The Biden administration has issued a ten-year plan to manage the national forests to prevent future wildfires. It will include “the use of prescribed fire and thinning to reduce hazardous fuels,” says PERC’s Shawn Regan, writing in City Journal. “It’s a step in the right direction,” says Regan. However, the billions of dollars proposed by the…
Tag: Forests
Yosemite and the ‘Balance of Nature’ Myth
The following photographic essay illustrates the changing landscape at California’s Yosemite Valley and undermines the myth of a static “balance of nature.” The author, Shawn Regan, is vice president of research at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). The photograph above shows Yosemite Valley in 1899 (left) and today (right). If it seems like…
Burning Wood Is Zero Emissions? Yes, in Climate-Speak
Millions of wood pellets from trees grown in North Carolina are providing fuel for the United Kingdom. Under current international climate-change rules, burning wood does not produce carbon-dioxide emissions. Of course it does, but the claim is that it is offset by carbon sequestration when the trees are replaced. “Billed as a clean fuel that…
The Folly of Massive Tree Planting
It sounds great. Campaigns are underway with the goal of planting trees around the globe; the World Economic Forum has an initiative to plant 1 trillion new trees. The aim of these programs is to reduce climate change, encourage biodiversity, and provide local employment. But, according to Benji Jones at Vox, “There’s just one problem:…
The West Is a Fire Plain. Get Over It.
Guest author Randal O’Toole has a degree in forestry from Oregon State University and has spent several decades studying forest policy. He is the author of six books, including Reforming the Forest Service, and author of The Perfect Firestorm: Bringing Forest Service Wildfire Costs under Control, a Cato Institute Policy Analysis. Every summer, smoke from…
Don’t Cut Trees in the Tongass. Go Fishing.
The Biden administration is proposing a broad ban on most commercial logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, a 16.7-million acre forest that has been a political football for decades. “Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the proposal would provide $25 million for community development and would allow Alaska Natives and small-scale operators to continue to harvest…