At top: The recent 244 Fire that burned in Mount Rushmore National Monument and adjacent Black Hills National Forest. Is thinning working? Furnish asks. Just above: this scene from the Black Hills National Forest looks a lot like Forest Service-sanctioned logging and/or cuts that have occurred on private land in the Bangtails, Bridgers, Madisons and other mountains in the Northern Rockies. There is debate over whether logging really does stop wildfires in windy drought years and whether trees will grow back, as they used to, after logging or fire as climate change effects deepen. Photos—(top) Black Hills National Forest; (just above) courtesy Norbeck Society.
At top: The recent 244 Fire that burned in Mount Rushmore National Monument and adjacent Black Hills National Forest. Is thinning working? Furnish asks. Just above: this scene from the Black Hills National Forest looks a lot like Forest Service-sanctioned logging and/or cuts that have occurred on private land in the Bangtails, Bridgers, Madisons and other mountains in the Northern Rockies. There is debate over whether logging really does stop wildfires in windy drought years and whether trees will grow back, as they used to, after logging or fire as climate change effects deepen. Photos—(top) Black Hills National Forest; (just above) courtesy Norbeck Society.