In The News

News articles that feature John Muir Project activities or quotes from JMP staff.

Lawsuit Aims to Stop Largest-Ever Fire Prevention Project

January 15, 2025

Action News Now

Josh Hart, a spokesman for Feather River Action explained the group’s concerns. The lawsuit plaintiffs are environmental groups including Feather River Action, Plumas Forest Project, and John Muir Project. Hart said his group refers to the plan as the forest devastation project. “What the forest service is proposing is only going to make the situation worse,” Hart said.

View Article

Expert Criticizes US Response, Policy Failures for CA Wildfires

January 11, 2025

Bastille Post Global

Chad Hanson, a forest ecologist with the John Muir Project, has blamed extreme weather conditions, outdated wildfire policies, and inadequate community preparedness for the devastation caused by California’s recent wildfires, urging a shift toward more effective prevention measures. Hanson identified the combination of dry weather, powerful Santa Ana winds, and low humidity as the primary drivers of the fires, explaining that these conditions overwhelmed firefighting efforts and shifted the focus to evacuations.

View Article

At Least Five Fires Now in Los Angeles

January 9, 2025

BBC

Hanson says the “devastation is kind of hard to get your mind around. Five people have been killed – it could have been hundreds.” Since first responders realised that conditions would prevent them from containing the fires, they focussed their efforts on evacuating residents instead. “They did an extraordinary job.”

View Article

‘We’re not even in the worst of it yet,’ says Fire Expert

January 8, 2025

BBC

Hanson explains it is still considered to be wildfire season in this part of California and the biggest influence in the current fires is the Santa Ana winds. “These winds are unique to southern California and it results in extreme, sustained wind events with pretty dramatic gusts,” Hanson adds. “It is a double whammy as we have already had dry conditions because of a lack of rain – then the winds dry things out further.”

View Article

Dr. Chad Hanson on The Deception of Thinning & Fire Prevention

January 7, 2025

By Jonathan Ratner
The Wildlife News

In this episode of the Our Public Lands podcast, Dr. Chad Hanson of the John Muir Project discusses forest protection, fire ecology, and the deceptive practices of federal land management agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service. Chad critically examines the Forest Service’s narrative around logging disguised as fuel reduction and forest health projects, revealing the detrimental effects on biodiversity, carbon emissions, and community safety.

View Article

Biden Had a Chance to Protect Ancient Trees — And Failed

December 28, 2024

By Chris D’Angelo
HuffPost

Reflecting on the last four years, [Dr. Chad] Hanson, of the Earth Island Institute, argued that the current situation is worse than Biden simply failing to cement a meaningful legacy on old growth trees.

“They’re handing a series of ultra-regressive logging policies to Donald Trump with a bow on it,” Hanson said, adding that he expects the new administration will take “maximum advantage.”

View Article

‘Truly Random’ or Sealed Fate? Why Some Homes Survived the Mountain Fire While Others Burned

November 14, 2024

By Noah Haggerty
Los Angeles Times

Some fire researchers say taking simple steps to clear yards, roofs and gutters of flammable vegetation and ensuring there is absolutely no opening for embers to get inside – whether a dog door, a vent or an open window – can virtually fireproof a home.

View Article

Logging on Public Lands Has Increased Despite President Biden’s Forest Protection Efforts

November 14, 2024

By Clayton Sandell
Scripps News

There is concern among scientists and conservation groups that the administration isn’t doing enough to preserve old growth and mature forests on public land.

View Article

Firefighting Tactics in California Need to Change, An Expert Tells KNX News

September 9, 2024

KNX News

Hanson, author of Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate, said, “[CAL Fire and the US Forest Service] do some things that are really helpful and are very productive and effective and some things that are not. So it’s really kind of a mixed bag.”

View Article

Controversy Erupts Over Biden’s Old Growth Forest Protection Amid Increased Logging Activity

August 2, 2024

By Ryner
Weather News Point

The US Forest Service, responsible for managing national forests and a significant portion of the country’s old growth, has not included mature trees in its new conservation strategy. Conservationists argue that the plan has loopholes that permit continued logging of centuries-old trees and that required reviews of logging projects are not being properly conducted, endangering the remaining old growth forests.

View Article

US Forest Service Failing to Protect Old Growth Trees From Logging, Critics Say

August 1, 2024

The Guardian

“The largest logging projects I’ve ever seen are targeting the last, best remaining old growth trees left in the country,” said Chad Hanson, a forest ecologist and co-founder of the John Muir Project. “The situation is rampant as far as I can tell and it risks squandering a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect these incredible forests.”

View Article

What Does the Supreme Court’s Chevron Decision Mean For a Potential Second Trump Term?

June 30, 2024

By Clark Mindock
Landmark

“The truth is the Chevron decision has been a mixed bag for the environment because deference to agency interpretations of environmental laws is only helpful if the agencies are trying to protect the environment,” said Chad Hanson, a forest ecologist with the Earth Island Institute’s John Muir Project.

View Article

The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it. … So we must count on watching and striving for these trees, and should always be glad to find anything so surely good and noble to strive for.

John Muir, "The National Parks and Forest Reservations" in a speech by John Muir
(Proceedings of the Meeting of the Sierra Club Held November 23, 1895.) Published in Sierra Club Bulletin, (1896)