bark beetles

  • Follow The Money

    George Wuerthner

      Biologist radio tracking wolves in Montana. Photo George Wuerthner  Years ago, I was in a graduate wildlife biology seminar where we discussed major issues of the day. At one of the meetings, the topic was finding work in wildlife research. There were three wildlife biology professors presenting that day. After they each gave a…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • North Bridger Range Forest Health Project Subterfuge

    George Wuerthner

    The proposed North Bridger “forest health” project on the Gallatin National Forest north of Bozeman, Montana near the already heavily logged area by Bridger Bowl is based on numerous false assumptions. The proposal displays the Forest Service’s Industrial Forestry bias and its subterfuge of science. The public no longer gives the agency a “social license”…

  • Forests or trees?

    George Wuerthner

    “What but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine the fleet limbs of the antelope?” wrote the poet Robinson Jeffers. Jeffers encapsulated the idea that evolutionary processes shape all plants and animals.  Unfortunately, far too many in the Forest Service and the collaboratives that work with them fail to understand this basic idea—a “healthy” forest is…

  • Baucus Beetle Amendment To Farm Bill Bad For Forest Ecosystems

    George Wuerthner

    Despite the ecological reality that beetle-kill is part of healthy functioning forest ecosystem, Montana Senator Max Baucus successfully added an amendment to the Farm Bill that would provide additional funds to log beetle killed trees as well as “stream line” the process of getting out timber sales. Baucus stated this would be “good news” to…

  • Researchers turn up the noise to battle bark beetles

    Ralph Maughan

    Is artificial bark beetle noise a silver bullet? Except at great expense and on a small scale, insecticides, logging or pheromone traps haven’t touched this beetle epidemic that extends from the Yukon to New Mexico.  Here is some thinking outside the box that might work. Of course, it too might only work over small areas.…

  • Sen. Udall sponsors bill to attack pine beetles

    Ralph Maughan

    Colorado Democrat Udall says his bill will combat a great natural disaster- Yes there are millions of  acres of beetle killed pine trees in Colorado, but also Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon and Washington, New Mexico, British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon. Local politicians respond to local demands to do something, but rarely do…

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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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