Region Archives: United States

The effort to save the C.C. Cragin Reservoir watershed is finally ramping up, even as the larger 4-Forests Restoration Initiative faces a crisis. A series of projects this year and next will make headway on thinning the 64,000-acre reservoir on which both Payson and Valley cities rely for their water supply, the Natural Resources Working Group learned last week. The progress relies on extra funding from the Salt River Project, the Valley utility that manages the reservoir. The plan calls for logging, firewood, thinning projects and prescribed burns on more than 10,000 acres on the watershed of the reservoir this year, said Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management project coordinator Christine Mares. “We’re hiring like crazy right now” to start cutting when the forest dries out, said Mares.

Ashland, Oregon — Wildfire Division Chief Chris Chambers presented a case for a far reaching and expensive helicopter logging project in the Ashland watershed to the Ashland City Council during its study session Monday. Chambers sketched a series of grim predictions for the forest and big numbers for the scale of the project. “Forests are vanishing all across the west,” he said. Throughout drought stricken western states such as California, climate change is transforming forests into grassland. The rapid die-off of Douglas fir trees in the Ashland watershed in recent years has reached a level that requires action to preserve the forests, he said. The helicopter logging project would remove a carefully chosen number of dead or dying trees to give the remaining healthy trees a better chance at survival. Leaving high numbers of dead trees in the watershed increases the fuel load and wildfire risk for the city of Ashland.

As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers ways to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Bitterroot ecosystem, both biologists and politicians are encouraging plans to allow the bears to move in on their own. On Tuesday, more than two-dozen conservation organizations and scientists released the details of a citizen alternative that they sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during public scoping on options for restoring grizzly bears to the Bitterroot ecosystem. The public comment period closed on Monday. The citizen alternative encourages the agency to enable natural grizzly recovery through migration from other ecosystems rather than human-aided translocation. They point out that attempts to repopulate the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem with bears translocated from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem have mostly failed. …The Ravalli County Commissioners submitted a letter expressing concern about grizzly bear restoration. They support using migration compared to translocation, although they emphasized that they preferred no action.

It’s no secret that forestry is an important part of Idaho’s economy. A 2023 University of Idaho study found that the forest products business sector contributed $2.5 billion to Idaho’s gross state product in 2022. The vast majority of the $61 million in state endowment lands money that went to public schools in 2023 came from timber harvesting proceeds. …While vital to Idaho’s economy, the forest products sector faces uncertainty due to workforce challenges. …But there’s reason for optimism. Recent investments through Idaho’s new Career Ready Students program represent an infusion of both energy and capital in cultivating new pipelines of young talent into Idaho’s forest products sector. …Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield and the 11-member Career Ready Students Council have awarded grants totaling more than $43 million to Idaho schools. Grants will be used to teach students new skills that prepare them for successful careers here in Idaho. 

Forestry officials said Arizona is on the verge of a volatile wildfire season, and they urged state residents to be prepared and to take steps now to head off the worst of it. Aaron Casem, the prevention officer at the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management spoke at a news conference Monday where state officials said a wet winter spurred excessive growth of vegetation that has the potential to become a “heavy fuel load” for fires as the state dries out this summer. That wet winter should delay the start of fire season in high country, where heavy snows fell, but at lower elevations there is the potential for “explosive” fire behavior this summer. …The warnings follow several years of relatively mild wildfire seasons in Arizona. The state recorded 1,837 wildfires in 2023 that burned about 188,000 acres – well below 2020 when 2,519 fires over 978,519 acres.

The staffs of the Boise and Payette national forests have received a national award for their work to mitigate extreme wildfire risk and promote sustainability. “With a goal of reducing wildfire risk to our mountain communities, it is exciting to see the hard work of our employees and partners recognized on a national level by the chief of the Forest Service,” Payette National Forest Supervisor Linda Jackson said in a news release. The Honor Award, from Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, “is validation that the work we have accomplished together is important and meaningful to the people of Idaho and to the preservation of our public lands,” she said. “Our efforts to focus on increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration and fuels reductions is truly paying off,” Boise National Forest Supervisor Brant Petersen said. “This work will help reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic wildfires threatening our communities and natural resources.”

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is announces up to $10 million in funding for Forest Legacy Grants to conserve and protect environmentally important privately-owned forestland. This funding supports California’s goals of conserving working forests to help protect natural landscapes threatened with conversion to other uses, promote sustainable and resilient forest practices, and encourage long. term stewardship in line with the goals of the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. Under this competitive grant program, CalFire purchases or accepts donations of conservation easements or fee titles of productive forest lands from willing sellers, to encourage long-term conservation throughout the state.