Region Archives: United States

Nicole Hynson normally gets roped in to help when all else fails. The conservation biologist from the University of Hawaii is involved in bringing back all kinds of critically endangered plants from the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, she’s kept busy in her home state, Hawaii, which is also known as the extinction capital of the world. Her latest conservation target is a flowering tree that’s fighting a losing battle in the wild: the Gardenia brighamii, or, as it’s known among some local communities, the na’u. The na’u is one of three gardenia species endemic to the archipelago. The na’u’s crowning glory is its fragrant flower, a pearly blossom that was once frequently woven into traditional floral wreaths called leis.

Trucks line an unpaved road about 50 minutes up Robinette Mountain Road near Dayton, Washington. Crews are ready to burn over 37 acres at the Rainwater Wildlife Area. As wildfire season winds down, crews around Washington and Oregon perform prescribed fires. Lindsay Chiono is a wildlife habitat ecologist with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. During this burn, she’s also the firing boss. That means she’s guiding the lighters — the people setting the fire. “We’ve tried to burn this unit for three years in a row. Just a few weeks ago was summer, and high fire hazard. So it’s a small window up this high elevation,” she said. Chiono and 22 members from tribal, governmental and private organizations performed the prescribed fire on the tribe’s lands in late September.

The Colorado congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., is calling on the U.S. Forest Service to continue partnerships with Rocky Mountain communities amid the agency’s hiring freeze on seasonal employees. Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper as well as Joe Neguse and Brittany Pettersen penned a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary. In particular, the letter takes issue with the Forest Service applying the hiring freeze not only to positions funded through the federal budget but also to positions supported by local funding… “We are deeply concerned by the Forest Service’s announcement about the agency’s budget shortfall and subsequent hiring freeze of all non-firefighting, temporary seasonal employees,” the letter states. “Colorado’s forests are some of the most visited in the nation and serve as critical infrastructure for Colorado.”

SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Forestry has announced the launch of the Prescribed Fire Liability Program. The pilot program is intended to increase the use of prescribed fire and cultural burning and support fire practitioners by providing liability coverage for enrolled burns. Introducing periodic fire to fire-adapted landscapes and reducing forest fuels has been shown to lessen the potential for high-intensity wildfires and the large volume of smoke they produce. While the rates of escape and loss are very low due to the careful planning and preparation required for prescribed fire and cultural burning, there is always some residual risk when working with fire. This risk, and the resulting liability for damages due to escape if uninsured, can deter some practitioners from using beneficial fire.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been trying to privatize the Tongass for years. Her latest effort, the so-called “Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act,” S.1889/H.R. 4748, is a giveaway to corporate interests of 115,200 acres, including 80,000 acres of prime old-growth forests and roadless areas. …And it would continue promoting the dispossession and disenfranchisement of Indigenous peoples and local communities that depend on the Tongass’ world-class fish and wildlife populations that have sustained the ecology and economy of the region. …My research shows that it is the region’s best natural climate solution, storing about 20% of all the carbon in the entire national forest system. …Over 14 attempts to overturn the 2001 Roadless Rule have been met with legal challenges and have ultimately failed because the public, scientists, and Indigenous people like Wanda Culp have spoken truth to power.

Last week, the US Forest Service announced it would stop prescribed burning in California “for the foreseeable future,” stating that the as a precautionary measure to ensure the availability of staff and equipment in case of potential wildfires. But temps are falling across California, and state, tribal authorities, and prescribed burn associations have commenced with their prescribed burns. If the federal agency doesn’t hold up its end of the work, all that mitigation work can be undone. …it’s essential to understand the history of the state and the intricate mosaic of private, state, and federal land that constitutes the forests. …the state and federal governments relied on a “paramilitary-like program” focused on fire suppression… Very little was done regarding fire prevention… One of the problems was that colonialist attitudes of fire officials constantly disregarded the valuable knowledge of forest management practices held by California’s Indigenous communities.

The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire (TNC) announced today that it has been awarded $10 million from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to administer a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to support Climate Resilient Forest Management in New Hampshire and Western Maine. This significant funding, matched by approximately $1 million in partner contributions, will support efforts to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change through innovative forest management practices. The project will build on the successful Climate Resilient Forest Management (CRFM) project that has been led by TNC, the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, and the University of Vermont since 2022… In all, The Nature Conservancy is receiving $102.5 million for conservation projects across six states.

The U.S. Forest Service has issued a nationwide hiring freeze on all non-fire seasonal employees, a decision that could have ripple effects across Colorado mountain communities, where vast swathes of land are national forests… Council member Jay Beckerman described the impact of the Forest Service’s hiring freeze this way — “We’re going to be leaning on our staff, we’re going to be leaning on volunteer organizations to do some of the work that was previously done by seasonal summer staff for the Forest Service.”.. U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced that the federal agency wouldn’t be hiring any seasonal workers, other than seasonal firefighting positions, in fiscal year 2025. “We’re going to do what we can with what we have. We’re not going to try to do everything that is expected of us with less people.”

In response to recent proposals for how to manage 250,000 acres in the Madison and Gallatin mountain ranges, the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance introduced its own wildlife-focused legislation Thursday night at the Museum of the Rockies. If their plan succeeds, the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Act would designate all 250,000 roadless acres in the Gallatins as federally protected wilderness, restricting nearly all commercial activities, roads, structures, motor vehicles and mechanical transport. …While no members of Montana’s current congressional delegation have stepped up to spearhead the bill, if passed, it would designate 124,000 acres of new wilderness in the Madison and Gallatin ranges, create the 102,000-acre Gallatin Wilderness Area and add 22,000 acres to the Lee Metcalf Wilderness. The act would prohibit new roads, trails, and motorized or mechanized use in these areas while also legalizing historic non-wilderness uses in parts of the current Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area by removing its status but still allowing for future wilderness consideration.

CARSON CITY, Nev. – Drivers heading up or down Highway 50 into Carson City will see logs piled to the south. The 40 acres where those logs reside is the location of Tahoe Forest Products, the first new industrial-scale sawmill in the Sierra Nevada in several decades. “The question of why get into the sawmill business,” company chairman Kevin Leary says, “when most of the industry is losing money is a very good one.” …Leary explains after fires like Caldor, Tamarack and others that have burned millions of acres in California, it’s ignited a political and public push to get a handle on the unhealthy and overstocked forests that have lead up to this mega-fire crisis. …Lisa Herron with the USDA Forest Service-Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, explains prior to Tahoe Forest Products, the closest mills were located far enough away from the Tahoe basin to make transporting logs cost prohibitive.

…Healthy forests, of which old growth is an important component, provide many benefits to people and nature, including: providing sources of clean drinking water; mitigating the impacts of severe weather events such as wildfire, floods, and drought; sequestering carbon from the atmosphere; providing wildlife habitat; and, generating revenue for local economies through sustainable forestry, tourism, and recreation opportunities. Today, primarily due to a history of aggressive timber harvest, old-growth forests only account for about 17% of forested lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. …While logging is no longer the primary cause of old-growth forest loss, new challenges such as climate change combined with a century of fire suppression are increasingly putting our remaining old growth at risk. Forests in Washington state and beyond need to account for threats such as ongoing and elevated severe wildfires.

This week, the U.S. Forest Service directed its employees in California to stop prescribed burning “for the foreseeable future,” a directive that officials said is meant to preserve staff and equipment to fight wildfires if needed. The pause comes amid the crucial fall window for planned, controlled burns, which remove fuel and can protect homes from future wildfires — raising concerns that the move will increase long-term fire risks. “There are two times in the year when it’s safe to do prescribed fire: in the fall right before the rains come, and in the spring when things are dry enough to burn but not dry enough to burn it in a dangerous way,” said Michael Wara, energy and climate expert at Stanford University. He worries half of the prescribed fire season on federal lands will be sacrificed because of this decision.