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The article reports that the Washington State Department of Natural Resources' 2011 unstable-slope rules and warnings since 1988 about logging were unheeded by residents in the state's Oso town, killing dozens in the March 22, 2014 landslide. University of Washington geomorphologist David Montgomery claims that the incident in the Hazel Slide area was a recurrence of past incidents and is prone to slide again. It adds that a history of logging had left the area void of large-rooted trees.

The author reflects on the studies released by a government agency which states the significance of the trees in the Pacific Northwest of California to gathering vast volumes of CO2 gas. He comments on the report that thinning or removing out the trees would yield into a reduction of trees' ability to produce carbon. He also mentions the problems of budget in California as well as its politics.