Region Archives: United States

Jim Furnish

Amidst all the bad climate and environmental news is a welcome development: the Biden administration’s announcement of a new national policy aimed at protecting old-growth forests. The proposal advances the cheapest, most effective solution we have – leave them standing. …This leads me to note that, while protecting old-growth is a major step forward, the policy is glaringly silent about mature forests. Old-growth emerges from mature forests, and without additional measures to address this void, I fear the Forest Service is squandering this opportunity to increase old-growth after decades of aggressive logging eliminated most of what existed as recently as 1950. The Forest Service has not fully embraced this “conservation moment.” Even as the old-growth protection policy was being announced, the agency was rolling out its plan to amend the Northwest Forest Plan.

A new forestry practice is confounding hikers deep in the woods of Orland. It’s strange. It’s ugly. But it’s working. I recently stumbled upon it while hiking Great Pond Mountain and Oak Hill in Orland, in a swathe of conserved land known as the Wildlands. And all I could think was: What on Earth happened here? Throughout the forest, trees were sawed off a few feet above the ground, leaving thousands of hip-high stumps. …So I reached out to the landowner, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, and was fascinated by the explanation. High-stumping is a forestry method used to get rid of diseased, canker-filled beech trees. “By cutting up high, the root system thinks there’s still a tree up there and doesn’t root sprout,” said Landon Fake, the land trust’s executive director. “It continues to send nutrients up the trunk.”

Randy Moore

U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore spoke Thursday with loggers and others in forestry about forest fires, logging, and sustainability at the 86th annual Oregon Logging Conference in Eugene. Moore gave the keynote address before taking questions from attendees, many of whom were critical of the Forest Service’s management of federal forests in Oregon. After his speech, the newspaper questioned the USFS Chief and didn’t get much for answers, which Moore is well known for. Asked about an escaped RxFire last summer east of Eugene, and another over in Grant County that resulted in the arrest and arraignment of FS burn boss Ricky Snodgrass, Moore said he’s confident the agency has the ability to managed prescribed burns. …Moore was also asked about the planned update to the Northwest Forest Plan, which was developed by Jack Ward Thomas and a small army of experts back in the early 1990s. 

…Over two years, about one-fifth of all giant sequoias have been killed in extreme wildfires in California. The numbers shocked ecologists, since the enormous trees can live more than 2,000 years and have evolved to live with frequent, low-intensity fires in the Sierra Nevada. …After the 2020 and 2021 fires, scientists watched the sequoia groves to see if the next generation of trees is emerging to replace their lost parents. In some places, seedlings are filling the forest floor. In others, fewer are emerging from the burned soil. …So in a historic step, the National Park Service has begun replanting some severely burned areas. …A handful of conservation groups are suing to halt the effort, arguing that such intervention shouldn’t occur in an area designated as federal wilderness… Land managers face a key question: As humans take an increasing toll on natural landscapes, how far should we go to fix it?

When should a road count as a road? Grizzly bears avoid roads — even ones that aren’t used by motor vehicles. So the Flathead National Forest is supposed to limit road density on forest land for that threatened species – and bull trout benefit, too. But a forest plan’s descriptions of roads — as “decommissioned” or “closed” or “impassable” — were one subject of arguments made this week in U.S. District Court in Missoula before Judge Kathleen DeSoto. In the case, conservation groups allege the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service are again failing to protect grizzly bears and bull trout by skirting a tried and true way to account for roads. A lawyer for the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan said the agencies haven’t properly considered the displacement of bears or impacts to bull trout in a new forest plan with a new category of road.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore talked about forest fires, logging and sustainability practices Thursday at the 86^th annual Oregon Logging Conference at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Moore gave the keynote address at the conference before answering questions from attendees, many of whom were critical of the Forest Service’s management of federal forests in Oregon. The Register-Guard spoke with Moore following his speech about issues impacting Oregon in the age of wildfires. [Moore described using cross laminated timber and biochar technologies to facilitate forest thinning, commented on the challenges of firefighting resources and changes to the Northwest Forest Plan.]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Forests in the coolest, wettest parts of the western Pacific Northwest are likely to see the biggest increases in burn probability, fire size and number of blazes as the climate continues to get warmer and drier, according to new modeling led by an Oregon State University scientist. Understanding how fire regimes may change under future climate scenarios is critical for developing adaptation strategies, said the study’s lead author, Alex Dye. Dye, a faculty research associate in the OSU College of Forestry, and collaborators with the U.S. Forest Service conducted novel, comprehensive wildfire simulations for more than 23 million acres of forest land west of the Cascade Range crest in Oregon and Washington. …Forests in all of the affected areas are linchpins of multiple socio-ecological systems in the Northwest, Dye said, meaning more fire will likely put pressure on everything from drinking water sources and timber resources to biodiversity and carbon stocks.

Democratic lawmakers approached the February short session intending to create sustainable wildfire funding but their options have narrowed as the state nears another wildfire season with inadequate funding. The Oregon Department of Forestry and State Fire Marshal’s Office currently have $87 million for the next two seasons, compared with the $220 million for wildfire the agencies had two years ago. And now, halfway through the session, only two of three Democratic proposals will move on. House Bill 4133, proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland, would cut the per-acre fees that timber and ranch landowners pay to the state while increasing taxes on timber harvest and two other taxes for the first time in 15 years to account for inflation. …Another proposal, from Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland and Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, would refer a ballot measure to Oregonians, to tax timber companies on the value of their harvests to help pay for state wildfire prevention and protection.