Posts by Rachel Fazio
Governor Brown – Wrong on State of Emergency to Remove Dead Trees From Forests!
Last fall Governor Brown issued a State of Emergency Proclamation, calling natural and beneficial tree mortality, which has resulted from several years of drought, a crisis and vowing to subsidize a massive commercial program to remove dead trees without limit, ostensibly to protect our forests and communities from fire. Governor Brown’s statements represent a colossal…
Read MoreDon’t Let Bundy and his Seditious Militia Convince Lawmakers to Give Away our Public Lands!
By now you have probably heard about the Bundy Militia which has taken over and is occupying under threat of violence the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon. These disgruntled ranchers, loggers and miners have decided that federal public lands belong to them and no-one else. Even though ranching, mining and logging are…
Read MoreLanguage of Logging Rider Leaked, Clearcuts for Christmas Still On the Table – We Still Need Calls!
Wow, is all we can say! The language in this WildfireFundingFix_and_LoggingRider2015 is simply a giveaway to the federal timber sales program and logging interests nationwide. This “Clearcuts for Christmas” Logging Rider is not good for the taxpayers, it isn’t good for forest ecosystems, it won’t protect communities from future fire and it would permit the destruction of millions of…
Read MoreClearcuts for Christmas?
December 7, 2015
By Chad Hanson
Earth Island Journal Online
When Americans think about the presents they want for the Holidays, clearcuts on our national forests and other federal public lands is not what they have in mind. But that is exactly what radical, anti-environmental members of Congress are proposing to do right now — make a generous gift to the logging industry.
Read MoreDestructive Logging “Rider” Looms in Congress
December 4, 2015
By Chad Hanson
Soap Box on EarthTalk
It is a cynical rule of politics that, if you get people sufficiently scared and confused, many can be persuaded to agree to some of the worst and most irresponsible ideas. Case in point, the threat that has emerged this week from Senate Republicans . . .
Read MoreHelp Stop Republicans From Forcing U.S. Spending Bills to Include Destructive Logging Provisions!
Even while leaders from around the world are attending the Climate Change Conference in Paris to develop policies which will stall and hopefully reverse the effects of Global Climate Change, climate change denying Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate are threatening to hold U.S. spending bills (the funding that runs the government) hostage unless Democrats agree to include destructive logging provisions, which will exacerbate climate change, in the appropriations package.
Read MoreTime’s Flaming Arrow
Mary Ellen Hannibal
Huffington Post
A little more than a week ago, I drove into Yosemite National Park for a week-long, California Master Naturalist immersion course. I was euphoric, about to sequester in beauty to study deeper levels of what Shakespeare called “nature’s infinite book.” Heading in from Oakdale, mile upon mile of mountainous hillside was covered in rusty brown dead trees. . . . The California landscape evolved with lightning-strike fires, and Native Californians used fire to manage their food sources, both animal and vegetable. We have been suppressing fire and battling fire on the landscape for more than a hundred years, with the idea that it is a destructive force to contain. We have stopped a natural cycle from turning – for the moment.
Read MoreChanging the Conversation About Fire
November 12, 2015
By Dominick DellaSala, Chad Hanson and Tim Inglesbee
ELSEVIER SciTech Connect Blog
As two forest ecologists and a firefighter, we view forests as a dynamic ecosystem, see fire as nature’s circle of life, and promote coexistence with backcountry fires rather than relentlessly fighting them. While the news media and Congress each year proclaim burnt forests from Yellowstone to the Sierra and Cascade Mountains as unprecedented catastrophes, we see nature’s remarkable resilience at work. We seek a rational conversation especially now as fire season has died down.
Read MoreEight Years After a Terrifying Fire, This Forest is Just Fine
PBS SoCal | Following a Prius up a dirt forest road, I daydream a bit behind the wheel. It’s a pretty place: black oaks starting to show a little fall color, tall willows fringing the backs of Grout Creek, sun-warmed granite boulders showing between the trees. Scrub jays dart noisily between the trees as I pass, flashes of blue glinting off their wing feathers.
Read MoreChad Hanson Interview With Brad Pomerance
Charter TV Local Edition | Chad Hanson debunks myths about fire in our forests and talks about his new book The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Intensity Fire: Nature’s Phoenix.
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