Kelp forests are extraordinarily important concentrations of biodiversity and are extremely threatened, along the Oregon coast and around the world.
Read MoreOregon’s Most Endangered Forests
Forests
Rethinking Commercial Thinning as a “Tool” to Ecologically Restore Frequent-Fire Forest Types (Part 2): Burn, Baby, Burn
The most ecologically rational and fiscally prudent course is to eschew thinning before reintroducing fire into fire-dependent forests.
Read MoreThe Continuing Reduction in the Number of Sawmills in the Pacific Northwest
The reduction of surplus production capacity continues to result in lumber mill shutdowns, though the contributing factors cited have changed as times have changed.
Read MoreThe Forest Service Proposal to Save Its Old Growth: A Start, Though Inadequate
If President Biden wants to be remembered in history for saving the nation’s remaining mature and old-growth forests and trees for the benefit of this and future generations, the Forest Service is going to have to do significantly more than what it has proposed so far.
Read MoreThe Unmaking of the Northwest Forest Plan, Part 2: Remaking It for the Next Quarter Century
The prospective defeminization/emasculation of the Northwest Forest Plan by the Forest Service is likely inevitable. All the more reason for the Biden administration to promulgate an enduring administrative rule that conserves and restores mature and old-growth forests.
Read MoreThe Unmaking of the Northwest Forest Plan, Part 1: Out with Enforceable Substance and in with Performative Process
The world’s largest ecosystem management plan is under existential threat.
Read MoreProtecting Drinking Water Sources, Part 2: Suggestions for Improvement
Municipal and community surface drinking water supplies need to be protected from logging, grazing, roading, and other development.
Read MoreForest Service Proposes Rulemaking: An Opportunity to Conserve and Restore Mature and Old-Growth Forests
The Forest Service has announced it is going to be proposing new regulations to address the “climate resilience” of the National Forest System.
Read MoreHow Much Mature and Old-Growth Forest Does the US Have Left?
Any inventory reveals that most of the nation’s mature and old-growth forests have fallen to the saw. Not only must all that remains remain, but degraded forests should also be allowed to become mature and old-growth forests once again.
Read MoreForests in the American East, Part 3: A Vision of the Return of Old-Growth Forests
This Part 3 suggests ways to partially—but significantly—bring back the magnificent old-growth forests that have long been lost.
Read MoreForests in the American East, Part 2: A Plague of Early Successional Habitat
A conspiracy of self-interested timber companies, misguided public land foresters, misinformed wildlife biologists, and Kool-Aid-drinking conservationists.
Read MoreForests in the American East, Part 1: A Pandemic of Shifting Baseline Syndrome
Old-growth forests in the American East have been so far gone for so long in the public consciousness that Big Timber (from private corporations to government foresters) has conned conservationists and buffaloed biologists into believing that massive and repeated logging is the only salvation of “wildlife.”
Read MorePreforests in the American West, Part 1: Understanding Forest Succession
As public lands conservationists continue their fight to save the last of the mature and old-growth forests for the benefit of this and future generations, we must not forget the preforests.
Read MoreBook Review: Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands
in Book Reviews, Bureau of Land Management, Congress, Counties & Federal Lands, Courts, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Deserts, Ecological Reserves, Ecosystems, Elections, Endangered Species, Energy, Federal Lands, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Forests, Grasslands, Legislation, LItigation, Livestock Grazing, Mining, Nat'l Conservation Lands, National Forest System, National Monuments, National Monuments Act, National Park Service, National Park System, National Parks, National Recreation Area, National Scenic Area, National Trails System, National Wildlife Refuges, Presidents, Public Land Law, Recreation, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness, Wildlife
Understanding the history of public lands is useful if one is to be the best advocate for the conservation of public lands.
Read MoreThe Forested Estate of the Bureau of Land Management
While some states have more forested BLM land than does Oregon, in terms of biomass (think lots of big trees) Oregon’s BLM lands are likely more carbon-rich than all of the others combined.
Read MoreOregon State Forests: Public Forests, Not County ATMs
t turns out that state forests are not held in trust for the financial benefit of certain timber-addicted counties.
Read MoreBlumenauer’s REC Act of 2022: A Wreck for Conservation
Blumenauer’s bill would open up Mount Hood National Forest to new logging loopholes.
Read MoreBiden’s Executive Order on Forests, Part 1: A Great Opportunity
President Biden is poised to enter the pantheon of forest-protecting American presidents.
Read MoreMark Odom Hatfield, Part 2: A Great but Complicated Oregonian
While we should appreciate the greatness of great leaders, we must not ignore the things they did that were the opposite of great.
Read MoreThe Oregon Private Forest Accords, Part 2: Grand Bargain, Mere Détente, or Great Sellout?
While the Oregon Private Forest Accords is a grand bargain with a great net gain for the conservation of Oregon forestlands, it is not a complete one. A comparable grand bargain is needed for terrestrial species conservation on Oregon’s private timberlands. Regulation of private land is inadequate to provide optimal public benefits. More private timberland should be reconverted to public forestland.
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