Region Archives: United States

HELENA, Montana — Two conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have reached a settlement on a lawsuit over a a 20-year logging and burning project in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, the plaintiffs said. Native Ecosystems Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies said the Middleman Project that they stopped over 110 miles of road construction and reconstruction in the forest and halted over 5,000 acres of commercial logging in lynx and grizzly habitat. …The project, approved in 2021, was meant to reduce wildfire fuels and improve forest health and rangeland habitat conditions, forest officials said. It was also designed to maintain and improve water quality and aquatic habitat through a variety of methods including logging. The conservation groups sued in September, saying the project violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

A logging company has canceled a proposed road within a Bureau of Land Management project in Josephine County. Activists had claimed that construction of the route threatened old-growth trees. Protesters (including a tree-sitter on a platform) had been staying at the location of a proposed road within the BLM’s Salmon Run timber sale, which they claim threatened old-growth trees, for the last three weeks. The timber sale area is part of the BLM’s Poor Windy Forest Management Project which includes around 11,000 acres slated for commercial timber harvest as well as forest thinning to prevent large wildfires. On Monday the BLM and Boise Cascade Wood Products changed their plan for the Salmon Run area to remove the proposed 440-foot access road at the center of protesters’ concerns. The update also specified that construction of another road will not disturb large-diameter trees.

Hilary Franz

As part of a growing list of international partners, Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz met with a delegation of Ukrainian officials last week to discuss wildfire mitigation and sustainable forestry management. On Thursday, Franz met with a delegation led by State Specialized Forest Enterprise Director General Yurii Bolokhovets, who requested the meeting to strengthen bilateral cooperation in forestry. The cooperation is the latest partnership for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which includes meetings with officials from British Columbia, Iceland and Finland. …In a news release, DNR noted the risk that Ukraine’s forests face, particularly as the war with Russia continues. According to the Ukrainian State Forest Resources Agency, over the past three years, an estimated 30% of the country’s forests have suffered damage.

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz today met with a delegation from Ukraine (led by State Specialized Forest Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” Director General Yurii Bolokhovets) to discuss best practices for sustainable forestry as well wildfire response and mitigation strategies. Ukrainian officials requested a meeting with Commissioner Franz and DNR staff to develop and strengthen bilateral cooperation in sustainable forestry. Washington’s high standards in forest management make the agency a global leader in sustainable harvest, conservation, and preservation. …Ukraine’s forests are in danger. The State Forest Resources Agency estimated that nearly 30% of Ukraine’s forests have suffered some kind of damage in the last three years. Russia reportedly has been actively destroying and harvesting Ukrainian forests, depleting the country’s natural resources, inflicting over $2 trillion in environmental costs, and causing long-term ecological damage – lowering groundwater level, reducing biodiversity, polluting the air, and increasing wildfires.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) is seeking feedback on a public lands project that would furnish permanent protections on nearly 33,000 acres of private timberland in northwest Montana while precluding development on a patchwork of forestland surrounding the Thompson Chain of Lakes between Kalispell and Libby. …FWP is working with The Trust for Public Land (TPL) and Green Diamond Resource Company to identify funding sources for the potential easement. …Under the terms of the easement, which provide for public recreation access and the preservation of wildlife habitat, Green Diamond would retain ownership of the land under an easement owned by FWP. The easement would allow Green Diamond to sustainably harvest wood products from its timberlands. It is the first of a potential two-phased project totaling 85,792 acres of private timberland. …“Green Diamond has essentially offered to donate 35% of the value of this easement,” Dillon Tabish said.

Two aerial firefighting jets, including one based in Missoula, have been grounded because of corrosion apparently caused by a new fire retardant the U.S. Forest Service approved for use beginning last year. Two large air tankers — passenger jets converted to carry 3,000 gallons of retardant each — used a magnesium chloride fire retardant product while fighting wildfires last year. Both are grounded pending a joint investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Forest Service. The magnesium chloride retardant was in limited use last fire season, loaded into the two large air tankers and some smaller, single-engine aircraft also in Montana. After the discovery this winter of corrosion in areas of tankers where the retardant accumulated, the Forest Service decided not to use it this year. Instead, the agency will continue its widespread use of ammonium phosphate fire retardant that has been the go-to retardant nationwide for years. 

In a monumental move within the timber industry, Rayonier Inc. has set the stage for a most significant timberland transactions in recent history. The Clallam Tree Farm, a property in the heart of the Pacific Northwest’s Olympic Peninsula, is now up for sale. The Clallam Tree Farm spans 115,250 acres of forestland. The property is located within the Douglas-fir region of the upper-west Olympic Peninsula. With nine miles of the North Fork of the Calawah River meandering through its expanse and neighboring the Olympic National Forest, this property stands as a testament to managed forestry. Rayonier’s decision to put the Clallam Tree Farm on the market marks the first time this property has been available for acquisition since the 1940s. With nearly eight decades of stewardship, the property is a legacy of sustainable forest management. …Their website invites prospective buyers to participate in a single-stage, sealed-bid process, with bids due on June 6, 2024.