Webinar: The Truth About Forest Thinning with Chad Hanson & Stephen Kropp

Friday, August 7th: The Truth About Forest Thinning (webinar) Featuring Dr. Chad Hanson and LFDC President Stephen Kropp Timber industry-backed misinformation is widespread in 2026, especially when it comes to claims about forest thinning. Often promoted under the guise of forest health and wildfire mitigation, thinning in native legacy forests can spell bad news for ecosystems, watersheds, endangered species, and local communities.

Join us on Friday, August 7th at 10am for an informative webinar and Q&A on the science behind this critical issue. Speakers will include Dr. Chad Hanson and LFDC President Stephen Kropp. About the speakers:

Chad Hanson, Ph.D. Chad Hanson co-founded the John Muir Project in 1996 and serves as the organization’s director and principal ecologist. He first became involved in national forest protection after hiking the 2,700-mile length of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada with his older brother in 1989. During this hike he witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by rampant commercial logging on our National Forests in California, Oregon and Washington. Chad finished his Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA after completing the Pacific Crest Trail and then attended law school at the University of Oregon, during which time he also began his career as an environmental advocate working for Native Forest Council and volunteering for the Sierra Club. Chad earned his law degree in 1995, and started the John Muir Project shortly thereafter. In 2003 Chad returned to school, and earned his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis in 2007, with a research focus on forest and fire ecology and the rare wildlife species that depend upon post-fire habitat in forests of the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere in the western U.S.. He has published an impressive list of scientific research papers on forest and fire ecology, wildlife use of burned forest and fire history and trend. Chad and Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D., co-edited and authored several chapters in a book entitled Mixed Severity Fires: Nature's Phoenix, published by academic publisher Elsevier in June 2024. Chad is also the author of Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate.

Stephen Kropp Stephen Kropp, founder of the Center for Responsible Forestry and Legacy Forest Defense Coalition (LFDC), has worked as an environmental advocate, project coordinator, water resources engineer, forest hydrologist, and private consultant in the Pacific Northwest for almost 30 years. He earned his BS in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and a Master's degree in Public Administration at the University of Washington in Seattle.  As a graduate and post-graduate research assistant, he worked with the UW College of Forest Resources, the Center for Urban Water Resource Management, the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and Columbia Basin Research on a wide variety of projects.  While working for the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon, he developed an intense interest in plant taxonomy and community ecology.  His passion for forest ecology and conservation began as a young child living near the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and continues to fuel his desire to conserve our shared natural heritage. Stephen continues his dedicated work and leadership as LFDC’s president and executive director.