Region Archives: United States

Oregon is grappling with the aftermath of a record-breaking wildfire season that has left the state facing a staggering $218 million bill. The unprecedented costs have ignited a fierce debate among lawmakers over who should foot the bill and how to prevent future financial crises. The state’s current funding model for wildfire response has come under intense scrutiny. Private landowners contribute to a fund that is capped at ten million, while the state’s general fund covers the remaining costs. This year, however, the general fund will bear the brunt of the expenses, paying more than fourteen times the amount contributed by private landowners. Representative Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, has long been a critic of the state’s reliance on the general fund for wildfire costs. He argues that large-forest landowners should be held responsible for the fires on their land.

A sweeping executive order signed by President Donald Trump during the first hours of his second term aims to boost Alaska’s natural resource industry by reversing environmental protections that limit oil and gas extraction, logging, and other development projects across the state. The order was one of dozens signed by Trump following his inauguration Monday.  Trump’s broad order, titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” follows a request from Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy for swift action reforming the federal government offices and policies that oversee Alaska’s resource development industry. The policy changes were also championed by Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation. …“We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump said in his second inaugural address. One of his executive orders signed Monday established a “national energy emergency.”

…LA, and much of the United States, was asking how wildfires could rage out of control in one of the richest cities in the world – a city with a long history of dealing with fire. What could have, what should have, been done? And who was to blame? …“There is an element of human hubris in this to think we can have full control,” Dr. Edith de Guzman, a cooperative extension specialist in adaptation policy who has closely studied impacts from the climate crisis on communities, said. “Nobody would blame officials for not stopping a hurricane – when a hurricane comes, it comes.” …What hit LA last week was a perfect storm – a combination of extreme weather, a warming climate, human hubris and and safety measures that have been delayed or disregarded for decades. …Firefighters faced an enormous task, both Safford and de Guzman said. And the homes they were defending were built in absolutely untenable places.

UTAH — The investigation into the Uinta blaze found it started a day earlier than initially thought. The amount is the maximum fine allowed under the timber harvesting contract loggers held with the U.S. Forest Service, according to an agency investigative report obtained through a public records request by KPCW. The Yellow Lake Fire consumed more than 33,000 acres in the Uinta Mountains. It was at one point the highest priority fire in the United States with 889 firefighters responding at its peak. The forest service’s investigation did not include the total cost of fighting the fire, and it redacted the name of the logging company responsible.

The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) reports on January 16, House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR-04) and Representative Scott Peters (D-CA-50) announced the reintroduction of the Fix Our Forests Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at strengthening resiliency through active forest management. Chairman Westerman noted that the recent LA wildfires underscore the urgency of this issue and said that the bill is slated for House floor consideration next week. The bill would expedite environmental reviews to help prevent catastrophic fires and increase the scope of restoration projects. The legislation also seeks to deter lawsuits that delay that which is deemed essential forest management. Additionally, the reintroduced bill includes language from California Democrat Representative Josh Harder that would require federal agencies to establish standard operating procedures relating to payment timelines for fire suppression cost-share agreements.

Additional coverage from the Federation of American Scientists: Position On The Re-Introduction Of H.R. 471 – The Fix Our Forests Act

As California residents grapple for answers in the wake of a massive firestorm event in which two major blazes ravaged parts of Los Angeles — the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire —power lines are once again at the center of debate. It’s no wonder. Failed electric equipment and poor maintenance have caused horrific blazes in recent years, sometimes sparked by the smallest of parts, according to government investigators. …The 2023 fire in Maui that killed 102 people was caused by “reenergization” of broken power lines during high winds that showered sparks into dense, dry vegetation. …One key but often unpopular tool for preventing deadly wildfires is shutting off power when high winds of certain velocities are forecast. …Undergrounding power lines is the single best method to avoid dangerous arcing of overhead wires, or having dry palm frond hit one that can spark or spread fires. It’s also by far the most costly

On Dec. 20, 2024, new research was published that reveals scientists discovered more than 30 dead whitebark pine trees that were entombed in ice for millennia on the Beartooth Plateau in northwest Wyoming. The groundbreaking discovery was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and can be found here. According to the research, the whitebark pines were lying down with “extraordinary quality of wood preservation.” The authors of the peer-reviewed paper write that recent warming has decreased snow and ice cover of most subalpine treelines around the world, so that the whitebark pine trees have become visible after up to 5,900 years. This discovery provides insights into past climate change and ecosystem dynamics in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).

On his first day in office, Dave Upthegrove, the state’s new public lands commissioner, said he would pause logging sales in some older state-managed forests for about six months. In doing so, he’s taking a step toward fulfilling a campaign promise to set aside nearly 80,000 acres of older, but not necessarily old-growth, trees. How much acreage the pause would cover was not immediately clear, but a Department of Natural Resources spokesperson said Wednesday it would involve slightly more than 20 timber sales… The state’s previous lands commissioner, Hilary Franz, during an interview last fall, pointed to hundreds of thousands of acres the department has already set aside for conservation and highlighted the environmental benefits of using wood from trees grown in-state, rather than importing it from other places that might have less stringent logging regulations.

Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska would seem as temperate as coastal Washington is now. Glaciers would retreat, fires may become common, and new wildlife would arrive. How would long-lived, stationary organisms like trees cope with these shifts? Scientists try to answer that question in a number of ways. Most of them have logistical drawbacks, like the high maintenance costs for lengthy experiments… results show that when faced with large temperature swings, forests stayed unexpectedly stable. This suggests that vegetation replacement, forest dieback, or changes in tree composition are less likely to occur in response to radical climate change than most land managers might predict… About 27 percent of Glacier Bay National Park is covered by more than 1,000 glaciers. Many of these are alongside old-growth, temperate rainforests. This type of rainforest also clings to the damp, coastal mountains of Canada, Chile, and New Zealand. It’s considered critical for global diversity and carbon storage.