Welcome, and thank you for stopping by.  To introduce myself:

• My name is Dick Chase, and my object with the compositions that I post here is to provide factual information on a few current hot-button issues that are controversial in nature, largely because they have been promoted with a self-serving bias that creates a false understanding of the actual issues involved.

• My promise is to address issues for which I have a reasonable expertise, carefully dissecting them to separate reality from fiction, fact from opinion, proof from theory, science from error, falsity, and ignorance.

• My qualifications? I have a BS degree in Plant Science and a Master’s in Forestry from Yale. I also have taken postgraduate classes in Systematic Analysis, Decision Theory, and Management Decisions from Stanford, Portland State, and The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.  My 40-year career with the U.S. Forest Service included 15 years in forest fire-related research, half of which was as a Project Leader engaged in both personal research and supervising the work of a multidisciplinary team of scientists and technicians. The principal focus of the research was on management information systems and problem analysis for wildland fire protection program planning and implementation.

  As you might surmise from the above, I am a scientist by training and experience, with a working knowledge of the requirements of that discipline’s formal scientific process for formulating and testing (to prove or disprove) a hypothesis. I am analytical by nature, and trained and experienced in its application in problem analysis and resolution.