Posts by Bekah Mamola
Federal Administration Looks to Expand Logging in California’s National Forests
Spectrum News 1
By Jamie Kennedy
“Removing trees from forests reduces wind resistance,” Hanson said. “And that’s a really big factor. Reducing wind resistance means that the flames, the winds, can push the flames faster through the forest.” Hanson believes wildfire efforts should focus on hardening homes and defensible space, with prescribed and natural burns as the best forest strategy. “We actually want more fire in most areas and not just low intensity creeping surface fire,” Hanson said. “In most forest ecosystems, there is a natural component that is high-intensity fire.”
Read MoreStop Clearcutting CA | Sonia Demiray and Jennifer Mamola
Keep It In the Forest – An Environmental Campaign to Combat Misinformation America’s forests are under siege. The Keep It In the Forest campaign is a grassroots education movement led by a coalition of NGOs and experts, which breaks down the science and economics behind why protecting forests, NOT cutting them down, is essential for…
Read MoreDon’t Mourn the Rim Fire – Learn from it
April 18, 2025
By Letters to the Editor, Jennifer Mamola
Los Angeles Times LTE
Far from being lifeless, the areas affected by the 2013 Rim fire now support a rich array of species, from woodpeckers to rare flowers. The Rim fire didn’t ruin Yosemite. It offered a lesson.
Read MoreTrump Logging Order Sparks Fears for US Southeast Forests
Context
By Carey L. Biron
The executive orders and implementation cite a focus on reducing wildfires and safeguarding at-risk communities. But wildfire scientist Chad Hanson, director of the nonprofit John Muir Project, said this viewpoint flies in the face of years of scientific findings. “Claiming that removing millions of trees somehow will curb wildfires and therefore communities don’t have to worry, that approach is unconscionably dangerous … based on the evidence we have,” he said. In fact, thinning has been found to dry out forests and allow winds to spread fires more easily, he said.
Read MoreUna falsa salvación para las secuoyas gigantes
Protecting Forests Increases Jobs and Income in Rural Economies
La protección de los bosques aumenta el empleo y los ingresos en las economías rurales
Debunking “Fix Our Forests Act” Misinformation Fact Sheet
Desmintiendo la desinformación sobre la “Ley para Reparar Nuestros Bosques”
Bennet Logging Bill, S. 670: $60 Billion to Subsidize Destructive Logging
S. 670 is a wasteful logging industry Trojan Horse–one that ignores the fact that hundreds of climate scientists and ecologists are telling Congress that “thinning” and other commercial logging makes climate change worse and tends to increase wildfire intensity.
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