In The News

USA Today
By Elizabeth Weise, Terry Collins, Zach Urness, and Joel Shannon

“Logging doesn’t curb fires, it intensifies fires. Trump falsely claims that more logging will curb wildfires and protect communities, but there’s an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence showing the exact opposite,” said Chad Hanson, a co-founder of the John Muir Project. “The more trees you remove, the faster wildfire flames sweep through the forest. It gives less time for people to evacuate and less time for first responders to react.” Wildfires move faster because removing trees reduces wind resistance, allowing winds to sweep through faster, Hanson added.

The Guardian
By Oliver Milman

Donald Trump has ordered that swathes of America’s forests be felled for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species while doing so and raising the prospect of chainsaws razing some of the most ecologically important trees in the US. The president, in an executive order, has demanded an expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres (113m hectares) of national forests and other public lands, claiming that “heavy-handed federal policies” have made America reliant on foreign imports of timber.

Big Bear Grizzly

Environmental groups say thinning forests can actually increase the threat of forest fire. And in 2023, the John Muir Project and Friends of Big Bear Valley submitted a lawsuit against USFS to halt the project.

It’s unclear where the North Big Bear Landscape Restoration project stands. The USFS is unable to comment on the issue due to a national freeze on media relations. Both the John Muir Project and Friends of Big Bear Valley say they have not received a substantive update on the project.

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.

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Chad Hanson, a forest ecologist with the John Muir Project, has blamed extreme weather conditions, outdated wildfire policies, and inadequate community preparedness for the devastation caused by California’s recent wildfires, urging a shift toward more effective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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.”