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“What if…”
… Lake Tahoe was a National Park, instead of what it is, today? Of course, there would be no casinos, and the clearcutting never would have happened. There wouldn’t be any ski areas, either. Where...
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The Future of the Rim Fire?
These are 2011 views of the A-Rock/Meadow Fire re-burn, within Yosemite National Park, after 4 years of “recovery”. The actual “recovery” time is now at 24 years, since the original A-Rock Fire raged...
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Pinchot’s Promises to Counties: History Remembered
The Use Book Committee Here’s a link to the op-ed. Congress recently passed and the president signed a one-year extension of Secure Rural Schools (SRS). Most commentators, however, see dim prospects...
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Vintage Yosemite Photo
I’ve been digging through my old Kodachrome slides, and I found this view of the Tuolumne River and Poopenaut Valley, within Yosemite National Park. This area burned in the Rim Fire, and it is...
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A Footnote to “How Long Has This Been Going On?”
William the Conqueror On May 3, a couple of days ago, I posted a little article at our “Not Without a Fight!” blog on the interpretation of King William Rufus’s death by medieval English historians...
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In Idaho, Tracing What Remains After the Flames
Dick Boyd sent me this article featuring the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The Stanley area is one of my favorite spots, with hot springs, jagged peaks, pristine lakes, spacious meadows and...
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Throwback Thursday, Yosemite-style
I’ve found my hoard of old A-Rock Fire photos, from 1990! I will be preparing a bigger repeat photography article, after I finish selecting and scanning. Like several other fires this summer, the...
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Big Burn Premieres on PBS Tonight!
Time to program your DVR’s.. From Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesman..here..thanks to Ron Roizen of the Not Without a Fight blog. Here’s the link.. there’s a preview.
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Update From the Yosemite “Laboratory”
Here is a stitched-together panorama from the Foresta area of Yosemite National Park. I’ll have to pair it up with my historical version, one of these days. Restoration processes seem to be minimal, as...
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Happy Earth Day!
26 years after “protected” forests burned, in Yosemite National Park, this is what we now have. Chances are, it will burn again, before conifer trees can become established enough to resist the next...
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Book Review: “Toward a Natural Forest: The Forest Service in Transition” by...
Many thanks to Teri Cleland for her contribution! Review by Teri Cleeland, who retired from the US Forest Service in 2013 after a nearly 30 year career with assignments in Arizona, Washington DC, and...
View ArticleRead the Multiple-Use Act
It’s worthwhile to re-read the law every once in awhile. This time, because of some recent discussions here, a couple of things stood out. Here’s the definition of multiple-use: ‘‘Multiple use’’...
View ArticleHistory of logging in Montana
The Missoulian is running a series of articles on this subject. The one in Sunday’s paper asks these questions about the future: “Banishment from the national forests would doom many Montana timber...
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Extinction on the national forests
Larry Harrell asked recently (with a *smirk* no doubt) if any species have gone extinct on national forests. Here’s a report (published in 2004) from the Center for Biological Diversity that...
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Supreme Court may reinterpret tribal treaty rights on national forests
Here’s a pending Supreme Court case, Herrera v. Wyoming, that hasn’t shown up in the Forest Service litigation summaries. The federal government is defending the right of a Native American to hunt on...
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Oregon logging history map
Oregon Wild has compiled an interactive map of logged and thinned areas on public and private lands across the state of Oregon. If nothing else, it’s hard to look at this and accuse anyone wanting to...
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America’s First Forest: Carl Schenck and the Asheville Experiment
This comment by Retired Smokey Bear reminded me that at the recent Forest Service Retirees’ meeting in Asheville, we were fortunate to have a screening of this film. If you haven’t experienced this...
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Out with the new and in with the old
Here’s some well-known quotes from former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth in 2003. He was trying to sell the idea that the agency was no longer timber-first. This was the “new” Forest Service;...
View ArticlePolitical Appointees, The Good and the Bad: Guest Post by Jim Furnish. II....
This is perhaps the first chance (in history) to synthesize a group history from the ways different people remember it. As such, this is an invitation for all of us to give our perspectives from that...
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Forest planning for “sustainable” recreation
A former Forest Service backcountry specialist talks about ecological integrity and increasing human recreation activities, and tries to answer the question of “what is sustainable recreation?” The...
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