According to the Forest Service, 45% of their permanent firefighting workforce has quit in the last three years.
Category: public lands
Yellowstone by Winter
Winter in Yellowstone National Park reveals wildlife, geothermal features, rivers and quiet with few people while bison, trumpeter swans, river otter and wolves endure the cold. Winter is the time to see Yellowstone.
John Wesley Powell Wanted to Denude the Rocky Mountains
In line with his singular focus on water for farms and towns, Powell opposed the creation of the forest reserves, the precursors to the national forests. He worried that a Forest Service would compete for money with his US Geologic Survey and didn’t want the Forest Reserve designation to prevent dams from being built to feed farms water.
Time for More Prescribed Fire
Despite recent prescribed fire escapes, we need to ramp up prescribed burning in northern New Mexico and treat many more acres before another dry windy spring causes problems.
Is Wildland Firefighting a Waste of Tax Dollars?
In 2023 when megafires erupt across North America, and our national forests seem trapped in an escalating yet faltering war on wildfire, it might be good to look back …
Fixing the Valles Caldera National Preserve
Today we have a guest editorial from a former National Park Service employee who talks about the management problems at the Valles Caldera. This matters because the VCNP is one …
The Politics of Big Fire in the West
Climate change, on top of the abuse of forests through fire suppression, grazing and intensive logging have created the fire storms of today.
Planning for Disaster
Why did the Forest Service Start a Big Forest Fire in New Mexico? The recriminations have begun. The 320,000-acre Hermit Peak Fire in northern New Mexico has burned …
Hermit Peak, Calf Canyon Fire Considered
A lawyer called me today to find out if I thought she might have a case against the federal government for its role in the origins of the Hermit Peak/Calf …
Lightning Fire, Wild and Free
In mid-June lightning struck a remote slope in the Pecos Wilderness east of Santa Fe. The bolt started a fire that ignited dry fuels in a spruce-fir forest and quickly …
