Posts by Rachel Fazio
Forest ‘Thinning’ is Not the Answer
September 18, 2015
By Christy Sherr
The Union: Other Voices
Two Republican bills being considered by Congress are using the public’s fear and misunderstanding of wildland fire to mount one of the most extreme attacks on our national forests in history.
Both bills would suspend or weaken federal environmental laws and clear the way for the timber industry to dramatically increase commercial logging under the guise of “forest treatment” or “thinning.”
Read MoreOver 260 Scientists Urge Senate: Don’t Pass Post-Fire Logging Bills
Over 260 Scientist from across the country have sent a letter to the Senate and President Obama urging them to oppose two public lands logging bills, which the scientists say would be very destructive to forest ecosystems and wildlife on National Forests and other federal public forestlands. The bills, HR 2647 and S 1691, which promote widespread logging of burned and unburned forest, mostly in remote areas of federal public forestlands, will not improve forest health, reduce fire risks or protect communities. Join the Scientists today – Call your Senator and the President to oppose this harmful legislation!
Read MoreWildlife Groups Seek Federal Protection for the California Spotted Owl
By Louis Sahagún
Los Angeles Times, Science & Medicine
In the latest round in a 15-year legal battle to keep the California spotted owl safe from U.S. Forest Service logging policies, federal wildlife authorities have agreed to reconsider an earlier decision to deny the timid raptor protection under the Endangered Species Act.
New research, [ ], indicates that thinning and post-fire salvage logging are “the main threat to the spotted owls’ survival,” according to a petition for listing filed late last year by the Wild Nature Institute and the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute.
Read MoreLAKE FIRE: Aspens Rising from the Ashes
By David Downey
The Press Enterprise
Not many would suggest that it was lucky the Lake fire torched nearly 50 square miles of the San Bernardino National Forest this summer. But Big Bear ecologist Chad Hanson called it a “wonderful stroke of luck for the aspen.”
Barely two months after flames incinerated a rare Southern California aspen grove, lush, waist-high and knee-high trees with fat leaves are shooting up through the charcoal-black ashen bed of the forest floor.
Read MoreFOREST REBIRTH: Southern Area Plants First to Return
By Dave Danelski
The Press Enterprise
A new study led by Forest Service researchers asserts that fires are reshaping the varieties of plants that return to our woods. But the study has been criticized because it lacks sufficient data to establish such a global trend, and only states what scientists have known for decades: the influx of manzanitas and other sun cravers after a fire is simply a forest’s natural cycle of life.
Read MoreCoexist With Fire
August 20, 2015
By Rachel Fazio
Letter to the Editor
Bend Bulletin
I know, fires are burning, people are scared. It is a natural reaction, but it should not be the basis for more failed congressional policy. Wildfires are natural – yes even in Oregon. When conditions are hotter and drier. . .
Read MoreHelp Stop Destructive Logging Bills in Congress!
Calls Needed to Senator Dianne Feinstein and Others to stop logging bills HR2647 and S.1691 which are currently being considered by the U.S. Senate. Both of these bills would weaken or eliminate environmental laws and close the courthouse doors to the public, all while doubling or tripling logging levels on federal public lands in both green and burned forest. These bills, or any compromise bill would be a disaster for native biodiversity and the health of our public forests and would simply create subsidies for logging corporations at great expense to taxpayers. Take Action Today!
Read MoreKQED FORUM: Federal Wildfire Legislation Sparks Debate on Salvage Logging
KWED | Chad Hanson was a guest on the KQED Radio program FORUM discussing how the the so called “Resilient Forest Act of 2015” simply promotes more logging with less oversight at the expense of our native forest ecosystems which evolved with fire and benefit from this natural process. To listen to the Program or submit a comment click the link below.
Read MoreFire Has Ecological Benefits
July 30, 2015
By Rachel Fazio
Letter to the Editor
Union Democrat
I read the July 25, 2015, article “Local consensus: Thin overgrown forests” with equal parts fascination and dismay. Two of the parties interviewed describe themselves as ecologists and yet they failed to recognize all the ecosystem benefits of wildfire . .
Read MoreWildfire Recovery Debate Goes On
By Guy McCarthy
The Union Democrat
Republicans in Congress are pushing The Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015. But rather than improving forest, watershed or wildlife health, as its authors claim, the Act will streamline the destruction and removal of forest habitat, including the majority of the most biodiverse habitat found in the forest – mature and old forest which has burned at high-intensity.
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