wilderness

  • The Gallatin Range south of Bozeman is the last major unprotected landscape in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. A minimum of 250,000 acres of the Gallatin Range as advocated by the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance should be designated wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act. The Gallatin Range is a key area for wildlife, and home…

  • “The idea of wilderness needs no defense.  It only needs defenders.” Ed Abbey Abbey was right.  There have been a number of books and articles over the last twenty or thirty years that have critically examined the ever-diminishing conservation ethics of those who work for environmental groups, both nationally and regionally.  One early critic I…

  • Attached is a Zoom talk I gave to the Massachusetts Sierra Club on the ecological costs of livestock grazing in the West, but I also provide evidence that livestock production has a serious global impact.  

  • Lochsa River on the Nez Perce Clearwater NF, Idaho. Photo George Wuerthner  The Nez Perce Clearwater National Forests in central-northern Idaho contain more wildlands than almost any other national forest in the lower 48 states. Recently, the Forest released its forest plan on November 28, 2023, which will determine the management for the next 10-30…

  •      Tracy Arm and Ford’s Terror Wilderness, Tongass NF, Alaska. Photo George Wuerthner  A new paper, Southern Alaska’s Forest Landscape Integrity, Habitat, and Carbon Are Critical for Meeting Climate and Conservation Goals, published in AGU Advances, outlines the reasons why Alaska’s Tongass and Chugach National Forests should be given protection as carbon reserves. Both…

  • 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…

  • The Gallatin Range south of Bozeman deserves to be preserved as wilderness. Photo George Wuerthner Recently I skied into a Forest Service cabin in the Gallatin Range. Looking out on a meadow with glaciated peaks beyond gave me a chance to reflect on how lucky I was to have public lands available to enjoy. I’ve…

  • Old growth forests of Oregon store some of the greatest amounts of carbon in the United States. Photo George Wuerthner  A new study, Strategic reserves in Oregon’s forests for biodiversity, water, and carbon to mitigate and adapt to climate change, reported in Frontiers in Forests and Global Climate Change, proposes setting aside a strategic forest…

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