Posts by Nicholas Scritchfield
Webinar | The Hidden “Fix Our Forests Act” Loophole
In collaboration with Wilderness Watch, our webinar dives into the language of the Fix Our Forests Act to highlight how a cleverly hidden loophole in S. 1462 would nullify any potential enforcement of all federal environmental laws on national forests and BLM lands nationwide. If you thought that the House version of FOFA was extreme, just wait until you learn about this newly discovered loophole.
Read MoreThe Deceptively-Named “Fix Our Forests Act”: Extreme Environmental Rollbacks and Subsidized Industrial Logging
Colorado lawmakers had a chance to protect homes from wildfires, but turned it down
April 9, 2026
By Nicholas Scritchfield
The Colorado Sun
Last month, Colorado lawmakers were handed a simple, science-backed opportunity: shift a fraction of wildfire funding toward the one strategy most consistently shown to protect homes—home hardening and defensible space grants. However, they said no to House Bill 1310, what was also known as the Wildfire Resiliency Grant Money bill.
Read MoreNew Science Is Changing How We Protect Giant Sequoias—Policy Should Catch Up
Today, as public concern grows over their future in a changing climate, new science is confirming what these trees have been showing us all along: that high-intensity fire is essential to their survival story. These forests, shaped by varied natural disturbance processes over evolutionary timescales, carry within them a remarkable ability not just to persist, but to thrive after intense wildfire.
Read MoreLosing Sight of Forest Ecology
Across North America, forests evolved with natural disturbance processes such as wildfire and cycles of native insects like bark beetles. The scale and intensity of these processes varied widely in a dynamic dance of constant change, shaping forest structure and the life within it.
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