Monthly Archives: February 2018

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A team of forest and wildlife researchers from Purdue University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources has published a white paper addressing three critical questions in the ongoing discussion about management of Indiana state forests. Bob Wagner, department head and professor, said the purpose of the paper, titled “Addressing Concerns about Management of Indiana’s Forests,” was to provide useful information to policymakers and the public. “This is our best science-based assessment from decades of research on these issues,” Wagner said. Questions addressed in the paper are: Are natural disturbances alone adequate to maintain a desirable structure and diversity of Indiana’s forests and wildlife? Is timber harvesting bad for wildlife? How is “old-growth” forest defined, and is it a relevant term for managing Indiana’s forests?

…For Washington Post photographer Carolyn Van Houten, [photographing Redwoods] was a challenge worth embracing when she joined Post senior national correspondent Scott Wilson on assignment in California last month. The two went along with scientists in California who are mapping the Redwood genome to save the world‘ssingle biggest greenhouse–gas sponge from coastal erosion and climate change. Van Houten, who had seen the Redwoods once before, found capturing the over 2,000–year-old trees and conveying their mysticism and impressive scale complicated — especially on foot. “It’s difficult to get a fullpicture of the scope of a redwood tree in all its layers,” she said. As she and Wilson hiked around the trees and their “fairy rings” — what Wilson calls the “old-growth ancestors … encircled by the young” — she found herself being equally drawn to the details of the trees.

In the middle of the exhibit hall at the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research stands a 4,000-pound sample of a Giant Sequoia that began its growth in 212 A.D. and fell in 1915. The laboratory houses over 2.5 million wood research specimens in its archive for study. There are multiple labs in the center, each focusing on a certain study within dendrochronology, like chemistry or anthropology. They all aim to educate the public, as well as do research to better understand climate and history, according to Randall Smith, the lead docent at the lab.  “It takes years and years to reach from beginning to end,” Smith said. “That’s why my big concern with the program here is how do you communicate science to the public.”

FORT COLLINS – Bark beetles have caused widespread tree mortality on roughly one-fifth of Colorado’s forestland over the past two decades. But the problem of dead and dying trees in the state’s forests offers an opportunity: standing dead trees can hold value for years, and currently are being utilized by wood products businesses in efforts that support forest management efforts. Colorado has more than 100 sawmills, and an estimated one-third of them use beetle-killed trees as part of their wood supply. In Grand County alone, dead trees from over 30,000 acres of private and state land have been sustainably harvested and processed into valuable wood products more than a decade after the mountain pine beetle epidemic impacted the area. …The 2017 Report on the Health of Colorado’s Forests, distributed by the Colorado State Forest Service, highlighted these and other facts related to forestry issues. 

A U.S. Forest Service official offered support to Sen. Jon Tester’s wilderness bill and Sen. Steve Daines’ wilderness study area removal act in a Capitol hearing on Wednesday. Both Montana senators presented their legislation before the Senate Subcommittee on Forests, Public Lands and Mining. Republican Daines’ S. 2206 would remove the WSA designation from five Forest Service areas totaling 449,500 acres, opening them for motorized use. Democrat Tester’s S. 507 would add 79,000 acres of wilderness along the southwestern corner of Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex as well as two recreation areas for snowmobile and mountain bike activity. …“These are lands that have been studied by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and determined not suited for wilderness in their final plans,” Daines said.

PORTLAND, Ore.— Responding to a petition from conservation groups, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will hold a public hearing this Friday and decide whether to increase state endangered species protections for the marbled murrelet by listing it as endangered. Its current status is threatened.  …The commission’s decision could have implications for forest protection on state and private timberlands. “The marbled murrelet has been listed as threatened under the Oregon Endangered Species Act for more than two decades and during that time it has slipped closer and closer to extinction in our state,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “It’s critical that the state increase protections for this species right away if there is to be any hope of saving the Oregon population.” In response to a petition …the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife developed a status review to assess the murrelet’s condition.

The Shoshone National Forest’s newly appointed supervisor has green lighted a logging project along the road to Yellowstone National Park’s Northeast Entrance. The work is designed to lessen the chance that a western spruce budworm infestation will spread and to protect homes near the small community of Crandall, Wyoming, from wildland fires. Lisa Timchak, who just stepped into her new role with the forest on Jan. 7, signed off on the Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Budworm Response Project. A 45-day objection period runs through March 23. The logging 30 miles northwest of Cody, Wyoming, along the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway will require the Forest Service to suspend its own rules for scenic objectives along about nine miles. 

A U.S. Forest Service official offered support to Sen. Jon Tester’s wilderness bill and Sen. Steve Daines’ wilderness study area removal act in a Capitol hearing on Wednesday. Both Montana senators presented their legislation before the Senate Subcommittee on Forests, Public Lands and Mining. Republican Daines’ S. 2206 would remove the WSA designation from five Forest Service areas totaling 449,500 acres, opening them for motorized use. Democrat Tester’s S. 507 would add 79,000 acres of wilderness along the southwestern corner of Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex as well as two recreation areas for snowmobile and mountain bike activity. Daines, who sits on the committee, welcomed Tester and Blackfoot outfitters Connie and Mack Long to the committee chambers before the testimony started. The Longs were attending to support Tester’s Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act.