The Wildlife News

Wildlife News

  • The Proposed Ambler Mine and Road–Implications For The Kobuk River Ecosystem And People.

    George Wuerthner

      The word Kobuk means “Big River” in the local native language.  Photo George Wuerthner  I just returned from floating the Kobuk River in Alaska’s Brooks Range. The Kobuk headwaters are north of the Arctic Circle in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and flow west to the Bering Sea near Kotzebue, Alaska. The…

  • The Social Carbon Cost of Public Land Livestock Grazing

    George Wuerthner

    Public land livestock grazing has a significant social cost in terms of carbon emissions contributing to climate warming. Grand Staircase-Escalante NM Utah.  Photo George Wuerthner  An important paper was published in Environmental Management about the social carbon costs of public land livestock grazing. The paper Climate, Ecological, and Social Costs of Livestock Grazing on Western…

  • Logging Road Impacts

    George Wuerthner

    Logging roads are a major negative impact on ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner  The latest attempt by the Forest Service to make timber cutting palatable is using the terms “temporary” and “closed” to describe logging roads. The implied message is that road impacts are magically eliminated if they are temporary or closed. Roads, temporary, “closed,” or…

  • Lesson from Maui

    George Wuerthner

    Wildfire ravaged the community of Lahaina on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, and the death toll mounts. Are there any lessons to be learned from this tragedy? The Lahaina fire offers some insights into why the current Forest Service policy of focusing on fuel reduction is misguided. The wildfire began in grasslands and, driven by…

  • Tribal Burning and Fire Suppression

    George Wuerthner

    The media and many others, including conservation groups, suggest the cause of today’s wildfires is the result of fire suppression. They point to the cessation of Native American cultural burning as a primary reason for larger blazes. This has led to expensive and often ecologically destructive forest management policies. A Charles M. Russell painting showing…

  • Media Distortions On Wildfire Ecology And Prescribed/Cultural Burning

    George Wuerthner

    One commonly asserted myth is that frequent burning can substantially reduce the area burned by wildfire across the landscape. Photo George Wuerthner  Poorly informed journalists flood the public with misinformation about wildfire ecology. The common theme insinuates that we can and should manage nature. I am sympathetic to the plight of journalists who are overworked…

  • Create A Greater Yellowstone National Park

    George Wuerthner

    Old Faithful erupting, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Photo George Wuerthner  I just saw the movie Wild Life about Doug and Kris Thompkins’s efforts to protect wildlands in Patagonia. Doug and Kris Tompkins at Renihue Chile. Photo George Wuerthner  I am very familiar with that effort as I worked for Doug and Kris for more than…

  • Community Hardening Instead of Logging the Forest

    George Wuerthner

    Thinning the forest is often less effective than eliminating human sources of ignition. Photo George Wuerthner  The Deschutes National Forest wildfire policies are misdirected towards logging while ignoring the real threats that could lead to blazes on Bend’s doorstep. Anyone driving around the national forest near Bend will note the abundance of homeless camps, RVs,…

Subscribe to get new posts right in your Inbox

‎”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

Latest Posts

×