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This “thinning” is a clearcut all but in name. Wallowa Whitman National Forest, Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner I recently gave a talk on wildfire issues in Baker City, a small town in Eastern Oregon. On my way home, I drove the Elkhorn Scenic By-way, traversing the Wallowa Whitman National Forest (WWNF), and encountered shocking…
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Logging lodgepole pine on the Deschutes NF in Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner Across the West, the Forest Service and logging proponents continue to mischaracterize forest health by the standards of the Industrial Forestry Paradigm. Under this logging juggernaut paradigm, any natural evolutionary agent that kills a tree, such as a drought, wildfire, insects, or…
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Remains of a home burned in the Camp Fire which destroyed 19,000 structures in the town of Paradise, California. Photo George Wuerthner State Farm Insurance Company announced it would no longer take on new insurance clients in California due to the rising cost of fire-related losses. The company cited “rapidly growing” catastrophe risks like wildfires,…
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The Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. Photo George Wuerthner New legislation, the Save Our Sequoias Act (SOSA) promoted by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seeks to increase “fuel reductions” such as logging and prescribed burns around California’s iconic sequoia groves. Who isn’t for “saving” sequoias, the largest and some of the oldest trees in…
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Eagle Creek six years after the wildfire. Photo George Wuerthner In September 2017, the Eagle Creek Wildfire scorched 50,000 acres in the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland. Numerous media accounts suggested the blaze “destroyed,” “damaged,” and devastated the forest communities. Wildflowers are favored by wildfire. Photo George Wuerthner As one reporter suggested, the…
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Livestock is one of the major factors in cheatgrass invasion across the West. Photo George Wuerthner Wildfire is a big issue in Western states. As climate warming has increased temperatures, created severe drought, and increased winds, wildfire has become more challenging to control, and the annual acreage burned is growing over the recent past (…
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The 1988 Fires burned approximately half of Yellowstone National Park and provided a significant natural laboratory to review the effects of wildfire on aquatic ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner Most people assume that wildfire harms aquatic ecosystems and fisheries. But such assumptions are being challenged by new research. This narrative misleadingly portrays mixed-intensity forest fires as…
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The McNeil Biomass Burner in Burlington Vermont, is the state’s single source of air pollution. Photo George Wuerthner Presently around the West, the Forest Service, timber advocates, and far too many conservation organizations are promoting biofuels and biomass energy as “Green Energy.” The FS and its allies want to cut more wood (which they term fuels…
Author
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and writer who has published 38 books on various topics related to environmental and natural history. He has visited over 400 designated wilderness areas and over 200 national park units.