Editor's Column
Infrastructure Collapse In Montana
Posted: 2010-02-20

This Is Embarrassing III
Posted: 2009-08-10

This is Embarrassing II
Posted: 2009-07-24

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Guest Columns
More Junk Forest Science from OSU
Posted: 2010-03-09

Nicholas Dennis: Put National Forests To Work For Community
Posted: 2010-02-22

Jim Erickson & Gary Morishima: Indian Forestry - Imagine the Possibilities
Posted: 2010-01-26

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Forest Facts
Some 1.5 billion trees are planted in the U.S. every year, about 5 trees for every American.

Annually, U.S. forestland owners plant about 6 trees for every tree harvested.

About one-third of America's original forest - some 300 million acres - have been converted to other uses, principally agriculture.

There are 26 million more acres of forestland in the Northeast than there were in 1900.

Today, forests blanket about one-third of the U.S. land base and about half the U.S. East.

U.S. annual growth rates have exceeded harvest rates since the 1940's.

Timber harvesting is forbidden on 50% of all National Forest lands in the U.S.

National Forests account for 20% of the nation's forestlands and 19% of its timberlands.

National Forests hold 46% of the nation's softwood timber inventory but only provide 6% of the annual harvest.

Since 1986, the harvest of timber from America's national forests has declined 70%.

In the West, 34% of all forestland and 54% of all timberlands are in national forests.

National forests in the Pacific Coast and Intermountain West regions hold 68% of the nation's softwood timber inventory, but provide less than 28% of annual harvest.

Forest density has increased 40% in the U.S. over the last 50 years.

Flying Finns
Home  »  Wildfires
Large Fire Management in 2009
By: Wildfire Today

The U.S. Forest Service has released a narrated 11-minute PowerPoint-like presentation that addresses the problems associated with management of the 0.25% of fires that become large and how the USFS is going to deal with some of these issues.  It is narrated by Marc Rounsaville, Deputy Director of USFS Fire and Aviation.  (UPDATE 4:00 p.m. April 5; the presentation has been removed from the USFS site.)

While the presentation does refer to safety, we are thinking that the primary driver behind the program is to reduce spiraling fire costs, which are becoming ridiculous.  That is a very laudable goal but the fatality trend is what caught my eye.  Since 1950 the average number of US Forest Service fatalities has doubled, from 10 to 20.  

Since 1950 we have added to our fire management system multiple checklists, personal protective equipment, hundreds of training courses with high-tech PowerPoint presentations, improved vehicles, Supertankers, computers, a vast array of fire behavior prediction systems, and radios, but we are still fighting fire with water and sharpened pieces of metal attached to the ends of sticks. And we are killing twice as many USFS employees.

Click here to read the complete document.

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human need to use natural resources is fundamental to our continued presence on earth."
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