Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities

By: William E. Simpson II Recently an opinion article was published in the Medford Mail Tribune titled ‘All the king’s horses can’t make wildfires go away’, by Dennis Odion, Dominick DellaSala & Dominic DiPaolo; hereinafter referred-to as ‘ODD’). From my perspective as well

Capt. William E. Simpson II – USMM Ret. contributed the following opinion article to Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities. How often do we find ourselves as citizens complaining when legislators overlook cost-effective ideas and plans that could arguably provide some relief

We want to alert you to town halls Washington 24th District state legislators are holding in Port Angeles and Port Townsend next week. Details for the town halls are below, but first we want to tell you why your participation is important. 

Smoke may smell good, but it’s not good for you While not everyone has the same sensitivity to wildfire smoke, it’s still a good idea to avoid breathing smoke if you can help it. And when smoke is heavy, such

A recent study by Climate Central found wildfires in the Western United States are undermining progress in reducing air pollution from tailpipes and industrial sources.  In analyzing air quality in two large California air basins, the independent research organization found the

Wayne Thacker is Chair of the Virginia Wildlife Habitat Coalition. The following letter originally appeared in the Central Virginian: In response to “Working with nature’s renewable resource in Louisa County”, in the Oct. 12 edition of the Central Virginian,, and

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Resilient Federal Forests Act on Nov. 1. In the run up the vote, there were many misleading statements about what the bill does, and doesn’t do. Thanks to the House Natural Resources Committee,

Note: This article first appeared on the Hoover Institution web site This past summer, wildfires scorched nearly eight million acres across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Most of the fires, which cost taxpayers $2 billion to fight, were on national

The U.S. Forest Service spent six and a half years and wrote 2,600 pages of environmental analysis for a forest project that reduced fire risks on 5,000 acres. What happened next has become too common in our broken system of

The Pulp & Paperworkers’ Resource Council has tracked Paper & Wood Products Facility Closures for 26 years, and they recently released their updated map of mill closures. Each dot and arrow on the map represents the loss of good-paying family-wage