Logging equipment from a wildfire “fuel reduction” project caused the 33,000-acre Yellow Lake Fire, according to a U.S. Forest Service statement. The fire was the largest in the area since 2016, and the largest in the state since 2020.
While total suppression costs for the fire amounted to $20 million, the unnamed logging contractor was only fined $16,000, according to media reports.
A letter signed by 33 conservation organizations from across the U.S. was submitted to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) asking the department to focus its funding cuts at the U.S. Forest Service on controversial and unscientific so-called “wildfire fuel reduction” logging.
Please consider adding your organization to this sign on letter asking Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to focus its funding cuts at USDA Forest Service on programs tied to controversial and scientifically-contested “wildfire fuel reduction” logging, while reinstating programs and staff that don’t negatively impact the ecology and recreation in National Forests.
The sign on form and letter is here.
Please sign by adding your name and organization (or just organization), and please share with others who might be interested.
On episode 78 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—host Josh Schlossberg stops the presses with Nathan Gilles, Journalist and Science Writer, as they investigate the crucial role of environmental journalism in the media landscape, its triumphs and shortcomings, and the most effective ways for advocates to get coverage.
Twenty-four Colorado conservation groups—including 350 Colorado, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, High Country Conservation Advocates, and WildEarth Guardians—signed a letter asking Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) to oppose the unscientific “Fix Our Forests” Act and instead support legislation that would actually protect communities from wildfire through home hardening and defensible space pruning less than 100 feet around homes.
On episode 77 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—host Josh Schlossberg gets empirical with Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage and co-editor of Mixed Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix, as they discuss the vast and growing body of peer-reviewed studies showing the ecological necessity of “severe” wildfires and the harmful, ineffective, and often counterproductive nature of “fuel reduction” logging.
“Trump says California’s mismanagement of forests and water is to blame for wildfires” by Ella Nilsen, CNN, January 24, 2025
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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.
On episode 76 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—host Josh Schlossberg gets litigious with Jonathan Ratner, Director of Sage Steppe Wild, as they challenge The Nature Conservancy’s schemes to log and graze public lands and whether the billion-dollar entity should still be considered an environmental group.
Twenty-six U.S. conservation organizations signed on to Eco-Integrity Alliance’s letter asking Congress to ensure that the U.S. Forest Service does a better job preventing human-caused wildfires through monitoring and enforcement and potential logging road closures (instead of the agency’s current focus of “fuel reduction” logging).
The letter can be found here:
Eco-Integrity Alliance 