Free Republic

The chestnut trees of Europe tell a hidden story charting the fortunes of ancient Rome and the legacy it left in the continent's forests. The ancient Romans left an indelible imprint on the world they enveloped into their empire. The straight, long-distance roads they built can still be followed beneath the asphalt of some modern highways. They spread aqueducts, sewers, public baths and the Latin language across much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. But what's perhaps less well known is the surprising way they transformed Europe's forests. ... Romans had something of a penchant for sweet chestnut...

Governor Brad Little signed an executive order that aims to ramp up timber harvests during a visit to Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday. Titled the “Make Forests Healthy Again Act,” the executive order directs the Idaho Department of Lands to expand on its partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to reduce wildfire risk in Idaho’s federally managed forest lands. Active management activities include “increasing timber harvest, restoring watersheds to support the industry, protecting communities, and making our forests healthier, more resilient and resistant to catastrophic wildfire,” said IDL director Dustin Miller. Sixty percent of Idaho’s land is owned and managed by...

1. PURPOSE Executive Order (EO) 14225, Immediate Expansion ofAmerican Timber Production (March 1, 2025), highlights the importance of timber production and how forest management and wildfire risk reduction projects can save American lives and communities. The United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but heavy-handed federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers. It is vital that we reverse these policies and increase domestic timber production to protect our national and economic security. We can manage our forests to...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped into his emergency powers Saturday to roll back environmental regulations so that the state can speed up wildfire prevention projects, including clearing flammable brush out of forests, following criticism from President Trump. Newsom, 57, suspended the enforcement of regulations in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Coastal Act and streamlined the process for government entities to clear up potential fuel for wildfires. “This year has already seen some of the most destructive wildfires in California history, and we’re only in March,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re taking action with a state...

Shortly after the devastating eruption, some gophers went on a very confusing day trip. A member of the gopher recovery team getting to work. Image credit: Mike Allen/UCR When Mount St Helens erupted in 1980, the resulting lava, ash, and debris turned the landscape barren for miles around. It was clear the land would take a long time to recover from the eruption. But one team of scientists had an idea about how they could help speed up the process; sending a few gophers there on a day trip. Plant life struggled to return to the area around Mount St...

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:12-13 (King James Version) It is so incredible when you catch a liberal saying the quiet part out loud. While filming the latest Forestry Board testimony we caught them in a unrehearsed moment, and they admitted the entire song and dance of protecting the forests...

Forest Service Chief Randy Moore appeared this week before a U.S. Senate committee where he was pressured by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to speed up thinning work on federal forests. The Biden administration identified over 175,000 square miles of old growth and mature forests on government lands. The administration plans to craft a rule to protect forests from fires, insects, and other effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) Moore faced pointed questioning from U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, a Republican who warned the administration's conservation efforts could "lock Americans out of the public...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday announced plans to replant trees on millions of acres of burned and dead woodlands as officials struggle to counter the increasing toll on the nation’s forests from wildfires, insects and other manifestations of climate change. The U.S. Agriculture Department said it will have to quadruple the number of tree seedlings produced by nurseries to get through the backlog and meet future needs. That comes after Congress last year passed bipartisan legislation directing the Forest Service to plant 1.2 billion trees over the next decade and after President Joe Biden in April...

President Joe Biden’s order to protect the nation’s oldest woodlands is raising a simple but vexing question: When does a forest grow old? The answer could affect millions of acres of federally-managed forests where environmentalists want logging restricted as climate change, wildfires and other problems devastate vast forests. Scientists say there's no simple formula for what's old — in part because growth rates among species can vary greatly.

California lawmakers are apparently just now discovering that controlled burns to prevent future wildfires might be the new prescription as decades-old policies of progressive-driven ‘conservation’ and reactive fire suppression have failed. Democratic state lawmakers are suddenly in agreement with former President Trump who said in August 2020 that the state needs “to clean its forest floors more than anything else.” At a rally in Pennsylvania last August, Trump told supporters: “I see again the forest fires are starting. They’re starting again in California. I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With fires raging across the state, the USDA Forest Service is closing all 20 million acres of California’s national forests to public access for two weeks beginning Tuesday. In an announcement Monday, the Forest Service said the closure will extend through at least Sept. 17. This closure starts at noon Tuesday. Those caught entering Forest Service lands — including developed campgrounds, hiking trails and recreation sites — face fines of up to $5,000 for violating the order. The announcement extends a closure that was already in place for the Forest Service’s nine national forests in Northern California.

10 Minute video of interest to those who enjoy maps and interesting tidbits

Early this week, Oregon governor Kate Brown went on national television to call the Pacific Coast fires a “bellwether for climate change.” As UC Berkeley professor of sustainable development Maximilian Auffhammer writes, “It’s the climate change, stupid.”This is one of four responses to the Pacific Coast fires. Brown and Auffhammer are warmers, people who believe the earth’s climate is changing and the fires must be due to that change. In the warmers’ minds, the fires themselves then become evidence that we need to change our lifestyles to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.A second group are the burners, people who...

Nearly 30 years ago, President Bill Clinton made a significant change to federal land management that created the conditions necessary for massive wildfires to consume portions of the West Coast, according to a fire expert who predicted the problem years ago. Shortly before leaving office in 2001, Clinton limited the ability of the United States Forest Service to thin out a dense thicket of foliage and downed trees on federal land to bring the West into a pristine state, Bob Zybach, an experienced forester with a Ph.D. in environmental science, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The former president’s decision...

Within the first 90 seconds Governor Hairdo, in a very shaky voice, praises Trump for all the help, then admits "We have not done justice on our forest mangagement" "Your administration just entered into an agreement to double our vegetation management Thank you for supporting that effort, funding that effort... We acknowledge our role and responsibility to do more in that space" Pretty dang'd respectful otherwise...

Bill Clinton’s land management rules and other liberal policies paved the way for future debilitating wildfires ... Zybach warned of potential disastrous wildfires shortly after Clinton signed a slate of rules in the mid-1990s that drastically reduced logging and road creation on federal lands. ... Shortly before leaving office in 2001, Clinton limited the ability of the United States Forest Service to thin out a dense thicket of foliage and downed trees on federal land... created a ticking time bomb ... “If you don’t start managing these forests, then they are going to start burning up. Thirty years later, they...

4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4 King James Version God saved Portland from being decimated by one of the deadliest fires Oregon has ever seen. If not for the winds miraculously changing from easterly to westerly and soon bringing the rains it is very possible much of Portland would have burned to the ground. It is inconceivable why the Lord saved Portland other than he will not take the righteous with the wicked, but there is no other explanation than God for how this miracle happened. Oregon has over a half a million...

Wood is the resource the world is relying on for its low carbon future. It’s touted as a replacement for concrete and steel, fossil fuels, power and plastics. But is there enough of it to go around? […] According to the latest figures from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global forest production hit record levels in 2018. Up 11% on the year before. “We see an increasing demand for almost all of our products,” says Göran Örlander, strategist at Södra, Sweden’s largest association of forest owners. “The most obvious demand is for biofuels at the moment. Everybody wants...

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; 1 Peter 2:9 KJV Once again they have turned out the lights in California thanks to thirty years of Communist rules. Right after they passed the largest Tax scam based on Global Warming, they have more wildfires lit by the homeless and turn off the homes. This manmade disaster is looking more and more like North Korea every night. Their complete mismanagement of the forest...

The power is out in Northern California. More than 1 million Californians are now without electricity, one of modern life’s essentials that is frequently taken for granted. The blackout was done on purpose—to prevent sparks from powerlines that could ignite deadly wildfires. Before planned blackouts are through in two or three days, as many as 3 million Californians may go without power. On the surface, the blackout and its causes are simple to understand. But the deeper causes are complicated, span decades of public policy, and dozens of overlapping unintended—and intended—consequences of decisions, both related and unrelated. The wind in...