The spruce budworm is back in Maine’s northern forests, and with it comes a troubling revelation about the financial management of our state’s forest industry. In December 2024, Senator Susan Collins secured $14 million in federal disaster relief funding to combat the spreading infestation, supplemented by $2 million in state funding proposed by Governor Mills….
The Loggers Economic Assistance and Relief Act, recently introduced by Representatives Jared Golden and Susan Collins, proposes to establish a permanent disaster relief program for timber businesses within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While proponents frame this as simply extending to loggers the same protections farmers and fishermen enjoy, the legislation is more accurately understood…
Forest carbon credit markets have a fundamental problem: they’re trying to fix climate change while selling indulgences to polluters. After 25 years of attempts, reforms, and scandals, the evidence is overwhelming that these markets systematically overstate their climate benefits by factors of 5 to 10 times or more. Research from Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, and Penn…