chainsaw medicine

  • Logging Creates “Unhealthy” Forests With Less Resilence

    George Wuerthner

      “Thinning” project on the Wallowa Whitman NF in Oregon. The removal of trees by chainsaw medicine eliminates evolutionary agents that would otherwise naturally “thin” the forest. Photo George Wuerthner  The Forest Service and Forestry School researchers (funded by the Forest Service) continue to promote the idea that our forests are “unhealthy.” It is an…

  • The Logging Juggernaut

    George Wuerthner

    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…

  • Senator Daines Ill-advised Forest Management Advocacy

    George Wuerthner

    Heavily logged lands failed to preclude the 2007 Jocko Lake Fire near Seeley Lake, Montana.  Photo George Wuerthner  Recently Senator Daines spoke at the Professional Fire Fighters conference in Bozeman. Daines advocated more management of our forests, believing that we can chainsaw our way to “forest health.” Senator Daines can be forgiven for his ill-advised…

  • Black Ram Vegetation Management-Another Example of Chainsaw Medicine

    George Wuerthner

    Clearcuts below Grizzly Creek in the Upper Yaak Drainage. Photo George Wuerthner  The Kootenai National Forest proposes a massive logging project in Northwest Montana known as the Black Ram “Vegetation” treatment. The Black Ram project area includes Northwest Yaak from the Canadian border west to the Idaho border, south to the ridge line between Pete…

  • Industrial Forestry Paradigm Threat to North Bridger Range

    George Wuerthner

    The North Bridger Timber Sale is removing old growth forests to “promote” forest health. Photo George Wuerthner  After reading the article in the October 7th Bozeman Daily Chronicle titled “Timber Treatment” about the North Bridger logging project on the Custer Gallatin National Forest of Montana one gets the idea that until the Forest Service and…

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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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