The Wildlife News

Logging

  • Daines and Feinstein Fire Legislation Misdirected

    George Wuerthner

    Thinned lodgepole pine forest on Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest. As often is the case, thinning puts more “fine” fuels on the ground which can promote fire spread. Photo George Wuerthner  Montana Senator Daines announced that he intends to reintroduce wildfire legislation co-sponsored by California Senator Diane Feinstein that, among other things, would speed up and…

  • Wildfire May Benefit Spotted Owls

    George Wuerthner

    Northern Spotted Owl Photo US FWS A couple of years ago, I attended a meeting of the Deschutes Collaborative. Spotted Owls and wildfire was the topic that day. The meeting was a classic example of how collaboratives selectively use science to justify more logging of our forests. The two-hour meeting featured a biologist with the…

  • The 99-Year Old Grandmother Argument–The Bias of Forestry Advocates

    George Wuerthner

      To many foresters and others who advocate for “active forest management,” a fire that results in high tree mortality is considered evidence of an “unhealthy” forest. Photo George Wuerthner  This past week I was invited to present my views on forest health and fire ecology to a group of Washington State residents and legislators…

  • Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act Introduced

    George Wuerthner

    The Gallatin Range south of Bozeman is one of the many wildlands that would receive wilderness designation in NREPA. Photo George Wuerthner On March 10th, Representative Maloney of New York reintroduced the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) legislation into Congress. NREPA is visionary. The legislation is big—it would protect 23 million acres as designated…

  • Institutional Bias of Forestry School Research

    George Wuerthner

      Foresters want to remove large old-growth fir trees greater than 21 inches from the Blue Mountain Ecosystems in the name of forest restoration. Photo George Wuerthner  Institutional bias doesn’t just exist in race relationships. The Forest Service and Forestry Schools have been the handmaiden of the timber industry for so long they do not…

  • Livestock and deforestation in the American West

    Ralph Maughan

    The dawn breaks each morning on a hundred different mountain ranges in the Great Basin, with few human eyes to see it. Many of these mountain chains will be unfamiliar to most – the Toquimas, the Wah Wahs, the Goshutes, the Sheeprocks, the Fox Range – but the one thing they all have in common…

  • Fire Suppression Hyperbole

    George Wuerthner

      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…

  • 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…

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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

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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