"Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands Are A Growing Biofuel Battleground"

"CALIENTE, Nev. — When Varlin Higbee eyes the scrubby forest of pinyon pines and juniper trees that fill the high desert outside this old Union Pacific Railroad town, there’s just one thought that crosses his mind:

“They’re just a wildfire waiting to happen,” the Lincoln County commissioner says of the low, bushy trees.

And Higbee is not alone in his distaste for the plants.

Despite the many uses Native Americans once had for pinyon-juniper woodlands — not the least of which was sustenance from pine nuts — ranchers and federal land managers throughout the American Southwest have now come to regard them as a highly flammable and invasive scourge."

Louis Sahagún reports for the Los Angeles Times February 11, 2024.