“Proforestation” is a relatively new term in the environmental community. The Sierra Club defines it as: “extending protections so as to allow areas of previously-logged forest to mature, removing vast amounts of atmospheric carbon and recovering their ecological and carbon storage potential.” Not only must we preserve untouched forests, proponents argue, but we must also…
There are many good reasons for public lands managers to take quick action to remove dead and dying trees after a wildfire. Salvaging scorched timber is not only important to supporting our local forest sector, it is critical to ensuring safe public access, mitigating and managing fuel loads to reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic…
This year, California public radio embarked on a year-long investigation, titled BURNED chronicling the U.S. Forest Service’s struggle to reduce wildfire risks in the Golden State, a story that’s all too common throughout the west. The agency’s efforts to thin and manage overgrown forests and protect communities are routinely delayed, and sometimes are abandoned altogether.…
A sustainable forest is only made possible by the cooperation of multiple stakeholders. That’s why forestry students at the University of Idaho are exposed to a broad range of perspectives on forest practices — an environment where students must come together to create solutions despite differences of opinion. Healthy Forest Healthy Communities joins We the…
Healthy Forest Healthy Communities joins We the Forest for a film profile on Malcolm North, the Affiliate Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of California, Davis, Research Forest Ecologist at the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station. With 35 years of research in the field, North has primarily focused on trying to understand how…
This piece by Melvin Thornton was originally published in a print edition of the Eugene Register-Guard I spent my career fighting fires in western Oregon. But you don’t have to be a professional firefighter to see the growing threat of wildfire to human lives, property and our environment. I am concerned the massive accumulation of…
In the wake of the bombshell 60 Minutes report on California’s Caldor Fire and the fate of Grizzly Flats, Americans want to know what the federal government is doing to reduce the risks of wildfire, as well as to contain fires before they burn out of control. While the 60 Minutes report focused on an…
Singer Carole King leveraged her celebrity status to publish an oped in the New York Times on Aug. 25, calling for an end to commercial timber harvests on federal lands. It’s unclear what makes her an expert on forestry, other than the fact she lives luxuriously in Idaho, in a house made of wood, with…
In partnership with We the Forest, this video shares the story of Rachel Lee Hall and the meaning behind her award-winning film and her efforts to promote active forest management on our public lands, and how it can help to mitigate loss of resilience, reduce unprecedented wildfires, and restore forest health. Learn more at We…
The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are seeking public input to define and inventory “old-growth and mature forests” on federal lands in their first step toward complying with the Biden Administration’s Earth Day executive order, which identified “climate impacts, catastrophic wildfires, insect infestation, and disease” as the primary threats to all forests,…