Free Republic

For thousands of years, Native Americans living in the Sierra Nevada routinely set small, controlled fires to manage the forest, increase visibility and herd wild game. Is it time to embrace the old strategy anew? Should forest managers turn back to those techniques, ramping up prescribed burns to decrease forest density and the threat of catastrophic wildfires? New research by Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, a Sacramento State assistant professor of geography, suggests the answer is yes. “We should be taking Native American practices into account,” said Klimaszewski-Patterson, whose dissertation on the subject recently won the prestigious J. Warren Nystrom award from the...

Historic levels of particles in the atmosphere released from pre-industrial era fires, and their cooling effect on the planet, may have been significantly underestimated according to a new study. Historic levels of particles in the atmosphere released from pre-industrial era fires, and their cooling effect on the planet, may have been significantly underestimated according to a new study. Fires cause large amounts of tiny particles, known as aerosols, to be released into the atmosphere. These aerosols, such as the soot in smoke or chemicals released by burning trees, can cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space and increasing...

The size and swiftness of this weekend's deadly Valley Fire in California was startling. But could it (and the other fires currently raging out west) have been smaller if fires in previous years had been allowed to burn? The authors of a new paper published today in Science certainly think so. In looking at forest fires in the United States, the researchers found that the vast majority of wildfires were kept extremely small, with 98 percent limited to less than 300 acres. Keeping fires small has been a goal for decades, as firefighters tried to preserve the forest the best...

Scientists at the cutting edge of ecological research, Dr. Hanson among them, argue that the century-old American practice of suppressing wildfires has been nothing less than a calamity. They are calling for a new approach that basically involves letting backcountry fires burn across millions of acres. In principle, the federal government accepted a version of this argument years ago, but in practice, fires are still routinely stamped out across much of the country. To the biologists, that has imperiled the plants and animals — hundreds of them, it turns out — that prefer to live in recently burned forests. “From...

Sam Krop’s characterization of catastrophic wildfire on public and privately owned forest lands (guest viewpoint, Oct. 4) doesn’t match the reality of what Oregon experienced this summer. But I can see why Cascadia Wildlands and other special interest groups oppose solutions such as the Resilient Federal Forests Act. These bills untie the hands of our federal land managers, and provide them with more tools and resources to restore the health of our public forests, before and after a fire. Has “hands-off” forest management reduced the size and severity of forest fires? Are we choking on less wildfire smoke every summer?...

Diminish Private Property Rights This article is based on a recently prepared memorandum of law and correspondences dispatched to 13 members of Congress explaining the unconstitutionality of the pending legislation discussed below. Energy and forest management are not generally assumed to be interrelated policies. Nevertheless, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (AK-R) is pushing a massive 792-page Senate Energy bill incorporating more than 393 amendments covering these and other policy areas which many in Congress have not likely read. The bill is No. S.2012 - the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2016, which, according to nonprofit Western States Constitutional...

The massive western wildfires could have been avoided with intelligent forest management and less hysteria from the greens. As I write these lines, vast wildfires are sweeping through my home state of Colorado and other areas of the American west. Last week, two of my employees had to leave work early to rush home to evacuate their families from imminent danger. Hundreds of houses have already been destroyed, and thousands of acres of trees incinerated, and unknown myriads of wild animals burned alive. This disaster was predictable, and promises to get worse. Over the past decade, from British Columbia to...

Every large, mature lodgepole pine forest in Colorado and southern Wyoming will be dead within three to five years, killed in a mountain pine beetle infestation unprecedented in the state.

The mood of the crowd jammed into the meeting room was angry. Many had lost their homes to the forest fire that swept through the Sierra Nevada just south of Lake Tahoe. They said they were angry at bureaucrats and environmentalists who made cutting of trees and clearing of land difficult. There was always too much red tape, they said, and now it was too late. In all, a crowd of nearly 2,000 people descended on the South Tahoe Middle School auditorium Monday night, wanting to be heard in the face of their losses. And if there was an...

Celebrity attorney Johnny Cochrane, magical frogs and vampires did not translate Friday into permission to cut more than 15,000 burned and hazardous trees in Eastern Oregon's Malheur National Forest. U.S. District Judge Ancer L. Haggerty quickly rejected arguments by federal and timber industry attorneys that environmental groups use one-size-fits-all legal arguments as their personal "magical incantations" to shut down logging on public lands. Haggerty shut down six of seven timber sales in the Malheur after finding that the U.S. Forest Service had illegally tried to squeeze the sales through a procedural shortcut that permits pruning and clearing of roadside...

Dear Editor:Senators Johnson and Daschle are at it again. Shortly after helping pass legislation to speed up forest management on the BHNF they flip flopped and voted against allowing any debate on Sen. Craig's Forest Health Amendment. A year ago, at Daschle's Forest Summit, both had said that the system needed a major overhaul. The vote should come as no surprise since the Sierra Club was against it. Johnson and Daschle have consistently supported Sierra Club positions. Sierra Club, in turn, is spending millions trashing John Thune. Patterned after the Beaver Park legislation, this amendment contained sweeping changes that...

NEWS from Congressman James V. Hansen, (1st District - Utah) Chairman, Committee on Resources; U.S. House of Representatives; 1324 Longworth House Office Building; Washington, D.C. 20515-6201; 202-225-2761 Website address: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Contact: Marnie Funk (Marnie.Funk@mail.house.gov) / Tracey Lynn Shifflett (Tracey.Shifflett@mail.house.gov)(202) 226-9019July 18, 2002 Labor Unions, Republicans Scare Off Inslee Roadless Amendment to Interior Approps That Would Have Cost JobsAmendment opponents rally to protect jobs, fire prevention effortsWashington, D.C. – Labor unions and resource-minded Republicans joined forces this week to successfully fend off a proposed amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill that would have cost countless western jobs and hampered forest...

Wednesday, June 26, 2002NewsMax.com - PHOENIX – Self-described "environmentalists" have opposed forest management programs that could have prevented wildfires such as those burning thousands of acres in Arizona and Colorado, the new chairman of the Western Governors Association said Tuesday.President Bush also made a mocking reference Tuesday to the extremist so-called Greens, who would better be dubbed Grays, in "honor" of the ashen color of the land where pine forests once thrived.Speaking to reporters after an association meeting, Gov. Judy Martz, R-Mont., said as incoming chairman, her priority would be reducing the threat of wildfires to communities and the environment....

Driving through evacuated Show Low last night, an illuminated sign at a vacant fast food restaurant reading "Everything's Peachy" was hard to miss. That phrase may have described the restaurant's new product line, but it is a far cry from the situation here in the White Mountains. Having grown up in the area, I thought I would be prepared for the devastation as I toured the fire's perimeter. The destruction is much more complete than I thought possible. As of Monday, more than 300,000 acres have burned in "Rodeo-Chediski" fires alone, with the lightning season yet to come. As...

<p>DENVER — Severe drought, high winds and careless campers have all fueled the wildfires raging in Colorado, but Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth sees another problem.</p> <p>There are simply too many trees.</p> <p>"We have so many more trees out there than under natural conditions," said Mr. Bosworth after spending several days touring the fire sites. "There might have been 40 to 50 ponderosa pine [trees] per acre at one time. Now you've got several hundred per acre."</p>