Region Archives: United States

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Northern Region said Tuesday it is investing $1 million to expand work with the Idaho Department of Lands to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health through the Good Neighbor Authority. The investments will fund projects on the Idaho Panhandle National Forest while also providing funding for IDL staffing. The funds will support about 3,000 acres of fuels reduction work administered by IDL such as fuel breaks and vegetation treatments to improve forest health, a press release said. The funds will also expand road repairs to improve watershed conditions and provide access for wildfire management and implementation of project activities.

The last time the state Building Code Council crafted rules for protecting homes from the threat of wildfire, city officials criticized them as confusing, expensive and overreaching. Those rules are gone. As the state looks at drawing new wildfire risk maps and implementing new codes, local governments want more say in hopes of producing regulations that are understandable, affordable and help the communities most at risk. …Lawmakers on the state House Local Government committee heard from officials of state agencies and local governments, including Brad Medrud, planning manager at the City of Tumwater, about what must be done to implement new wildland urban interface, or WUI, building codes, and what a new law will mean for cities and counties. …Loren Torgerson of the Department of Natural Resources told lawmakers… the DNR is on track to finalize the map elements by Dec. 1.

ARIZONA — Frustrated Arizona loggers aired a few complaints about the way the Forest Service handles thinning contracts in Arizona, especially when it relies on out-of-state contractors unfamiliar with the ecology of Arizona’s ponderosa pine forests. …The Forest Service is experimenting with a new, high-tech method of marking trees for cutting in restoration timber sales. That includes using computer tablets synced to aerial LiDAR surveys so loggers can determine which trees to cut without the Forest Service marking each tree by hand. …A century of logging, cattle grazing and fire suppression has increased tree densities on millions of acres from less than 100 per acre to more than 1,000 per acre. Now a high-intensity fire can climb up into the lower branches of the tallest trees. …The 4FRI aims to dramatically reduce tree densities across millions of acres in Northern Arizona, making it the most ambitious forest restoration project in the country. 

…Tree thinning efforts in the Upper Rio De Flag Watershed are part of a larger restoration plan to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and post-fire flooding. The plan includes six project areas equalling over 12,000 acres, over half of the 21,500-acre watershed. While cutting trees may seem counterintuitive to maintaining a healthy forest, removing smaller trees and low-lying vegetation will prevent high-intensity wildfires and post-fire flooding that can destroy an entire ecosystem. …For decades, the U.S. fire policy was suppression… In more recent years, forest agencies have worked to restore fire as a management technique. …Thinning forests will allow fire to return to the landscape, both naturally through lightning strikes and prescribed burns. That leaves fewer fuels to supercharge the flames to reach the treetops. …Although thinning and burning a forest may seem damaging to the ecosystem, land managers hope residents will reap the benefits of their work.  

SOUTHERN OREGON – This summer the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) is using drones to help with multiple aspects of fire suppression and detection. ODF’s state aviation coordinator, Sara Prout said that aerial resources are important every summer, and that drones help expand the department’s aerial capabilities. “The manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft work together, just at different levels.,” Prout said. For years, ODF has utilized planes and helicopters to help detect, observe and fight fires. Drones can operate similarly, with more mobility and access to fires. Drones can provide valuable information during every phase of a wildfire. This includes the time after a fire has been mostly contained and crews are finishing their work. “Firefighters can have really accurate data when they’re doing mop up,” Prout said. “We can get really amazing hotspot identification for the firefighters to use in those efforts to make that process more efficient.”

A documentary, “Rematriation,” about saving old-growth forests, will be shown in Ojai on, June 23, followed by a time for questions and answers with Angela Davidson, aka Rainbow Eyes, whose fight to save 1,500-year-old trees in a Canadian forest is featured. View the promo for the documentary HERE. It is one of three events in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that will be held from June 22 to 25. A member of the Da’naxda’xw-Awaetlala First Nation, Rainbow Eyes will speak about her fight to protect the old-growth forest of Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island and Knight Inlet. All profits will benefit the Dzunuk’wa Society – Wild Women of the Woods in their efforts to save ancient forests. Rainbow Eyes’ stay in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties will include outdoor Indigenous learning circles, a reception and opportunities for private conversations with Rainbow Eyes and her logging blockade partner, Glenn Reid.

A new machine-learning system developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks can automatically produce detailed maps from satellite data to show locations of likely beetle-killed spruce trees in Alaska, even in forests of low and moderate infestation where identification is otherwise difficult. The automated process can help forestry and wildfire managers in their decisions. That’s critical as the beetle infestation spreads. The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection calls the spruce beetle “the most damaging insect in Alaska’s forests.” The identification system by assistant professor Simon Zwieback at the UAF Geophysical Institute was detailed in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing on May 18. Zwieback is also affiliated with the UAF College of Natural Science and Mathematics.