The U.S. Forest Service has approved more than 73,564 acres of controversial “fuel-reduction” logging in Wyoming public forests—including within Inventoried Roadless Areas—despite a vast and growing body of peer reviewed science refuting agency assertions that such “fuel reduction” protects communities from wildfire.
The projects encompass the Black Hills National Forest (43,180 acres), Bridger-Teton National Forest (14,000+ acres*), Shoshone National Forest (8,000+ acres**), Bighorn National Forest (7,700 acres), Medicine Bow National Forest (684+ acres*), and Bureau of Land Management (2,423 acres).
The U.S. Forest Service’s main justifications for the logging—uncharacteristic “fuels” in lodgepole pine forests—involve false assertions that are disproven by even the U.S. Forest Service’s own science.
The Bighorn National Forest’s Pole Creek Vegetation Management Project Scoping Notice asserts that “the habitat structure stages of the current lodgepole pine forest are not meeting desired conditions. The forest is characterized by an atypical level of dense, mid-aged stands and a scarcity of young regenerating seedling/sapling habitat.”
The Big Sandy WUI Hazardous Fuels Reduction Decision Memo claims that “The project area contains high levels of fuel loading due to historic fire suppression…forest conditions are uncharacteristic and at high degrees of ecological departure from historical vegetation conditions, contributing to an increased susceptibility for high intensity wildfire.”
Yet U.S. Forest Service documents from Bighorn National Forest clearly state that “Fire’s influence on the lodgepole pine forest structure may have been reduced as a result of timber management and fire suppression, however, a change to the landscape lodgepole pine stand structure is not evident due to the long fire return intervals,” which can be up to 307 years.
The consensus of peer reviewed studies is that lodgepole pine forests have not been altered by fire suppression.
“Most lodgepole forests are seral not climax. You need about one-hundred and fifty to two-hundred years to get through the lodgepole stage before the climax species of spruce and fir come into the system,” said Jonathan Ratner, Director of Sage Steppe Wild. “If you log out the lodgepole, you never allow a climax forest to be restored.”
“The spruce and fir in the intermountain west are lower value lumber, so the Forest Service focuses on logging lodgepole,” continued Ratner.
Studies (both independent, peer reviewed and from U.S. Forest Service) show that “thinning” heats up and dries out the forest microclimate, which can make fires start easier and burn more intensely—including igniting crown fires—while opening stands that let winds spread flames quicker to nearby communities, potentially overwhelming firefighters and evacuees.
While tens of billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on this controversial, likely counterproductive, and potentially disastrous logging in the name of “community protection,” only a tiny fraction of funding has gone to home hardening and defensible space pruning 15-60 feet around structures, the only measures—along with patrolling and enforcement of human-caused ignitions—proven to protect communities from wildfire.
The Bridger-Teton National Forest released a scoping notice for the 3,000 acre East Rim WUI Vegetation Management project in December 2024. These acres are to be logged and “thinned” using various mechanical methods. The area is in critical habitat for threatened Canada lynx, Grizzly Bear habitat and the Great Gray Owl, a species of greatest conservation concern for Wyoming Game and Fish Department. It’s also in a documented lynx migration corridor.
“The project is adjacent to the 2018 Roosevelt Fire which burned nearly 60,000 acres leading to loss of the forest cover that these species depend upon,” said John Carter, Yellowstone to Uintas Connection (Y2U) Ecologist. “The Forest Service wants to further remove forest cover and habitat using a ‘categorical exclusion’ to avoid public scrutiny. This means there will be no further opportunity to comment or object to the project. The Y2U and our partners have submitted comments and are analyzing the project for further action.”
Current list of “fuel reduction” projects:
Black Hills National Forest: (Davis Hazardous Fuels Reduction – 1,180 acres, Fort Forest Management Project – 31,000 acres, North Sand Vegetation Management – 11,000 acres).
Bridger-Teton National Forest: (Big Sandy WUI Hazardous Fuels Reduction – 3,000 acres, East Rim WUI Vegetation Management – 3,000 acres, Shadow Mountain Habitat Enhancement – 8,000 acres, Union Pass Farm Bill Salvage Project – ? acres).
Shoshone National Forest: (High Lakes Resiliency Project – ? acres, Trout Creek HFRA CE – ? acres, Green Union – 8,000 acres)
Bighorn National Forest (Pole Creek Vegetation Management Project – 7,700 acres).
Medicine Bow National Forest: (Friend Park and Round Mountain Vegetation Management – 684 acres, Harris Park Vegetation Management – ? acres).
Bureau of Land Management (Porcupine Creek Vegetation Treatment – 2,423 acres).
*(U.S. Forest Service has not made acreage public for one of the projects)
**(U.S. Forest Service has not made acreage public for two of the projects)
Eco-Integrity Alliance 