Media

January 2024 - December 2024

An old growth proponent talks about the federal EIS on a national old growth rule

Listen to Wild Heritage’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Dominick DelaSalla, talk about the benefit of the USDA Forest Service’s recently published draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for a national old growth amendment that would guide preservation and creation of old growth in national forests across the country.

More than 200 leading scientists call for President Biden to issue an executive order halting logging in all mature and old-growth forests on public lands. The letter was signed by leading scientists from the National Academy, Nobel prize winners, climate change scientists, IPCC scientists, and heads of university departments.

Old-Growth Forests Know How to Protect Themselves from Fire (Scientific American, March 19, 2024)
Forest and climate scientists fear Biden delay on mature forest protection (Mongabay, March 5, 2024)
Protecting Mature and Old Growth Forests (KBOO interview, March 4, 2024)
Oregon scientists join letter calling for immediate moratorium on federal old growth logging (Jefferson Exchange interview, February 14, 2024)

January 2023 - December 2023

A nature-based solution to restore and adapt western US dry forests to climate change
“Nature effectively “managed” forests through millennia of major climate changes and episodes of natural disturbances (e.g., wildfires, droughts, bark-beetle outbreaks), so why would nature not now be best able to restore and adapt forests to climate change?” Read about our paper as William L. Baker, Chad T. Hanson, and Dominick A. DellaSala address this question with a focus on lower-elevation dry forests of the western U.S.

The Yaak Valley Is Ground Zero for Montana’s Environmental Future
“This is a mature and old-growth forest… This area is globally important; it really needs to be part of a climate refuge as a national example, as a legacy for the planet and future generations.” – Dominick A. DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage

Webinar: Forest Biomass, Oregon and Beyond

In this webinar, Dominick A. DellaSala and Rita Vaughan Frost explore the just transition from fossil fuels to cleaner, renewable energy, and the realities and tradeoffs we need to understand.

Presentation Slides:

Video

Guest Opinion: The Real Triple Crown of Economic, FireFighting, and Environmental Benefits

Read the critique of Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s bill which promotes logging on federal lands, and that nearly pushed rural communities and ecosystems to the brink of collapse decades ago.
– Dominick A. Dellasala, Ph.D. and Rick Martinson, Ph.D.

Forest Protection Forum: Have Western Fire Suppression and Megafire Active Management Approaches Become a Contemporary Sisyphus?
See Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala’s presentation on the war on fire & related Megafire Active Management Approaches (MAMA) as climate chaos rages on.

Presentation Slides

Video

Guest Column: Are we taking the wrong approach on wildfires?
“The Labor Day fires of 2020 took out half my town of Talent and nearby Phoenix. As I stood in the rubble, I was overwhelmed with anger about how this didn’t need to happen.” – Dominick A. DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage

It’s Time to Protect the Northern Rockies
“This is an important time for the Black Ram Climate Refuge and the Northern Rockies … With climate chaos spinning super-charged hurricanes, massive flooding, heat domes, and even fires in Hawaii, we all need to be part of the solution.” – Domick Dellasala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage

Why people rally around a rainforest – in England
Fully 20% of Britain’s land surface is thought to host the right kind of climate for temperate rainforest, and yet a mere 1% is still covered by this luxuriant habitat. Dominick A. DellaSala, Wild Heritage’s Chief Scientist, on logging young growth trees: “… we really need to scale up the level of protection and restoration in these areas, otherwise we have so much to lose.”

U.S. Forest Service awards grants to boost Tongass Logging
The U.S. Forest Service awarded grants this summer that could revitalize the logging industry in the Tongass National Forest. Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, Wild Heritage’s Chief Scientist, on logging young growth trees: “… we need timber and we can be smarter about where we get it from, how we do it.”

Study links tree genetics to biodiversity patterns
A new study offers a model for reforestation efforts in cottonwood tree communities in the Southwest. Researchers linked tree genetic variation to community biodiversity at the continental scale.

Podcast: What’s going on with old growth forests?
Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage, a project of the Earth Island Institute, to talk about the Biden administration’s efforts to protect old growth and mature forests and reducing wildfire risk through forest management.

Biden’s Forest Service Is Dragging Its Feet On Protecting Ancient Trees From Logging
Critics say it is time for the White House to make demands of the Forest Service instead of letting the agency advance pro-logging policies.

Billions are being spent to turn the tide on the US West’s wildfires. It won’t be enough
“Insect infestation, drought stress, and all of that is related to the climate,” said Wild Heritage chief scientist Dominick A. DellaSalla. “I don’t think you can get out of it by thinning.”

US inventory: old forests cover area larger than California
The Biden administration has identified more than 175,000 square miles of old growth and mature forests on U.S. government lands.

Experts on old-growth forests review the federal inventory of older forests
Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, chief scientist at Wild Heritage, and Dr. Richard Birdsey at Woodwell Climate Research Center comprehensively review what they find and do not find in the inventory.

Kentucky Residents Angered by U.S. Forest Service Logging Plan That Targets Mature Trees
Biden pledged to protect old-growth trees, but proposed clear-cutting in national forests collides with climate policy.