Forest Journalism for a Sustainable Future
America’s intense focus on western wildfires has recently centered on one question: Does it matter if they are being caused by climate change? While Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has drawn attention for his comments suggesting that it doesn’t much … [Continue reading]
In the midst of a string of catastrophic wildfires, the California Senate sent a bill to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk Friday that makes sweeping changes to forest management and wildfire prevention while addressing the role utility companies play in … [Continue reading]
https://youtu.be/1BmTq8vGAVo Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is blaming this summer’s large-scale wildfires on environmentalists, who he contends oppose “active management” in forests. But the idea that wildfires should be suppressed by logging … [Continue reading]
Just six months after the devastating Thomas Fire – the largest blaze in California’s history – was fully contained, the 2018 fire season is fully under way. As of mid-July, large wildfires had already burned over 1 million acres in a dozen … [Continue reading]
So far, the 2018 fire season has produced a handful of big fires in California, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado; conflagrations in Oklahoma and Kansas; and a fire bust in Alaska, along with garden-variety wildfires from Florida to Oregon. Some of … [Continue reading]
In the end, the orange-coated Lorax protesting outside the 2018 International Mass Timber Conference was not the most surprising development that March morning in Portland, Oregon. That came when I visited with the protest’s organizer and asked … [Continue reading]
Can innovative wood products and humans’ innate need to interact with nature help cities across the country achieve their commitments under the Paris climate accord? More than 400 U.S. mayors and cities have signed the Paris Accords, but do they … [Continue reading]
Following in the footsteps of other family businesses that have moved into the mass timber market, Freres Lumber has taken the entrepreneurial leap into a new product line called mass plywood panels (MPP). Tyler Freres led my International Mass … [Continue reading]
“Forest ecosystems are complex, more complex than we can think.” The late Jack Ward Thomas, a research wildlife biologist and former chief of the U.S. Forest Service, often recited this line in speeches he gave. He was only referring to … [Continue reading]
https://youtu.be/3cP11Gf9nE8 According to the last census, 81 percent of Americans live in urban settings, so urban trees are the only forests most people encounter day to day. And that’s if they are lucky enough to live or work in the forested … [Continue reading]