Yellowstone fires
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One continuously hears that “common sense” dictates that logging the forest to decrease “fuels” will eliminate or reduce large wildfires. Common sense also suggests the sun circles the earth, as anyone can quickly determine by watching it rise in the east and set in the west. However, as most of us know, the earth circles…
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The aftermath of the Las Conchas Blaze in 2011 in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Photo George Wuerthner An excellent overview of wildfire issues was published in the Revelator. https://therevelator.org/wildfire-archive/ I encourage folks to review it. I especially appreciate the linkage of recent large fires to drought and warming temperatures. That is…
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Previously logged and thinned forest that burned at high severity in the Jocko Lakes Fire, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner There are daily news stories about the recent large wildfires in 2020. In nearly all of these media accounts, the large blazes are almost always attributed to a lack of active forest management. In other words,…
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High elevation forests like the mountain hemlock seen here at Crater Lake have long intervals between fires. They only burn when there is the right combination of climate/weather. Fire suppression has had little influence on such forests. Photo George Wuerthner The recent piece published in the December 22 Guardian titled: Heat, wind, and a…
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Primary causes are warming, lack of shade and poor nutrition- It’s obvious to anyone who has spent years living in or visiting Jackson Hole that the moose population isn’t what it was 30 years ago or even a decade. Now biologists are discovering why. Unfortunately for those who want more moose around little can be…
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There have been a number of retrospectives on the great fires of ’88 on their 20th anniversary. Here is one from the Salt Lake Tribune summarizing the effect on wildlife. How wildlife fared in the Yellowstone fires.
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Yellowstone 88 fires retrospective moves into high gear. Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman. Rocky has written a huge amount of copy over the years about the Yellowstone fires of ’88 and forest fire policy in general.
