International statement calls for an end to monetary and policy support for biomass energy from logging forests A large international group of civil society and scientific organisations representing hundreds of thousands of people around the world has released a statement expressing concern over the use of forest biomass for energy. The groups say that biomass … Read more
A complete meta-analysis of every published study that examined Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis) responses to wildfire was recently published. Contrary to current perceptions and recovery activities, mixed-severity forest fire does not appear to be a serious threat to owl populations. On the contrary, wildfire was found to create more benefits than costs for Spotted Owls. … Read more
A team of fire ecologists released a report this week titled “Everything You Wanted To Know About Wildland Fires” summarizing the state of knowledge about forest fires on public lands. This report comes just days after the US Congress passed the Wildfire Suppression Funding and Forest Management Activities Act as part of the federal omnibus … Read more
A new video documentary released this week describes the important positive ecological effects of high-severity forest fires. High-severity forest fires, also called stand-replacing or crown fires, create rare and important wildlife habitat, and many species of plants and animals reach their highest abundances only in these blackened ‘snag forests’. Fear of high-severity forest fires is … Read more
Fifteen years of research about severely burned Snag Forests in the western U.S.A. and their important value as wildlife habitat and ecological services has produced a healthy body of scientific literature. These papers, and others, have opened the eyes of many to the now-obvious fact that burned forests create wildlife habitat and even old growth … Read more
The USDA Forest Service is proposing widespread forest thinning on our public lands across the West in a misguided attempt to reduce the impact of drought, fire, and insects (see National Forest Restoration Projects, Sierra Nevada National Forest Land Management Plan Revisions, news articles). These logging schemes are the latest in a series of Forest … Read more