Region Archives: United States

Special Feature

The Dismantling of the American Timber Industry: American Loggers Council Warns of Consequences

By American Loggers Council
Cision Newswire
March 25, 2024
Category: Special Feature
Region: United States

WASHINGTON — It seems like every time a forest product mill or plant shuts down (monthly if not weekly) it’s viewed as a singular isolated incident. But viewed collectively, the cumulative impacts and magnitude become more focused and apparent. The individual incidents are all symptoms of a larger serious condition that diagnosed properly reveals and represents an unhealthy state of the U.S. timber and forest products industries. Forest products mill/plant shutdowns directly impact the mill workers and community, but they also impact the logging sector that sustained that facility, although it is typically not addressed in these announcements. Tracking these shutdowns can serve as a barometer revealing the impacts and losses to logging companies. When mills close, logging companies close, and forest health suffers.

Many contributing factors leading to the decline of the U.S. timber and forest products industries are government policy, regulations, restrictions, unfair trade practices, federal timber supply constraints, and incessant litigation. …The brief summary of U.S. forest products mill closures below documents nearly 50 closures, reductions or curtailments, and it clearly represents an alarming trend during a short period of time (15 months), directly (mill workers) and indirectly (loggers) resulting in ten thousand or more jobs lost. …The U.S. has not followed the rest of the developed nations with recognizing the carbon neutrality aspects and reduced greenhouse gas emissions of renewable biomass feedstock when replacing fossil fuels. …Support of the timber, forest products, and bioeconomy sector’s growth will demonstrate a commitment to revitalizing America’s rural economy, communities, and ailing forest health, while developing and transitioning into renewable forest-based bioproducts. Forest health and the timber industry share a symbiotic relationship that is interdependent and mutually beneficial.

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Froggy Foibles

William Shatner Celebrates 93rd Birthday with a new song, “I Want to Be A Tree”

IMDB
March 22, 2024
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US East

On his 93rd birthday, William Shatner has shared his humble dream for life after death on his new single, “I Want to Be a Tree.” Like much of Shatner’s music, “I Want to Be a Tree,” finds him not so much singing, but waxing poetically, this time backed by instrumentation from Ben Folds and the National Symphony Orchestra, led by Principal Pops conductor Steven Reineke. “When my time has come, don’t put me in a box,” Shatner quips charmingly at the start of the song. The full story is subscription only in the Rolling Stone.

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Business & Politics

Pyramid’s manpower problem linked to housing, septic battle

By Griffen Smith
Billings Gazette
March 20, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Todd Johnson

SEELEY LAKE — Pyramid Mountain Lumber may still have a chance to stay open, but it would take nothing short of a miracle. The company, which announced its impending closure on March 14, said it needs one of two things to stay in business: tens of millions of dollars in investment into automation, or roughly 50 more employees to return the mill to full operational output and increase revenues. …While the money for automation is non-existent within the company, the lack of employees stems from Seeley Lake’s longtime standoff with the county government over a community sewer system that’s stifling affordable housing. …The health department told the Missoulian that such restrictions are necessary to limit groundwater contamination from nitrates, and doubled down that the real solution is a public sewer system. …Seeley Lake had the opportunity to build a $12 million sewer system and $5 million collection system in 2021.

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Uncertain future lies ahead for Western Montana forestry and forest products industries

By Zach Volheim
8KPAX Missoula & Western Montana
March 22, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

MISSOULA — The forestry and forest products industries have been staples in Western Montana’s economy for decades. But with the two recent announcements of the closures of Pyramid Mountain Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products, the industry has been shaken once again, now processing what kind of a future lies ahead. … The closure of these two companies came as a surprise to much of the community. But the Montana Wood Products Association — although saddened at the losses — knew that with the current forest products market, many mills were struggling. … “It’s all about the inventories, it’s all about supply. Yes, the workforce and housing has complicated our situation for sure,” Montana Wood Products Association Executive Director Julia Alemus explained. “But, like I said, if we had had a steady supply of wood products, you know wood fiber moving from the forest to the mill, I think that things could have been a little bit different.”

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Missoula-area wood industry closures mean ripple effects for workers, tax base, forest management

By Katie Fairbanks
The Montana Free Press
March 22, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

MONTANA — The pending closures of Missoula County’s two largest wood products employers, announced separately this month, will have effects beyond the local economy, limiting options for landowners and other mills throughout the region and making forest management projects more expensive, according to local and industry officials. “It’s not just the facilities and jobs that are impacted at those facilities,” said Todd Morgan, director of the University of Montana’s Forest Industry Research Program. “It’s going to have a bigger impact on the landscape, on forests, on communities in and around the forest and certainly on the economies of those communities.” …The closures will not only affect the approximately 250 people employed by Pyramid and Roseburg, but potentially another 100 or so jobs indirectly associated with the facilities, like log truck drivers, Morgan said. …Missoula County finance staff members are looking at how the closures will affect the tax base.

In related coverage:

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Bridge Collapse Ripples Include Hits to U.S. Trade, Supply Chains

By Sala Levin
Maryland Today
March 27, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The bustling Port of Baltimore is at a near-standstill today. The stunning collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River on Tuesday halted all ship traffic in and out, and shut down a portion of Interstate 695 indefinitely. The port handled a record 52.3 billion tons of foreign cargo worth $80 billion in 2023, and consistently ranks No. 1 in the nation for cars and light trucks, heavy farm and construction machinery, and imported sugar. Its closure has dealt a blow to U.S. commerce, said Philip T. Evers, associate professor of supply chain management at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. …It’s not in the category of the largest ports, like Los Angeles or New York/New Jersey, but it is a very important midsize port… it does handle a lot of automotives, farm machinery, lumber and pulpwood.

Related coverage in the Washington Post: Top ten port imports and exports in 2023

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Finance & Economics

Bank of Canada likely to lead the U.S. Fed in rate cuts

By Promit Mukherjee
Reuters in Yahoo! Finance
March 26, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

OTTAWA -The Bank of Canada (BoC) is likely to move ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve on its first rate cut, as tepid economic growth and cooling inflation are priming up conditions to ease borrowing rates sooner, economists and analysts said. The Canadian central bank may also need deeper cuts in the current cycle. …Usually, a strong economy south of the border is good news for Canada, since about three quarters of Canada’s international trade is knitted to the U.S. But with the Canadian economy clocking growth of 1% in the fourth quarter, compared with a 3.2% annualized increase in the U.S., the Bank of Canada may chart its own course. …Money markets are pricing in a 70% chance of a quarter point cut at the BoC’s June 5 meeting. …The Fed is widely expected to cut rates for the first time at its June 11-12 meeting.

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US housing costs are slowing down the US climate transition

By Joseph Webster
The Atlantic Council
March 26, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

The US housing shortage has profound economic consequences. Less discussed is the fact that it is slowing down the US climate transition. Many regions of the United States, especially California and New York, are failing to build dense urban housing which is associated with lower emissions. But there is another, indirect way that the housing shortage is sabotaging efforts to decarbonize the US economy. Inadequate housing is stimulating inflation and lifting interest rates, which hurts the economic viability of clean energy projects. California, New York, and other states should move heaven and earth to authorize and construct new housing rapidly, especially in dense urban areas. If these states and others prioritize building houses, emissions and interest rates could fall substantially, providing a major economic and climatological boost to the United States. …Expanding dense, urban housing options should be a top policy priority.

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International Paper stirs up possible biding war over DS Smith

Reuters
March 27, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, International

International Paper has stirred up a potential bidding war over British paper packaging firm DS Smith making a takeover offer that sent the shares of the FTSE-100 target over a two-year high. DS Smith said on Tuesday it was in discussions with International Paper over an all-stock offer from the U.S.-listed company. …The proposal comes less than three weeks after DS Smith reached an in-principle agreement with its UK-listed rival Mondi, which made an all-share takeover offer valuing DS Smith at 5.14 billion pounds. Under the terms of the U.S. group’s proposal… that would will give them 33.8% of the combined company – a smaller slice of the emerging entity than under Mondi’s proposal. …”The Board is progressing its discussions with International Paper regarding the Proposal,” DS Smith said. It said it was continuing talks with Mondi.

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US Consumer Confidence Remains Stable Despite Concerns About Future

Fan-Yu Kuo
NHAB – Eye on Housing
March 26, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Consumer confidence held steady in March, with optimism about current conditions offset by concerns about the future economic outlook. This pessimism was primarily driven by persistent inflation, especially elevated food and gas prices. The Consumer Confidence Index, reported by the Conference Board, stood virtually unchanged at 104.7 in March, the lowest level since November 2023. The Present Situation Index rose 3.4 points from 147.6 to 151.0, while the Expectation Situation Index fell 2.5 points from 76.3 to 73.8. Historically, an Expectation Index reading below 80 often signals a recession within a year. Consumers’ assessment of current business conditions fell slightly in March. …Meanwhile, consumers’ assessments of the labor market were more positive. …The Conference Board also reported the share of respondents planning to buy a home within six months increased to 4.9% in March. Of those, respondents planning to buy a newly constructed home remained at 0.3%.

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US New Home Sales Hold Steady in February

By Robert Dietz
NAHB – Eye on Housing
March 25, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

A small rise in mortgage rates in February led to a flat reading for new home sales. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in February edged 0.3% lower to a 662,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The pace of new home sales in February is up 5.9% from a year earlier. Mortgage rates averaged 6.78% in February compared to 6.64% in January, according to Freddie Mac. …New single-family home inventory in February remained elevated at a level of 463,000, up 1.3% from January. This represents an 8.4 months’ supply at the current building pace. A measure near a 6 months’ supply is considered balanced. …The median new home sale price in February was $400,500, edging down 3.5% from January, and down 7.6% compared to a year ago. 

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Softwood Lumber Board Monthly Update

The Softwood Lumber Board
March 25, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Highlights of the March Newsletter include:

  • The SLB, Think Wood, and several industry associations united at the International Builders’ Show (IBS) at the end of February in a newly designed trade show experience to remind builders about the benefits of wood in single-family construction and remodeling. 
  • The American Wood Council has been exploring a new high-capacity wood structural panel (WSP) wood-frame shear wall design. 
  • Think Wood and WoodWorks have partnered to launch the co-branded Mass Timber LookBook, an in-depth guide for architects, engineers, and developers to see the breadth of projects that can be designed with mass timber. 
  • WoodWorks plays the triple role of inspiring building designers to pursue wood projects that are outside their typical experience, providing education and resources that give them the knowledge to do so, and training construction professionals so designs don’t revert to concrete or steel because that’s what the contractor only knows. 

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Humbird Hotel at Schweitzer Mountain Resort, Sandpoint, Idaho

By Isabelle Lomholt
e-architect
March 24, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

SANDPOINT, Idaho — The new Humbird hotel at Schweitzer redefines destination mountain architecture. Located in the heart of Schweitzer village, it is set within the Rocky Mountains of northern Idaho. Schweitzer brand with a boutique hotel arrival experience that reflects the next generation of local ski culture. Humbird hotel is Phase 1 of this plan. …Primary gathering spaces feature exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT), including ceiling planes, glulam beams, and columns to deliver a modern take on a familiar lodge aesthetic. Mass timber construction was selected for its ties to the logging history of the area as well as being inherently beautiful and sustainable. CLT was also employed for the dining area and ski locker warming hut. In doing so, the hotel embraces a time-honored resort aesthetic while using next generation construction technologies.

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This Office Building Is Made of Something Different

By Dan Beyers
CoStar News
March 27, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

It is not exactly a tree growing in Brooklyn, but Baltimore can now claim its first mass timber office building on Boston St. The aptly named 40Ten Boston, for its location at 4010 Boston St., stands out for being the city’s first office building built largely from heavy lumber, rather than steel or concrete, earning it an Impact Award as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market. The unique building material required the team at 28 Walker Development to work closely with local building code and fire officials to familiarize city officials with the construction process and its safety attributes. …”The innovation with the mass timber construction is not only beautiful aesthetically but more importantly it champions environmental sustainability through the project,” wrote Lacey Johansson, assistant vice president for leasing at St. John Properties.

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Fay Jones School Hosts Wood Innovations Program Workshop on Mass Timber, Housing

University of Arkansas
March 27, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, in partnership with the USDA Forest Service Wood Innovations Program, hosted “With the Grain / Against the Grain,” a workshop on mass timber for affordable housing. This workshop brought together a consortium of recent Wood Innovations Grant Program recipients focused on affordable and workforce housing utilizing mass timber and other innovative wood products/by-products, along with partners in industry, real estate, government, higher education and design. …The intent is to identify barriers and solutions to the design, manufacturing and construction of affordable housing, and to explore how participants can move toward a vision of sustainable, affordable housing in mass timber and other wood products. More generally, the workshop aimed to catalyze housing that is more readily reproduced, more swiftly scaled up, and economical and affordable. …The workshop events were recorded and will be promoted initially through a specific consortium website.

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A Carbon-Neutral Mass Timber First at Bowdoin College

Think Wood
March 26, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Mass timber has gone Maine-stream. Bowdoin College’s new Barry Mills Hall and John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies are the first commercial mass timber projects completed in Maine. Designed by Minneapolis-based HGA, the two-building complex is located on the eastern edge of the private liberal arts school’s campus in Brunswick. See how the project’s design tells a story about Maine’s forestry legacy and upholds Bowdoin’s dedication to environmental stewardship in our latest project profile. …The two new buildings share a similar glulam post-and-beam mass timber structure. The typical floor assembly comprises a CLT deck with an acoustic isolation mat and concrete topping with a polished finish supported by glulam beams and columns.

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Forestry

The ‘Mother Tree’ idea is everywhere — but how much of it is real?

By Aisling Irwin
Nature
March 26, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

It was a call from a reporter that first made ecologist Jason Hoeksema think things had gone too far. The journalist was asking questions about the wood wide web — the idea that trees communicate with each other through an underground fungal network — that seemed to go well beyond what Hoeksema considered to be the facts. …The idea has enchanted the public, appearing in bestselling books, films and television series. It has inspired environmental campaigners, ecology students and researchers in fields including philosophy, urban planning and electronic music. …But in the ecology community there is a groundswell of unease with the way in which the ideas are being presented in popular forums. …The dispute offers a window into how scientific ideas take shape and spread in popular culture — and raises questions about what the responsibilities of scientists are as they communicate their ideas more widely.

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Conservationists to sue for better protections of Oregon’s coastal martens

By Nathan Wilk
Oregon Public Broadcasting
March 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A conservation group says it’s going to sue the U.S. Forest Service for failing to protect a rare and endangered species in Oregon. There are fewer than 400 coastal martens in the wild, according to estimates from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The small, weasel-like animal was federally recognized as a threatened species in 2020. Coastal martens have been found in isolated populations across Oregon and California, including around 70 estimated individuals in the Oregon Dunes between Florence and Coos Bay. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity says the rising popularity of off-road vehicles in the Dunes is threatening that population, by tearing through habitats and creating disruptive noise. Meanwhile, the center accuses federal officials in charge of the area of putting few protections in place to stop the devastation.

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As ski resort develops, federal protections may not keep whitebarks standing

By Billy Arnold
Jackson Hole News & Guide
March 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Endangered Species Act rules protecting whitebark pine trees may not prevent people from cutting them down. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed whitebark in 2023, saying the iconic western conifer was existentially “threatened” by a fungus known as white pine blister rust, tree-eating beetles, altered fire regimes and climate change. Human development is not included in the government’s list of threats. Still, federal agencies permitting development on federal land are required to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether that activity will “jeopardize” the species’ “continued existence.” For whitebark, federal land managers and conservation advocates say that’s a high bar. The tree’s range stretches from Canada to California’s Sierra Nevadas and east to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. …Conservationists worry the regulations appear to be written in a way that doesn’t consider the cumulative impact of smaller human developments — and downed whitebarks — that could add up over time.

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Montana mill closures are bad news for forestry and trade students

Editorial Board
The Montana Kaimin College News
March 28, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

UNIVERSITY of MONTANA — With the Missoula Composites mill and the Seeley Lake mill closing, 250 jobs will be lost, according to reporting by Montana Free Press. It’ll likely impact future job prospects for students enrolled in the University’s forestry and trade school programs. …According to the job search service Handshake, Roseburg has employed around 82 University of Montana students, with three currently working for the company. Three current UM students also work for Pyramid Mountain Lumber. With the mills’ closures, the prospects for employment post-graduation in forestry-related fields diminish, impacting not only the education and training of future professionals, but also the Missoula economy’s reliance on having enough skilled, trained workers interested in pursuing these industries. …The closure of the local mills presents a significant setback for students pursuing degrees at UM’s College of Forestry, which has 10 degree programs and currently enrolls 760 undergraduate and 128 graduate students.

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NASA Data Shows How Drought Changes Wildfire Recovery in the West

By Emily DeMarco, NASA Earth Science Division
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
March 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A new study using NASA satellite data reveals how drought affects the recovery of western ecosystems from fire, a result that could provide meaningful information for conservation efforts. The West has been witnessing a trend of increasing number and intensity of wildland fires. Historically a natural part of the region’s ecology, fires have been exacerbated by climate change—including more frequent and intense droughts—and past efforts to suppress fires, which can lead to the accumulation of combustible material like fallen branches and leaves. But quantifying how fire and drought jointly affect ecosystems has proven difficult. In the new study, researchers analyzed over 1,500 fires from 2014 to 2020 across the West, and also gathered data on drought conditions dating back to 1984. They found that forests, if not burned too badly, rebound better than grasslands and shrublands because some forest roots can tap into water deeper in the ground. 

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Washington State to Conduct Prescribed Burns on 2,580 Acres to Enhance Forest Health, Cut Wildfire Risk

By Aaron Washington
Hoodline
March 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources is set to start prescribed burns across 2,580 acres of state trust lands starting next week, a move to bolster forest health and mitigate wildfire risks. The burns, announced Monday and spreading through central and eastern Washington, are a strategic push to revitalize aged trees, support wildlife, and provide safer conditions for firefighters battling future blazes. While these controlled fires are pegged to ignite during spring and could stretch into early summer, each is tethered to a slew of safety checks, influenced by weather patterns and the availability of resources, some may get pushed to later dates if conditions aren’t just right, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Prescribed burns have long been in the arsenal of land managers and private stakeholders alike, serving as a shield against catastrophic wildfire events.

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Fire Ecology and Forest Resilience in the Pacific Northwest (Webinar 4 of 8)

By Garrett Meigs and Derek Churchill
National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI)
March 28, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In recent years, wildfires have burned millions of acres in Washington State, inducing a wide range of effects across environmental gradients and forest types. In 2017, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) launched the 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan to accelerate landscape-scale wildfire risk reduction, ecosystem restoration, and climate adaptation across all lands in eastern Washington. To better understand the widespread impacts of the 2021 fire season, we piloted a rapid assessment to evaluate the work of wildfire – i.e., the degree to which fire effects were consistent with the landscape resilience and wildfire risk reduction objectives of the 20-Year Plan. Here, we present lessons from the 2021 and 2022 fires across eastern and western Washington. We highlight how wildfires have both positive and negative effects, depending on location, forest type, and landowner objectives. [Zoom webinar series by NCASI and the Washington Chapter of the Wildlife Society]

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Major progress in effort to protect CA giant sequoias from megafires

By Suzanne Potter
Public News Service
March 28, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Crews have been ramping up wildfire resilience projects to thin out brush and dead wood in California’s giant sequoia groves, clearing twice as many acres in 2023 compared with 2022. The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition is trying to avoid a repeat of the disastrous mega-fires of 2020 and 2021 – which killed about 20% of large mature trees in their native Sierra Nevada range. Joanna Nelson, Ph.D. is the director of science and conservation planning with the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League. “We remove fuel,” said Nelson, “we get to a safe place to do prescribed burning and to do cultural burning – which is always led by indigenous people, which is another practice of taking care of the forest and reducing wildfire risk.” Sequoia National Park is just one part of California’s giant sequoia groves, which stretch over 26,000 acres. A new report shows that in 2023, the program treated nearly 9,900 acres in 28 groves – and more than 14,000 since 2021.

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National monument on California-Oregon border will remain intact after surviving legal challenge

Associated Press
March 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

ASHLAND, Oregon — The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, a remote expanse of wilderness along the California-Oregon border, will not lose any of its acreage after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up two challenges to its expansion. Logging interests and several counties in Oregon had asked the high court to strike down a 2017 addition to the monument. Their lawsuit claimed President Barack Obama improperly made the designation because Congress had previously set aside the land for timber harvests. By gaining monument status, the area won special protections, including a prohibition on logging. The challenges to the expansion raised the additional, and broader, question of whether the president’s authority to create national monuments unilaterally under the Antiquities Act should be restricted, the Chronicle said. …The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was created in 2000 to protect what is considered an ecologically valuable juncture of the ancient Siskiyou Mountains and the younger volcanic Cascades. 

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School district sues Oregon in attempt to undo forest habitat conservation plan

By Alex Baumhardt
Oregon Public Broadcasting
March 26, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

One of the smallest school districts in Oregon is suing the state in an attempt to send a landmark forest habitat conservation plan back to the drawing board. On behalf of the Jewell School District in the heart of the Clatsop State Forest in northwest Oregon, a Portland law firm filed the suit on March 20 against the Oregon Department of Forestry, State Forester Cal Mukumoto and state forest chief Mike Wilson. The suit, filed in Clatsop County Circuit Court, alleges that the recently passed Western State Forests Habitat Conservation Plan will drastically reduce revenue for the school district, forcing it to cut staff and services. …Under the plan, the volume of wood permitted for harvest from state forests in Clatsop County will drop 35% and, in turn, cut 35% of the funding to the district, according to John DiLorenzo, a lawyer with the Portland-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which filed the suit.

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Three conservation groups challenging Bureau of Land Management forest plan in Medford federal court

By Luke Doten
KDRV ABC Newswatch 12
March 26, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

MEDFORD, Ore. – On April 2, three organizations are taking the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to federal court in Medford. The three conservation organizations — Klamath Siskiyou Wild, Cascadia Wild and Oregon Wild — are fighting to prevent BLM from what they consider excessive logging in a forest in Josephine County. They are specifically fighting BLM’s Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) in Josephine County, about two miles northwest of Williams. According to BLM’s website, the purpose of IVM is to “promote and develop: safe and effective wildfire response opportunities that reduce wildland fire risk to Highly-Valued Resources and Assets; Fire- and disturbance-resilient lands and fire-resistant stands; and habitat for Special Status Species and unique native plant communities.” 

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Montana can’t have healthy forests without a healthy timber industry

By Dawn Terrill, Duane Simons & Roman Zylawy – Mineral County Commissioners
Clark Fork Valley Press
March 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The recent closures of Pyramid Mountain Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula County is a warning for Montana and a symptom of broader challenges threatening the region’s forest and wood products sect of which is pivotal for thousands of private sector jobs and crucial for federal efforts to improve forest health, mitigate wildfire risks, and cater to the escalating demand for carbon-friendly wood products. Montana’s timber industry, an integral component of the state’s identity and economy, faces a multitude of challenges – from workforce shortages and affordable housing crises to the whims of volatile markets. However the underlying issue driving mill closures across the west is a declining supply of raw material to manufacturers, a critical concern given that Montana’s wood products manufacturers are surrounded by federally owned forests. …Currently, the milling demand in Montana, spurred by the public’s demand for wood products, surpasses the available and projected log supply.

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The rush to improve forest resilience has unintended consequences.

By Michael Hoyt, guidebook author Bitterroot Mountains
The Missoula Current
March 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Michael Hoyt

For years the Forest Service, BLM, and timber industry have claimed that publicly owned forests are unhealthy and therefore susceptible to insects, disease, and worst of all, wildfires. They have asserted the only solution is increasing the amount of logging and thinning, euphemistically known as vegetative management. The concept of improving forest health by increasing logging and thinning remains unsupported by scientific evidence and an increasing number of people oppose such activities. …Now, as evidenced by the recently announced closure of two forest products businesses, Pyramid Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products, we’re discovering there can be economic consequences to unchecked logging and thinning. ..Unsaid is the fact that, in this case, plummeting lumber prices are caused, not because there is diminishing demand, but by a market glut. …The Forest Service and BLM should reevaluate the validity of their internal culture based on logging and other extractive activities. 

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School district sues state in attempt to undo forest habitat conservation plan

By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregon Capital Chronicle
March 26, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

One of the smallest school districts in Oregon is suing the state in an attempt to send a landmark forest habitat conservation plan back to the drawing board. On behalf of the Jewell School District in the Clatsop State Forest in northwest Oregon, a Portland law firm filed the suit on March 20 against the Oregon Department of Forestry, State Forester Cal Mukumoto and state forest chief Mike Wilson. The suit alleges that the recently passed Western State Forests Habitat Conservation Plan will drastically reduce revenue for the school district, forcing it to cut staff and services. The conservation plan, which has been years in the making, was approved March 7 by the Oregon Board of Forestry on a narrow vote. It will regulate logging and conservation on about 630,000 thousand acres of state forests for the next 70 years, including the Clatsop State Forest, to protect 17 threatened or endangered species.

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Timber sales in county would destroy mature forests

By Karen Crowley, president, League of Women Voters of Snohomish County
Everett Herald
March 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Karen Crowley

Some of the oldest, most biologically diverse and carbon dense lowland forests that remain in Snohomish County are at risk. Ten state timber sales are planned for auction by the Department of Natural Resources this year in Snohomish County that would collectively clearcut more than 500 acres of these rare, publicly owned forests, including trees that are more than four feet in diameter and over 100 years old! …The DNR’s own policies require that the agency develop a plan to restore old-growth conditions across a minimum of 10 percent to 15 percent of state forestlands before logging any mature or structurally complex forests. Currently, only about 3 percent of state forestlands in the North Puget Sound region can be classified as old-growth forests, and yet the DNR continues to allow the clearcutting of the oldest remaining forests in the region at an alarming rate.

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Forest Service slashes 4-Forests Restoration Initiative budget

By Peter Aleshire
Payson Roundup
March 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service has drastically cut funding for the 4-Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) on which the future of Arizona’s watersheds and every forested community depend. 4-FRI funding hit $123 million in fiscal 2023, but will come in closer to $48 million in fiscal 2024, said Scot Rogers, the 4FRI Forest Restoration Initiative Program Manager for the Coconino National Forest. He broke the news to the Natural Resources Working Group meeting in Show Low on Tuesday. The Eastern Arizona Counties Association sponsors the group, which includes local officials and timber industry representatives. The dramatic drop in funding comes as sawmills, forest crews and the state’s only biomass burning power plant struggle in the shadow of bankruptcy to find enough wood to stay in business. …Thanks to the expiration of several federal stimulus and infrastructure programs, the increasing chaos in federal budgeting and the identification of 21 high-priority, fire-menaced landscapes all now competing for dwindling federal funding.

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New England Study Calls for Dramatic Increase in Sustainable Forestry

By Caitlin Littlefield and Basil Waugh
The University of Vermont
March 28, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A new report highlights the opportunity for New England to dramatically expand forest protections and sustainably meet the region’s wood product needs by reducing consumption and reorienting production. The report calls on New England states to permanently protect roughly 70% of the region’s landscape—a significant increase from the 25% currently protected—while expanding sustainable forest management across two-thirds of New England’s forests. Researchers from the University of Vermont, Harvard Forest, Conservation Science Partners, University of Massachusetts, and Brandeis University found that New England only produces three-quarters of the wood it consumes—and meets some of this shortfall with wood drawn from places with weaker environmental and social oversight. Even starker disparities exist in the region: 70% of the region’s production comes from Maine, while 70% of the region’s consumption occurs in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The report challenges these and other states in the region to boost production and reduce consumption of wood products.

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Seeing the forest for the trees: Tree diversity is directly correlated with productivity in eastern U.S. forests

By Jerad Pinson
Florida Museum
March 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

GAINSVILLE, Florida — When policymakers make tough calls on which areas to prioritize for conservation, biodiversity is often their top consideration. Environments with more diversity support a greater number of species and provide more ecosystem services, making them the obvious choice. …There are several ways to measure diversity, and each reveals a slightly different, and sometimes conflicting, view of how life interacts in a forest or other ecosystem. In a new study… three measures of biodiversity are related to productivity, or the amount of growth, in forests across the eastern United States. …The team found that a greater number of tree species, called species richness, consistently resulted in a more productive forest. …The researchers assumed that other measures of diversity would also show a strong, positive relationship with productivity. Instead, they found that the measure of relatedness (phylogenetic diversity) and of various structural and chemical differences (functional diversity) were both negatively correlated with productivity.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

What’s So Green About Burning Trees? The False Promise of Biomass Energy

By Sam Davis, Partnership For Policy Integrity
Eurasia Review
March 27, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, International

Renewable energy comes from matter that nature produces and replenishes constantly. The power generated through this source does not significantly threaten the environment, especially in comparison with fossil fuels… according to the United Nations. Renewable energy derived from wind, solar, geothermal, hydrokinetic, and hydro energy has a much lower environmental impact than fossil fuels. It harnesses the power of readily available elements and does not diminish with use. …And because wind and sunlight are inherently free, there are no ongoing feedstock costs. Bioenergy, otherwise known as biomass energy, is, however, different. This kind of power involves using living matter or matter that was recently been alive. …Trees are also used, most oftenfrom the forests of the U.S. South, including pine and hardwood species. …Supporters argue that bioenergy is a climate-friendly, sustainable power source that helps local economies. The truth is that wood pellet plants are as dirty and problematic as coal plants. 

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US energy agency announces $6 billion to slash emissions in industrial facilities

The PressNewsAgency
March 25, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Joe Biden

The Biden administration announced it will distribute up to $6 billion to curb planet-warming emissions in some of America’s most polluting industries, including chemical, metal and cement operations. The awards, which the administration called the “largest investment in industrial decarbonization in American history,” are aimed at both advancing the administration’s climate goals and boosting domestic manufacturing. …A total of 33 projects in more than 20 states are slated to receive federal funding, ranging from $20 million to $500 million. The administration expects to leverage an additional $14 billion in private-sector investment. “These projects offer solutions to slash emissions in some of the highest emitting sectors of our economy, including iron and steel, aluminum, cement, concrete, chemicals, food and beverages, pulp and paper,” Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said. “Together, these industries make up roughly a third of our CO2 emissions of our carbon footprint.”

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The world is warming faster than scientists expected

By the Editorial Board
The Financial Times
March 24, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, International

…To an extent not widely appreciated, the world is now warming at a pace that scientists did not expect and, alarmingly, do not fully understand. At a Financial Times conference this month, Jim Skea, the chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said last year’s spike in temperatures was “quicker than we all anticipated”. “Ocean temperatures were just off the scale in terms of historic records and we still need to do more work to explain it.” …Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City warned that the… surprising heat revealed that “an unprecedented knowledge gap” had opened up for the first time since satellite data began to give scientists a real-time view of the climate system about 40 years ago. This gap may mean we have a shakier grasp of what lies ahead — which is worrying when it comes to forecasting drought and rainfall patterns. 

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Forest Fires

Northeast Wyoming Already Blowing Up As Wildfire Hot-Spot

By Mark Heinz
Cowboy State Daily
March 25, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

Most of Wyoming appears to be relatively safe from massive wildfires — at least through June — but the northeastern corner of the state is already in trouble. “We’ve already burned more acres so far this year then we did all of last year,” said Charles Harrison, fire warden for the Crook County Volunteer Fire Department. And it hasn’t been just prairie grass fires. There’s already been two roughly 200-acre forest fires in the county, one near New Haven, and another near Moorcroft, he told Cowboy State Daily. …There’s no shortage of potential fuel for forests fires. There are vast swaths of beetle-killed timber, either standing or already down on the ground. …“There’s acres and acres of standing dead trees,” spokesman Evan Guzik said.

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Forest fires contained but conditions remain high for fire risk

By Chris Lawrence
MetroNews West Virginia
March 25, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US East

MOOREFIELD, West Virginia — Forest fires in West Virginia’s Potomac Highlands Region last week scorched 5,750 acres according to West Virginia Division of Forestry Director Jeremy Jones. …The first fires were reported Wednesday as conditions became dry with low humidity. Strong winds picked up to 50 miles and hour and more which fueled the fires faster than fire fighters could keep up. A number of homes and buildings wound up being destroyed. …The West Virginia State Fire Marshal continued to evaluate the damages to structures from the forest fires. Ultimately rainfall Friday night into Saturday helped the crews get full containment, but Jones said the work of a pair of Blackhawk helicopters from the West Virginia National Guard were very extremely valuable and gave fire crews a strong leg up on the out of control blazes.

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Forest History & Archives

Local Explorers Discover Shipwreck Lost in 1886 collision off Holland, Michigan

Michigan Shipwreck Research Association
March 25, 2024
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: United States, US East

Explorers from the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association have discovered the remains of the remarkably intact steamship Milwaukee, lost after it was rammed in 1886 forty miles from Holland in 360 feet of water. …At 135 feet long with three decks the Milwaukee was sized to fit the dimensions of Welland Canal locks between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. …In 1883, lumberman Lyman Gates Mason of Muskegon purchased the Milwaukee for exclusive use hauling his company’s lumber to Chicago. …Late afternoon of July 9, 1868, the Milwaukee left after unloading a cargo of lumber and set a course back to Muskegon for another load. A nearly identical ship, the C. Hickox, operating for a different Muskegon lumber company left Muskegon that evening for Chicago with a full load of lumber on its deck and towing a schooner barge also fully loaded. The lake was calm, but there was some smoke blowing across the water from forest fires. Both ships sailed such an exact course that at about midnight, when each was off Holland, they were bearing straight for each other.

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