Forests
Native forests are as diverse as native rangelands or any other healthy ecosystem.
Like rangelands, forests produce oxygen, sequester carbon, provide wildlife habitat and play a role in the water cycle.
As a source of lumber and wood products such as paper, much of our forest land particularly through the southeast has been converted to a monoculture of softwood pines, managed under industrial systems. It has produced a glut of softwood and timber stands that are in declining health.
In national forests, the mixed timber stands tend to suffer from benign neglect. Bowing to pressure from outside groups with little understanding of nature’s processes, the forest managers “preserve” the forests by simply leaving them alone. Lack of thinning, a proliferation of undergrowth make them the forests prime targets for disease and uncontrolled fire.
Forests, like rangelands, benefit from managers who consider the big picture and manage for balance.
Latest articles
Read more about forests and forest management practices:
Politicians Tell Forest Service: Do More to Fight Wildfires
“Quoting the article below, “The Forest Service has estimated that more than 460 million acres are at moderate to high risk from wildfire.”
Purcell Mountains Wildlife
Idaho Fish and Game cameras capture wildlife in Idaho’s Purcell Mountains. This remote and rugged range extends north into British Columbia where its upper reaches offer some of the continent’s most famous mountaineering and powder […]
Mother Grizzly and Cubs
Idaho Fish and Game posted this video with these comments: “Every year Idaho Fish and Game Biologists place GPS collars on grizzly bears to learn about their reproduction, survival, and distribution. A recently retrieved […]
Yellowstone in Depth: The Northern Range
The Northern Range is the hub of wildlife in Yellowstone National Park. Occupying just 10 percent of the Yellowstone Park, the Northern Range is winter range for the biggest elk herd in Yellowstone and is […]
Releasing Beaver on the Fall River in Idaho, 5-Miles from Yellowstone Park
This video of Pitchstone Waters’ second beaver release during the summer of 2020 contains excellent remarks by staff of the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Releasing Beaver on the Fall River in Idaho, near […]
Wildlife-Friendly Cattle Fences in an Idaho Forest
This is the most wildlife-friendly fence design that we have seen. It would work great on large properties, whether placed around perimeters or inside for pastures. It goes up fast and uses a minimum of […]
Are Prescribed Burns The Silver Bullet Suggested For Wildfires?
“Outside-the-box thinking on prescribed burns, from the founder of Wild Horse Brigade.
Re-Establishing Beaver in an Idaho Meadow
At Pitchstone Waters Ranch on the Fall River in Idaho, we have been preparing beaver release sites for over a year. Here are our first 4-transplant beavers. The big ones weigh 80-pounds! Our profound thanks […]
Government Spends $2.6m to Reduce Fire Risk on Caribou-Targhee, Private Lands
“Simple, common sense steps to mitigate fire hazard in our public forests are subject to interminable delays and challenges. Practices like those described below are needed on millions and millions of acres across the West.
To Prevent Huge Wildfires, Australia Leans More on Indigenous Experience
“As discussed in the article below, in Australia as in the US, the ‘natural systems’ found by Europeans were actually human artifacts, formed and shaped by thousands of years of human impact.
Artificial Beaver Dams Are Catching on in Idaho
How and why to build artificial beaver dams. Any property with small streams should consider these. The authors say, “We visited two very different streams in Idaho to learn how beaver dam-like structures can […]
Leave It to Beavers
“As discussed in the article below, “Beaver dams are why some ecologists insist that beavers may be able to help remedy the effects of climate change. Beavers build dams, which create ponds, which create ecosystems. […]
Using Goats to Open an Idaho Forest
At Pitchstone Waters near Yellowstone Park in Idaho, we use goats to clear brush, weeds, and stimulate grasses on forest floors. Sixth in a series. Goats Grazing Idaho Forests from Christopher Gill on Vimeo. […]
Soil-Carbon Cowboys
A new documentary series in 10 parts (paddocks) directed by Peter Byck …please watch soil-carbon cowboys first. NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on June 22, 2020.
Releasing Beavers in Idaho
Fifth in a series about reintroducing beaver on the Fall River in Idaho, 5-miles Southwest of Yellowstone National Park. NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on June 15, 2020
Controlling Weeds in Idaho
A Forb is a herbaceous, flowering plant other than grass. Unwanted forbs are generally dubbed “weeds.” Herbicides used for “weed” control almost always harm habitat and wildlife. On Pitchstone Waters, we manage our weeds unconventionally—to […]
Meet the Mice Who Make the Forest
As discussed in the article below, forest health rests on microscopic soil organisms and tiny land creatures. Agricultural and land management practices generally dismiss soil life and small mammals as unimportant. Yet the conservation and […]
Turning Fire Risk Into Financial Reward
This article from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a free market environmental think tank based in Bozeman, discusses market solutions to the problematic small growth timber choking our public forests. This small […]
Drax: UK Power Station Owner Cuts Down Primary Forests in Canada
More insanity from the anti-fossil fuel programs is reported below. These wood pellets burn dirtier than natural gas, crude oil, or coal. The so-called “renewable” forests take centuries to regrow. The energy produced costs […]
Equilibrium / Sustainability — Wild Horses Could Help Temper Western Wildfires
Using so-called “problem” wild horses to reduce wildfire is an idea whose time has come.
On the Elk Trail: Episode 2 – Elk Migration
In 2018, a biologist and a filmmaker used camera traps to film the entire fall migration of an elk herd in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of western Wyoming. During the project’s first week a snowstorm […]