Region Archives: United States

Colorado nonprofit, the Mountain Pine Beetle Foundation, is working to help landowners fight back against growing infestations of mountain pine beetles and protect their properties from wildfires. Founder Wesley Manney said the organization’s goal is simple: stop beetle infestations before they grow and reduce wildfire risk at the same time. What started as a handful of infested trees in Evergreen, Colorado, has turned into hundreds for landowner Jon Hager. …Now, crews are cutting down and chipping dozens of beetle-killed and infested trees on his property as part of an effort to slow the spread of mountain pine beetles, which experts warn could become a bigger problem during Colorado’s dry summer conditions. “It’s our responsibility as landowners,” Hager said. “We should take care of the beetle problem so it doesn’t spread to our neighbours.”

The US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is funding two landscapes within the Boise and Payette national forests for inclusion in the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP). The congressionally funded program provides long-term support for partnership-driven projects that improve watershed health, reduce wildfire risk and strengthen local economies. The West Central Idaho Initiative covers 2.3 million acres of public and private lands stretching from Boise to New Meadows, Idaho. The initiative focuses on reducing wildfire risk to communities through logging, thinning and prescribed fire. The area was chosen for a 10-year funding commitment based on its strong history of collaboration. …The Weiser-Little Salmon Headwaters landscape continues CFLRP involvement dating back to 2012. In the first 10 years of funding, projects there treated nearly 170,000 acres of hazardous vegetation, resulting in the equivalent of about 36,000 logging trucks of timber sold. 

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When heat waves hit the Western United States, the risk of wildfires quickly rises. The prolonged heat dries out vegetation, but that’s only part of the cause – heat waves also play other roles in spreading wildfires. In a new study, our team of fire and climate scientists looked at two decades of wildfire activity in the West, from 2001 to 2024, and for the first time quantified the effect of heat waves on those fires. We expected a big impact, but the numbers still surprised us: While heat waves, which we defined as three or more consecutive days with temperatures in the top tenth of hottest days, accounted for only 12% to 15% of warm-season days, we found that 42% of all the area burned by fires had occurred during or right after a heat wave. Moreover, the amount of the area that burned each day was more than 50% larger during heat waves than during the cooler days right before the heat wave began in many parts of the West. In some regions, the difference was much larger – up to 300%.

RONALD, Wash. — The sound of wildfire prevention isn’t a fire engine siren. It’s chainsaws, wood chippers and heavy machinery chewing through brush. Across Kittitas County, crews are removing smaller trees, trimming limbs and clearing brush in an effort to reshape forests before the next wildfire season arrives. But the work underway here is also challenging one of the most deeply held ideas many people have about forests: That more trees always means a healthier forest. “Green is good,” said Katie Zander, the North Service Forestry coordinator for the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Southeast Region. “But out here historically we did not have this dense of forest stands.” According to Zander, eastern Washington forests evolved with regular low-intensity fires that naturally cleared out brush and smaller trees. But decades of aggressive wildfire suppression changed that pattern.

SEATTLE — Weyerhaeuser Company announced the fifth year of its Fighting Fires Together campaign, combining the company’s wildfire management and community support efforts across Oregon. The campaign unifies support for rural fire districts, wildfire response partnerships, and resources that strengthen firefighter and community resilience in fire-prone areas of the state. The campaign addresses the realities of wildfire response in rural Oregon, where communities and agencies often face limited resources to protect both residents and wildland firefighters. …Across Oregon, grants from the company’s Giving Fund help rural fire protection districts secure critical rescue, medical and wildland firefighting tools, along with expanded training to support faster, safer responses when wildfires occur. …Additionally, Weyerhaeuser is supporting the next generation of wildland firefighters and forestry professionals. A recent $10,000 grant to Lane Community College’s Wildland Fire Management Program will support funding for tools and safety equipment… 

The Trump administration is about to propose an overhaul of how it manages nearly 5 million acres in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. Logging could triple in the Umatilla, Malheur and Wallowa-Whitman national forests, which comprise the U.S. Forest Service’s Blue Mountains region. The agency’s proposal would eliminate regulations that protect large trees and sensitive habitats. It would also boost timber sale goals from 106 million board feet to 364 million over a decade. That’s raising hopes in a region where timber jobs have declined and lumber mills have closed. But others doubt the timber goals. And environmental groups have called the plan a raid on one of the wildest places in the United States. …Mark Webb, executive director of Blue Mountains Forest Partners — which coordinates between environmental and timber interests to find common ground — doubts whether the forest service can reach the ambitious logging goals it sets forth in its draft proposal.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz today signed the Montana Tri-Forest Federal Sustained-Yield Unit management plan that will support economic stability, strengthen central Montana’s wood processing capacity and advance forest health though timber harvests that will be processed within the boundaries of the unit. The Tri-Forest unit includes the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Custer Gallatin and Helena-Lewis and Clark national forests. Leadership from these forests will work together to provide forest products that support local economic stability, strengthen central Montana’s wood-processing capacity and advance forest health in alignment with existing forest plans.  

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has declared an emergency due to the imminent threat of wildfires in the state. “Increasing heat, dry vegetation, and shifting winds continue to align and create dangerous conditions that demand immediate action,” Kotek said in a press release Tuesday morning. “I am declaring a State of Emergency to ensure all available resources — firefighting crews, aerial support, ground resources, and emergency personnel are prepared for deployments — to protect people, property, and our natural landscapes.” The declaration ensures that the Oregon Department of Forestry and the state fire marshal’s office have the wildfire crews and equipment they need. And it directs the Oregon Department of Emergency Management to activate the state’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. From Tuesday morning through Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service in Pendleton declared a red flag warning throughout much of eastern Washington and northeast Oregon.