Recent content by EasternSierra

If it had two doors, an extended cab, and a 6' bed then I would have been interested when I was choosing my Bronco.

No, it's not disingenuous at all. In most places at most times, California state laws and regulations are not the reason for inadequate vegetation management on private lands. Timber companies are allowed to spray herbicides on millions of acres of their own lands to control brush, for instance...

My non-Sas 4-door 7-sp Badlands is easy and pleasant to drive on surface streets and highways. The transmission is easy to use and is a snap in country and highway driving. I really appreciate the 4.7 gear ratio.

I'm using the Oracle Oculus heated headlights. So far no problem, but only one trip while snowing.

Except that California's laws and regulations didn't do that (other than the air pollution mandates coming through the state from federal law/EPA). The state owns only 3% of its forests. It's pretty much either private or federal here, and state forestry regulations still allow logging on...

Here in CA, it's a "Sport Wagon".

These kinds of discussions tend to slip from the first category towards the last pretty quickly: 1. What is the existing or proposed law/regulation (fair enough question, but info out there might be inaccurate and need correction). 2. What are/will be the effects on us or others? (same issues...

George was truly a great and I miss him, but he was really, really over his head on that particular one. Profound scientific ignorance masquerading as common sense. Let me give an analogy. Would you trust some rando on YouTube for reliable info on wrenching your Bronco, just because he had an...

Speaking of cycles, those Milankovich cycles should be leading to a gradual cooling over the next few thousands of years, not sudden warming in 50 years. The spotted owl (and other old-growth forest species) got messed up because too many chunks of old-growth forest got highly fragmented by...

That's why I had one then another extended-cab pickup with 6'+ beds and camper shells for decades. DD plus camping and wheeling plus occasional hauling. The beds were usually long enough, but now and then I wished I had a longer bed. To me, a 5'-minus short bed on a truck is only for odds and...

Common talking point that's not accurate for our U.S. national forests or BLM lands. Traditional forestry on these lands was not geared towards fire risk reduction in most cases. The focus was on getting out the merchantable timber, or else clearcutting the forest then replanting with dense...

The difference in Canada is that the burning forests there are largely boreal forests. These are made to burn to the ground on the rare occasion that they burn. No forest management is going to keep extensive fires out of boreal forests because the trees have very little resistance to fire...

Most of those forests burning are in very remote roadless areas and have never been managed, certainly not back in the previous centuries before there were so many fires there. The forests there are drying out due to a substantially warming climate in far northern areas. That's why they're...

California has unique environmental conditions - unusually persistent temperature inversions coupled with many mountain ranges - that make air pollution here far worse for the same amount of emissions. That's why it's been a leader in air pollution control for over 60 years, and it's also why...

I didn't get the Sasquatch package for my Badlands because I knew I'd be replacing the tires, wheels, and suspension anyway. Why pay a lot for stuff I'm going to get rid of fairly soon? For lower trims the calculation is different. Badlands non-Sas has the heavy-duty steering, 4.46 gears, and...