Photos: Congressman Bruce Westerman Visits Idaho

Last week Congressman Bruce Westerman, author of the Resilient Federal Forests Act, was briefed on Northwest forestry issues during a tour of Idaho sawmills and logging sites. He met with Idaho Forest Group’s Marc Brinkmeyer following a day and a half tour to see latest the milling technology at their Lewiston and Chilco mills. The…

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When will environmental litigants be held accountable?

Note: This column by Ed Regan originally appeared in the Independent-Record. Recent wildfires on the Lewis and Clark National Forests are illustrating the consequences of the “Cottonwood” case that is halting forest health projects throughout Montana. Once again the case comes at the expense of our forests, wildlife and communities. Both the Park Creek and…

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Video: Counties in Crisis

This video examines the progressively weakening and increasingly threatened circumstances of U.S. counties that host national forests. It was produced by the Not Without a Fight! Coalition, an informal group comprised of Shoshone County, Idaho’s county commissioners and three of the county’s four school district superintendents.  

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Forests in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley before and after thinning

The Nature Conservancy posted this before-and-after photo in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley: With financial assistance from Montana’s Forests in Focus program they thinning dense forests to reduce the fuel available for potential fires while focusing work in the areas where homes meet the wildlands. These efforts are opening the forest, decreasing the chance that a fire…

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Column: Let-it-burn ideology is dangerous

Note: This column originally appeared in the Redding Record-Searchlight, in response to this article. One doesn’t need to write 38 books about wildfire to understand that fuel loads influence the size and severity of forest fires.  Decades of scientific research and practical on-the-ground experience strongly indicates that reducing fuel loads on the forests helps prevent…

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Molly Pitts: H.R. 2936 needs support in Congress

HFHC Rocky Mountain States Director Molly Pitts had the following letter published in the Durango (Co.) Herald on June 29. Please send a quick message in support of the Resilient Federal Forests Act by clicking here! With Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah all experiencing a severe fire season and our local western Colorado communities being…

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William Simpson: Wild Horses And Their Value Proposition

Capt. William E. Simpson II – USMM Ret. contributed the following opinion article to Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities. The column offers a solution that Capt. Simpson says will save the Bureau of Land Management $58 million annually just on the corralled horses, and save the counties hundreds of millions in fire costs, and allow wild…

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