What is the Anthropocene and Why Does it Matter?
I was eight miles deep in the backcountry of the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon hunting elk in Umatilla National Forest. This 1.4 million acre piece of national forest was designated such in 1908 is available for all Americans to hunt, fish, hike, camp, and other forms of outdoor recreation. The air was thick and smokey from various wildfires scattered throughout the state. Decades of mismanaged timber policies in the American West coupled with climate change have lead to an increased frequency of mega fires, or fires that burn over 100,000 acres of land and display erratic or unusual behavior that makes them difficult or impossible to control. To read more, check out the post on Substack, here.