States

  • South Plateau Timber Sale Another FS Con Job

    George Wuerthner

    Lodgepole pine forests like these in the South Plateau Timber sale tend to burn at fire rotations of hundreds of years, yet the FS wants to log them to preclude a future fire that may not occur for a century or more. Photo George Wuerthner The Custer Gallatin National Forest proposes to log and otherwise…

  • Malheur Collaborative Bent On Degrading Forest Ecosystems

    George Wuerthner

      A recent article in the Blue Mountain Eagle Finding Common Ground on Active Forest Management quotes several people about restoring forest health.  None of these people have expertise in forest ecology, except James Johnson from the OSU forestry school. The irony is that all these people, including Johnson, ignore the science from other scientists…

  • Predicted habitat availability does not address recovery success for Mexico’s Mexican wolves

    Coauthored by Greta Anderson and Dave Parsons The Arizona Game and Fish Department has been busy promoting recently published research which documents ample habitat for Mexican wolves in Mexico. This supports the recovery criteria in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s official recovery plan and the Department’s desire to assume management of Mexican wolves, which will occur when…

  • Critique of The West Is Burning Documentary

    George Wuerthner

    The wind-driven pattern of fire in the 1988 Yellowstone fires. Photo George Wuerthner A new documentary titled The West Is Burning continues to promote a flawed narrative that large blazes are a consequence of “fire suppression” and “fuel build-up.”  Starting from this perspective, it promotes policies like thinning the forest and prescribed burning to counter…

  • Putting Our Public Forests Into Carbon Reserves

    George Wuerthner

    Old-growth forest like this on Admiralty Island, Tongass National Forest should be protected as a carbon reserve. Photo by George Wuerthner  The Biden Administration supports protecting 30% of US lands by 2030 or what is termed the 30 x 30 proposal.  One of the best ways to meet that 30 by 30 goals would be…

  • Protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Wildlands

    George Wuerthner

    The Buffalo Horn drainage in the Gallatin Range is one of the most important wildlife areas in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Photo George Wuerthner  The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the last major relatively intact temperate-zone ecosystem in the world.  It is a global heritage. There are organizations like the Montana Wilderness Association (MWA), The Wilderness…

  • Scientists Critique BLM Tri-State Fuel Breaks Proposal

    George Wuerthner

    A week ago, eight prominent scientists sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) declaring that the agency’s proposed Tri-State Fuel Break (TSFB) is flawed and will endanger sagebrush ecosystems. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (“FEIS”) and other project documents are available on the agency’s website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/42341/510. To quote the scientists: “If…

  • Critique of “Fire Suppression” Mythology

    George Wuerthner

      High elevation forests like the mountain hemlock seen here at Crater Lake have long intervals between fires. They only burn when there is the right combination of climate/weather. Fire suppression has had little influence on such forests. Photo George Wuerthner The recent piece published in the December 22 Guardian titled: Heat, wind, and a…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

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