Region Archives: United States

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. 

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The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is pleased to announce the availability of $4.5 million in California Climate Investments (CCI) funding and $3 million in Proposition 4 California Climate Bond (Prop 4) funding through the Forest Health Research Grants Program. CAL FIRE is seeking research proposals that advance scientific understanding and develop practical solutions to the urgent forest health and wildfire challenges facing California’s landscapes and communities. This year’s Forest Health Research grants include three concurrent solicitations for CCI-funded research, research led by graduate students, and larger Prop 4 funded collaborative research projects that support landscape-scale forest and fire management. These grants are intended to support research that delivers direct benefits to landowners, resource agencies, fire management organizations, and decision-makers across the state. CAL FIRE encourages innovative proposals that generate new knowledge and produce actionable tools that strengthen forest health, improve wildfire resilience, and support effective land management.

Fire season has begun in Oregon. Hot and dry conditions have forest managers across the state on edge as the season officially started June 15, bringing with it restrictions meant to prevent wildfires. The main restriction is a prohibition on debris and backyard burning on state, county and private lands, although official rules are set by local fire districts. Debris burning is the most frequent human cause of wildfires that spread in populated areas. “With it being this hot and dry, one little bit of wind could spread an ember and start a fire. It’s the perfect time to cover your pile and wait until fall,” Oregon Department of Forestry spokeswoman Jessica Neujahr said.

…Decades of fire suppression have left many dry pine forests overcrowded with small trees and dense brush. …Foresters largely agree on the solution: restore forests through thinning and prescribed fire. The problem is that restoration work is expensive, especially when it involves removing small-diameter trees that have little commercial value. …Taxpayers shoulder most of the burden while hazardous fuels continue accumulating across millions of acres. …Oregon is well positioned to tackle this problem. New wood products such as mass timber can create markets for the very material that restoration projects remove. Instead of treating small trees as waste, we can turn them into building materials… The goal is to keep large fire-resistant trees while removing smaller fuels that make forests more vulnerable to extreme fires. …Oregon already has the tools and workforce to address this problem. The question is whether we are willing to act before the next historic fire season arrives.

Deming, Washington — Leroy Sande was pioneering a road with his excavator in Southeast Alaska when stumps, rocks, everything else — including his rig — started to pitch down the hillside. As if reaching out with his own arm, the logger instinctively grabbed at the slick sandstone beneath 10 feet of soil with the excavator’s bucket.  “Well, you ain’t grabbing sandstone,” Sande, now 83, recalled. “…There was nothing to grab onto that wasn’t going down the hill.” About 400 yards down slope, the excavator tipped over and came to a stop. It was the only time in his 50-plus-year career in the woods that Sande put an excavator on its side, and even then, he emerged from the machine unscathed. Logging is the most deadly occupation in the nation… Injuries that aren’t fatal can put someone out of work for weeks, months, years or the rest of their life. The annual Deming Logging Show raises money for “busted up” loggers and their families, and recognizes the “Bull of the Woods.”

Wildfires are reversing decades of air quality improvements across much of the US. Expanded use of prescribed fire is a primary proposed solution, but air quality trade-offs—more initial smoke for less smoke later—remain poorly quantified. Using two decades of satellite-derived measurements of fire severity and smoke particulate matter across California, we assessed the causal effect of low-severity wildfire, a proxy for prescribed burning, on subsequent wildfire activity and air quality. We found that low-severity fire reduced the probability of very-high-severity wildfire by 92%, with reductions lasting a decade and extending 5 kilometers from treated locations. Reduced future smoke far outweighed the smoke produced during treatment, with benefit-cost ratios exceeding five after a decade. Sustained treatment of 500,000 acres annually would reduce cumulative smoke fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by about 10% after a decade.