stories about the recent large wildfires in 2020. In nearly all of these media accounts, the large blazes are almost always attributed to a lack of active forest management. In other words,…
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Ponderosa pine forest experiences a “light burn” or “low severity” fire that does not kill the mature trees but reduces “fuels”. Photo George Wuerthner In almost all media reports about the recent fire seasons, one of the chief explanations given for the larger blazes is “fire suppression” and “fuel build-up.” We hear that 100…