Region Archives: United States

Dusty Johnson resents the implication that he’s looking out for the timber industry at the expense of the Black Hills National Forest. “The idea that anyone in government wants to allow the timber industry to cut what they want to cut is absurd,” Johnson told South Dakota Searchlight. “I think it does a tremendous disrespect to this process.” Johnson, a Republican who is South Dakota’s lone U.S. representative, disliked a recent commentary written by retired U.S. Forest Service employee Dave Mertz and published by Searchlight. Mertz wrote the commentary in response to Johnson’s March 2 forestry roundtable discussion in Spearfish. “Repeatedly,” Mertz wrote, “panelists stated what the timber industry needs. Never was there any concern for what level of timber harvesting the forest needs.” …The researchers said wildfires and a mountain pine beetle epidemic drastically reduced the number of trees suitable for logging.

The Kootenai National Forest is conducting spring prescribed fire projects when weather, fuel conditions and air quality become favorable. Each project follows a prescribed fire burn plan. The prescribed fire projects are located and designed to be controlled to reduce the potential for adverse effects. Robust scientific data shows that strategically placed prescribed fire and mechanical treatments are vital to reducing forest fuels, lowering catastrophic wildfire risks and slowing or stopping the progression of wildfires. These projects will comply with Montana air quality standards and guided by the Montana/Idaho State Airshed Group to reduce the impacts of smoke to our neighbors, cooperators and surrounding communities.  Land and fire managers may opt to cease firing operations early, on the day of ignitions, for smoke dispersal or other factors.

SEATTLE – State and federal agencies and departments in Oregon and Washington have agreed to collaborate on addressing the escalating wildfire crisis by increasing use of prescribed fire and other forest fuel management strategies at larger geographic scales while also increasing outreach to nearby communities as these strategies are deployed. These strategies reduce forest fuels on the ground and allow for strategic burning that minimizes community and public health impacts relative to impacts from uncontrolled wildfires. “One of the best tools we have for making our forests more resilient against catastrophic wildfires is controlled burning,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller. “The agreement will help to ensure federal and state agencies are working together using the best science to identify where and when prescribed fires will occur, bringing local communities into the conversation, and providing resources to residents to prepare for smoke and have access to clean indoor air.”

SOUTHERN OREGON — Though the U.S. Supreme Court won’t review the legality of a national monument expanding onto Oregon forestland prioritized for logging, the timber industry isn’t yet conceding defeat. The nation’s highest court recently refused to weigh in on the near-doubling of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon, ending seven years of litigation over the issue. However, the timber industry’s legal and political experts still believe the broader controversy over national monuments restricting logging and grazing will probably result in a precedent-setting Supreme Court decision. …Debates over public lands management will likely get more widespread and contentious due to the federal government’s “30 by 30” initiative, which aims to impose conservation measures on 30% of American lands by 2030, Clark Judge said. “The fastest way to get to 30% is to impose the Antiquities Act”. 

After more than two years of analysis, and as part of an ongoing effort by land management agencies to reduce wildfire hazards in the region’s wildland-urban interface (WUI), Flathead National Forest officials announced they’ve issued a final decision notice and environmental assessment approving a timber project on a 28,300-acre segment of the Tally Lake Ranger District west of Whitefish. Called the Round Star Project and first proposed in December 2021, the plan calls for commercial timber harvests on up to 6,324 acres and non-commercial vegetation treatments on up to 2,866 acres, as well as the construction of more than 20 miles of new roads. Implementation of the project could begin as early as June 1. According to the final decision notice signed by Tally Lake District Ranger Bill Mulholland, approximately 92% of the Round Star project area is in the WUI, where the project would reduce tree densities and fuel loading on a total of 9,190 acres of forest.

OREGON — A coalition of environmental groups and activists are attempting to stop the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from allowing old growth trees to be logged in southern Oregon by waging a complaint in court and sitting in trees slated to be cut. On Monday, activists from the environmental group Pacific Northwest Forest Defense climbed high into several Douglas fir trees in a 10,000-acre forested area near Grants Pass. The bureau has sold more than 2,200 acres in it to six companies to log. Activists say some of the trees due to be harvested are up to 400 years old. …Sarah Bennett, a spokesperson for the bureau, said it is rare for officials to allow the sale of acreage with old growth trees and that environmental assessments have shown both contested harvest areas are low-risk for habitat destruction. George Sexton, conservation director of Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, said the bureau is being dishonest.

APACHE JUNCTIONS, AZ — Arizona wildland fire crews are putting their hard hats on and running toward it. “The mindset isn’t necessarily ‘I’m here to save people.’ It’s – ‘this is my duty,'” said Jeff Gallivan, the Battalion Chief for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. With 9 out of 10 wildfires being caused by humans, Gallivan is making sure response teams stay ready. …On April 1 and 2, DFFM held its annual wildland fire training with local, state and federal agencies. Crews learned how to combat wildfires through in-class learning and field drills, including fire shelter deployment and radio communication. Keyhan Tabak, the fire captain for the Superstition Fire Crew, said the hours of preparation come down to one key component – safety. Tabak said, “we want to make sure our firefighters are physically, mentally trained and capable and able to fight that fire so their safety comes number one.”

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has awarded $3.1 million for 13 projects to reduce wildfire risk to communities and improve forest health. The funding money is part of the $15 million Montana Forest Action Plan, which takes a big-picture approach to reducing the risk of wildfires. Wyatt Frampton, deputy division administrator of forestry and trust lands for the Montana Department of Natural Resources, said the money will be used to foster fire-management cooperation between state and private landowners across 3,200 acres of forest. “Through a variety of activities, such as prescribed fire, logging, mechanical thinning, hand activities as well as tree planting,” Frampton outlined. The 13 most recent restoration projects are spread across the state, including in Lewis and Clark County, the Bitterroot and the South Swan Valley.

In February, 21 members of the Northwest Forest Plan advisory committee met at the University of Oregon to hash out the future of Northwest forests. Committee members are foresters, political leaders, tribal members and lawyers, all with decades of experience in working with the government — except one. Ryan Reed is a grad student, a wildland firefighter, and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California. Despite his young age, it’s clear other committee members look up to him as a leader. …Federal and local governments in the U.S. have long determined how to use the lands that were taken from tribes, oftentimes without asking for their input. Forests were logged, rivers were dammed and freeways divided communities. Now government officials are increasingly calling for tribal inclusion in policymaking. But how much they engage tribes varies, and some Indigenous leaders question whether these agencies truly respect tribal input…

When it came to wildfires, 2021 was an increasingly common kind of year in Montana: Flames consumed 747,000 acres, an area nearly the size of Long Island. About 2,700 of those acres were on Don Harland’s Sheep Creek Ranch, where ever-drier summers have turned lodgepole pines into matchsticks ready to ignite. …A former timber industry executive, Mr. Harland knew the forest wouldn’t grow back on its own. The land is high and dry, the ground rocky and inhospitable — not like the rainy coastal Northwest, where trees grow thick and fast. Nor did he have the money to carry out a replanting operation, since growing for timber wouldn’t pay for itself. …Then a local forester suggested he get in touch with a new company out of Seattle, called Mast… who proposed to replant the whole acreage, free. Mast, in turn, was to earn money from companies that wanted to offset their carbon emissions. 

A federal judge has finalized the return of national forest protections for large trees growing east of the Cascades. The order brings back protections that had long prohibited logging trees larger than 21 inches in diameter from six national forests in eastern Oregon and Washington. …During the final days of the Trump Administration, the U.S. Forest Service amended its guidelines known as Eastside Screens. …The Forest Service claimed this sudden change was needed to thin forests and prevent major wildfires. …The following year, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman recommended the Forest Service restore the large tree protections, calling the agency’s decisions “arbitrary and capricious.” …On Friday, District Judge Ann Aiken issued an order agreeing with Hallman. Aiken concluded the Forest Service violated several federal laws and “failed to take a hard look at the amendment’s change and its impact on aquatic species.”