Scientists Warn U.S. Congress Against Declaring Biomass Burning Carbon Neutral

By Justin Catanoso
Mongabay

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic attracts much of the world’s attention, global warming continues intensifying. Today, in a plea to not ignore the planet’s rapidly escalating climate crisis, some 200 environmental scientists from 35 states signed onto a letter delivered to U.S. congressional leaders imploring them to “oppose legislative proposals that would promote logging and wood consumption, ostensibly as a natural climate change solution.”

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Dr. Chad Hanson on the Myths & Misinformation of Wildland Fires

For The Wild | Narratives of wildfire in this country have long been muddled with myth and misinformation. On November 11th, the President of the United States perpetuated this by tweeting: “There is no reason for these massive, deadly, and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor…”

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A Billion-Dollar Fortune From Timber and Fire

By Chloe Sorvino
Forbes

One of the largest fires to burn in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, the Rim Fire tore through 257,000 acres on the edge of Yosemite National Park in 2013. Not long after firefighters doused the flames, a fleet of bulldozers and trucks arrived, sent by billionaire Archie Aldis “Red” Emmerson.

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Let Forest Fires Burn? What the Black-Backed Woodpecker Knows

By Justin Gillis
The New York Times

With long strides, Chad T. Hanson plunged into a burned-out forest, his boots kicking up powdery ash. Blackened, lifeless trees stretched toward an azure sky. Dr. Hanson, an ecologist, could not have been more delighted. “Any day out here is a happy day for me, because this is where the wildlife is,” he said with a grin.

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