Analysis
From the Vault MacCleery: April 29, 2010
A paper from the archive on how indigenous peoples shaped the pre-Columbian Southeast, and what centuries of widespread burning mean for the rare species and ecosystems found there today.
Stories & analysis
Field notes, explainers, and shorter analysis. Same standard of evidence as our reports, without the full apparatus.
All stories
Analysis
Environmentalitis and the Cost of Forest Litigation in Western Oregon
A deep-dive into how environmental litigation reshaped federal forest policy, ended salvage logging, and helped fuel recurring wildfire disasters in western Oregon.
Analysis
Stewardship Without Access: Why Deferred Maintenance Is Silently Shrinking Public Lands
Brent Oliver argues that true Forest Service stewardship must include access, maintenance, and disability rights—not just land protection—while highlighting the growing deferred maintenance crisis.
Analysis
Forest Fire: Idaho’s Largest Uncontrolled Tax on Rural Communities
Forest fires impose hidden costs on Idaho through suppression spending, lost timber revenue, damaged watersheds, and reduced opportunities for future generations, demanding a new approach to forest stewardship
Analysis
The Forest Service Didn't Fail Us The Environmental Industry Captured It
An analysis of the Interior Department’s decision to end key partnerships, examining wildfire policy, forest management, and the debate over activist influence on public lands.
Analysis
New Alliance Building Wildfire Readiness & Forest Resilience Across the American West
New alliance between the National Wildfire Alliance and Rogue Siskiyou Regional Wildfire Training Center (RSR) is building a year‑round Western wildfire workforce and rapid response system across states.
Analysis
Our Forests, Our Future: Rejecting the "Hands-Off" Dogma That Is Burning America
Frank Carroll argues that active forest management, timber harvest, thinning, and prescribed fire are essential to reducing wildfire risk and protecting America’s national forests.
Analysis
Forestry in Indian Country: Solving Federal Forestry’s Rubik’s Cube
This publication explores how tribal forestry supports forest health, wildfire resilience, cultural stewardship, and rural economies, while highlighting the findings of the IFMAT III assessment.
Analysis
The Firestorm After the Flames: Why Post-Wildfire Forest Restoration Demands New Policies
An argument for replacing “managed fire” with rapid suppression, salvage logging, active forest management, and infrastructure repair to restore forests and protect communities after wildfire.
Analysis
A New Chapter for the Forest Service — But Only If We Get It Right
The U.S. Forest Service is undergoing its biggest restructuring in 121 years. Here's what must not get lost in the shuffle: community safety, transparency, accountability, and land stewardship.
Analysis
Filtered Sunlight, Respiration & Resilient Forests in Southern Oregon
Photo review of Southern Oregon forests under stress, showing how thinning, prescribed fire and filtered sunlight restore respiration, moisture balance and resilience.
Analysis
Burned Out: National Forest Fires Reaching Communities
An analysis of recent National Forest wildfires impacting Western communities, examining trends, wildfire impacts, and forest management concerns across Oregon and Northern California.
Analysis
The Cedar Creek Fire and the 1897 Organic Act: How Policy Failures Turned Forests Into Firebombs — National Wildfire All
The 2022 Cedar Creek Fire burned 127,000 acres, choked Oregon communities with smoke for six weeks, and cost taxpayers $132 million — and it didn't have to happen. A look at how decades of mismanagement brought us here.
Analysis
Active Forest Management Needs Improved Rural Manufacturing Options
Eldon "Tope" Knauf argues that effective forest management depends on robust rural manufacturing infrastructure—including sawmills, pulp mills, and byproduct facilities—and that the loss of these industries is leaving billions of board feet of timber without viable markets, driving up hous
Analysis
The 1897 Organic Act: National Forests Must Serve Communities
Former Forest Service timber management official Wayne Knauf calls for a return to the principles of the 1897 Organic Act, arguing that National Forests exist to support communities, jobs, schools, and roads—not to be locked away—and that two decades of failed federal management have reduced timber
Analysis
First, Put Out the Fire! and Restore Our Forests with Traditional Practices
This article argues that America’s worsening wildfire and forest health crisis demands immediate fire suppression, active forest management, and restoration practices modeled in part on long-standing tribal stewardship.
Analysis
Phil Aune on Fuel Management, Reforestation, and Wildfire Legacy
In this recorded statement, Phil Aune warns that unsalvaged wildfire damage, delayed reforestation, and rising fuel loads are leaving a long-term legacy across western forests.
Analysis
License to Burn, Part Three: Who Really Profits When the Forest Burns?
A new sawmill registered weeks before the Caldor Fire. A $132M burn. Interlocking investors, USFS grants, and a "Stewardship" MOU now going national. Who benefits when 50 million acres are "treated"?
Analysis
North Umpqua Wildfires: Risks and Recommendations Report
A report analyzing wildfire risks in the North Umpqua River basin, examining fuel conditions, fire behavior, and recommendations to reduce future catastrophic wildfire impacts.
Analysis
Forest Restoration Problems and Opportunities Revisited | Western Forest Management
A look at how active, landscape-scale forest restoration can reduce catastrophic wildfire risk, create rural jobs, restore wildlife habitat, and improve western forest health.
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