Seminoe Mountains

A few people have asked how long I'm staying in Wyoming; I'm funded through December, but I may leave earlier if there is nothing to do for work.

Warning: Rant ahead!

This is at the Seminoe Mountain range nearish Sinclair, Wyoming. About 70% of the conifers out there are dead (often limber pine). Environmentalist groups misguidedly prevent the Bureau of Land Management from cutting down trees to prevent massive fires, so when a fire starts, it's gonna be big. When the fire does happen, the BLM will catch shit for not managing the land properly. Damned if they do, damned if they don't, huh?

These environmentalists also oppose prescribed burning to lower levels of fuel for fires in forests: global warming concerns. Except... by burning forests, you set back succession and allow younger trees to grow, trees that take in far more CO2 than older trees.

The environmentalists are not made up of foresters or biologists. They don't understand things like succession, fire dependence (ponderosa pines depend on fire for reproduction), and how natural habitats work. By preventing fires / tree removal, limber pines have started to overgrow lodgepole and ponderosa pine stands, which were typically rather isolated. By doing so, they create jumping points for the pine beetle to reach many many more trees and kill them than it otherwise could.

In other words, so-called environmentalists need to either take some time to actually LEARN something about forestry and biology or just let the BLM do its damn job protecting wilderness areas and allowing for sustainable recreation and resource use.