The authors of Ecological Forest Managementhave thrown down the gauntlet. The battle between traditional production forestry (PF) and ecological forest management (EFM) for the hearts and minds of forestry students everywhere, for the profession of forestry itself, and for the acceptance of the public has been joined.

“The average American spends 95 percent of their life indoors,” says the REI report, with an endnote documenting the source of this sobering fact. I did the math: 8.4 hours outside per week, 1.2 hours outside per day. For kids it’s even less.

This is the second part of a two-part examination of what “rural” really means in Oregon and how statistically insignificant (and in all likelihood to become more so) the rural population is today.

This is the first part of a two-part examination of what “rural” really means in Oregon and how statistically insignificant (and in all likelihood to become more so) the rural population is today. In Part 1 we examine how much of Oregon is truly rural.

No one will know for sure until the completion of the constitutionally mandated decennial census in 2020. Politically, a sixth member of Congress from Oregon could be better for Oregon’s environment. (Actually, the best thing for Oregon’s environment would be losing enough population to lose some congressional seats—but that won’t happen.)

The government that would become Oregon got its start in 1843 when some early European invaders met in the mid–Willamette Valley to discuss predatory wildlife attacking livestock. A result was the first bounty on wolves.

The founding fathers, in drafting and approving the United States Constitution, recognized the dual sovereignty of the individual states of and the United States of America. The federal constitution granted and reserved certain powers to the federal government and certain powers to state governments, and it prohibited each from having certain powers. Tensions between the powers of the states and the federal government are built-in, and conflicts are often resolved using the courts, in particular the federal courts.

As state fish and wildlife agencies get shorted for funds, the bureaucratic tendency is often to double down on the traditional support base of hunters and anglers. However, for a multitude of cultural, social, economic, demographic, and other reasons, doubling down on a declining user base will not likely be an effective long-term strategy.

A nuclear power plant never befouled Cape Kiwanda, and off-road vehicles do not befoul many miles of Oregon beaches today, because of Norma Paulus. In addition, Oregon’s land use planning system, bottle bill, beach protection, billboard limits, bicycle friendliness, and other environmental achievements were mightily helped by Paulus while serving in the Oregon House of Representatives. Oregon’s air and water quality are the better for her work.

It is safe to say that most conservationists, not to mention the rest of Americans, have never heard of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS). It is a federal and state partnership that is little known and therefore underappreciated.

In response to increasing overpopulation, what came to Muir Woods will eventually be coming to a natural recreation area near and/or dear to you. But actually, reversing overpopulation is not that hard. If all those who wanted children would limit themselves to two, what is now out of control could soon be back in control.

Why is it that public lands conservation (and other environmental) issues always poll well, but our movement is regularly getting its ass kicked in Congress (and now by the administration as well)? It’s because we’re not political enough.

The Bundy band represents both an existential threat and an existential opportunity for America’s public lands. This is the fourth of four Public Lands Blog posts that examine the government mishandling of the Bundys, the Bundys’ legal troubles, the Bundys’ legal troublemaking, and the opportunities for the conservation community to apply political jujitsu on Bundy et al. to advance the conservation of America’s public lands

The Bundy band represents both an existential threat and an existential opportunity for America’s public lands. This is the third of four Public Lands Blog posts that examine the government mishandling of the Bundys, the Bundys’ legal troubles, the Bundys’ legal troublemaking, and the opportunities for the conservation community to apply political jujitsu on Bundy et al. to advance the conservation of America’s public lands.

The Bundy band represents both an existential threat and an existential opportunity for America’s public lands. This is the second of four Public Lands Blog posts that examine the government mishandling of the Bundys, the Bundys’ legal troubles, the Bundys’ legal troublemaking, and the opportunities for the conservation community to apply political jujitsu on Bundy et al. to advance the conservation of America’s public lands.

The Bundy band represents both an existential threat and an existential opportunity for America’s public lands. This is the first of four Public Lands Blog posts that examine the government mishandling of the Bundys, the Bundys’ legal troubles, the Bundys’ legal troublemaking, and the opportunities for the conservation community to apply political jujitsu on the Bundy gang to advance the conservation of America’s public lands.

There might be far more or far less oil and gas offshore Oregon and Washington than the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has estimated (see last weeks Public Lands Blog post). In any case, we really cannot afford to find out, as the only prudent course is to Keep It in the Ground and out of the atmosphere. This means all fossil fuels, offshore and onshore.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) estimates there is an even chance that 0.4 billion barrels of oil and 2.28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are technically exploitable might be discovered under the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Oregon and Washington. At 2017 rates of consumption, this amount of oil and gas would fuel the United States for twenty and thirty-one days respectively, meaning the United States would convert to a carbon-free economy a month later than we otherwise will.

If one is going to live in or near a forest, one assumes a higher risk of fire. The best way to minimize that risk is to seriously and continually create and maintain defensible space. It’s not cheap. If it were, it would have been done already.