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.…
DetailsA 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…
DetailsHealthy 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…
DetailsThis 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…
DetailsIn 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…
DetailsSinger 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…
DetailsIn 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…
DetailsThe 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,…
DetailsIn Washington, DC, there is intense political debate about whether federal laws and regulations provide enough protections for old and mature trees. This debate often ignores real threats to these trees and the practical and bipartisan solutions that exist to save them. Consider California’s iconic Giant Sequoias. Heavy fuels have created tinderbox conditions within the…
DetailsOn May 20, U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced a pause on prescribed fires on National Forest System lands pending a 90-day review of protocols and practices ahead of planned burning operations this fall. The pause comes after two Forest Service-ignited fires merged to become the largest wildfire in New Mexico history- the Hermits Peak/Calf…
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