U.S. Forest Service — Bunk History

An aerial view of a forest meeting with a burnt, empty landscape.

Does the U.S. Have a Fire Problem?

Forest fires of 1910 sparked a media-driven fire exclusion policy, which has arguably worsened today's "fire problem."

by Richard Bednarski via Edge Effects on October 10, 2024

Coconino National Forest sign

The Unsung Ranger Behind the U.S. Forest Service's Iconic Signs

Career ranger Virgil "Bus" Carrell had no design training, but "really gave a damn," say experts, about his lasting legacy.

by Greg Christensen via Atlas Obscura on April 12, 2021

Yosemite Valley from Artist’s Point

This Land is Their Land: Trump is Selling Out the US’s Beloved Wilderness

During the McCarthy era’s darkest days, public lands came under attack. History now repeats itself – and this may be the last chance to defend what’s ours.

by Nate Schweber via The Guardian on May 18, 2025

A settler and a Native American shaking hands amidst a mosaic of huckleberries.

The True Cost of the Huckleberrry Industry

The Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation has wanted an end to commercial picking of a critical cultural resource for years.

by Josephine Woolington via High Country News on February 25, 2025

Silhouette of a Park official against smoke, monitoring a controlled burn.

How the Indigenous Practice of "Good Fire" Can Help Our Forests Thrive

To renew Yosemite, California should embrace a once-outlawed Indigenous practice.

by Robyn Schelenz via Fig. 1 (University Of California) on April 6, 2022

Aerial view of trees in Tongass National Forest, Alaska.

This Tree has Stood Here for 500 Years. Will it be Sold for $17,500?

Old-growth trees in Alaska's Tongass National Forest are embroiled in the politics of timber and climate change.

by Juliet Eilperin via Washington Post on December 30, 2021

<p>Thick smoke from multiple forest fires shrouds El Capitan (right) and the granite walls of Yosemite Valley on Saturday 12 September 2020, in Yosemite National Park, CA.<em> Photo Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty</em></p>

What Yosemite’s Fire History Says About Life in the Pyrocene

Fire is a planetary feature, not a biotic bug. What can we learn from Yosemite’s experiment to restore natural fire?

by Stephen Pyne via Aeon on December 24, 2021

C-123 “Provider” aircraft spray Agent Orange over Vietnam during Operation Ranch Hand, which took place between 1962 and 1971.

The People vs. Agent Orange Exposes a Mass Poisoning in Plain Sight

A new PBS documentary investigates the legacy of one of the most dangerous pollutants on the planet, an unsettling cover-up, and the fight for accountability.

by Jasper Craven via The New Republic on June 28, 2021

Aerial view of a mining quarry

The Land Was Ours

Trump, Biden, and public lands.

by Nick Bowlin via The Drift on January 27, 2021

Forest on fire with two firefighters spraying water

A Note from the Fireline

Climate change and the colonial legacy of fire suppression.

by Jordan Thomas via The Drift on October 21, 2020

Totem poles near houses

‘Proud Raven, Panting Wolf’ — A History of Totem Poles in Alaska

A New Deal program to restore Totem Poles in Alaska provided jobs and boosted tourism, but it ignored their history and significance within Native culture.

by Jean Bundy via Anchorage Press on August 12, 2019

Mountains on fire above a town.

Defensible Space

“Megafires” are now a staple of life in the Pacific Northwest, but how we talk about them illustrates the tension at the heart of the western myth itself.

by Jessie Kindig via Boston Review on October 22, 2018

California Burning

Wildfires in the American West are becoming ever more prevalent and destructive. How did we get to this point?

by William Finnegan via New York Review of Books on July 28, 2018

Bureaucrats as Activists: A Revisionist Take on Conservation

Career bureaucrats in the Trump administration are proving that bureaucrats can be dedicated to a cause other than themselves.

by Benjamin Heber Johnson via Process: A Blog for American History on May 23, 2017

View of mountains on the horizon

Who Owns the Mountains?

Hurricane Helene has revived urgent questions about the politics of land — and tourism — in Appalachia.

by Olivia Paschal via New York Review of Books on November 3, 2024

The Brutal Legacy of the Longleaf Pine

The carefully-tended longleaf pine forests of North America were plundered by European colonizers. They're still recovering.

by Lacy M. Johnson via Orion Magazine on September 30, 2022

Students and professor at a 19th century furnace in the Jefferson National Forest.

In Jefferson National Forest, Trees are Survivors

"The tallest trees at Roaring Run remember sending down taproots even as the furnace stones were still warm. Desecration is not ironclad."

by Chelsea Fisher via Edge Effects on June 16, 2022

Hand-drawn map proposing the Appalachian Trail

An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning

In its original concept, the Appalachian Trail was a wildly ambitious plan to reorganize the economic geography of the eastern United States.

by Benton MacKaye, Garrett Dash Nelson via Places Journal on April 1, 2019

How a Movement That Never Killed Anyone Became the FBI’s No. 1 Domestic Terrorism Threat

Behind the scenes, corporate lobbying laid the groundwork for the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of so-called eco-terrorists.

by Alleen Brown via The Intercept on March 23, 2019

Three Eras of Environmental Concern

In the late 19th and early 20th century, talk about “the environment” had little of its later coherence or political meaning.

by Christopher Sellers via Modern American History on July 27, 2018

The 1938 Hurricane That Revived New England's Fall Colors

An epic natural disaster restored the forest of an earlier America.

by Stephen Long via What It Means to Be American on September 21, 2017

The United States Needs More Bureaucracy, Not Less

If too much partisanship is the problem, more bureaucracy might be the answer.

by Bruce J. Schulman via Made By History on August 9, 2017

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