LONGVIEW, Washington — Work crews took the first steps Monday toward restarting the Longview paper mill that closed after a fatal chemical spill in May, even as questions about the accident and the mill’s future remain unanswered. Nippon Dynawave Packaging said crews have started dismantling the massive “white liquor” storage tank that collapsed May 26, killing 11. The company is also installing temporary tanks to hold the liquor that will eventually be “needed for operational restart” of the mill. Nippon Dynawave said it expects the tank work “to take a matter of weeks”. Company documents filed Monday indicate the temporary tanks could be in use for up three months. And state investigators say it may be late November before they release findings. Despite those uncertainties, the week’s activity was welcome news for the aging facility’s more than 500 workers. [to access the full story a Seattle Times subscription is required]
COSMOPOLIS, Washington — The US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], in coordination with the Washington State Department of Ecology, began a time-critical chemical removal action at the dormant Cosmo Specialty Fibers pulp mill in Cosmopolis, the EPA announced. The announcement states that for the past two years, the EPA and Department of Ecology have worked closely to assess conditions at the non-operational facility and identify actions needed to reduce potential risks to the community and the environment. More than 750,000 gallons of waste chemicals remain at the site, and the facility has accumulated more than $2 million in environmental fines. …Weyerhaeuser operated the mill until 2006, when production shut down. …In 2011 the mill resumed operation as Cosmo Specialty Fibers. The pulp mill had been in intermittent operation since 2011 and shut down in December 2022. UK-based Charlestown Investments and Richard Bassett acquired Cosmo Specialty Fibers in early 2023 with the intent of restarting the mill.
COWICHAN BAY, BC — Western Forest Products has announced the extension of their Cowichan Bay Sawmill curtailment until the fall. The move leaves 54 employees without work, said Brian Butler, president of United Steelworkers Local 1-1937. The Cowichan Bay workers join the 120 workers from the Chemainus Sawmill, who have been curtailed indefinitely since June 2025. “Beyond what WFP has advised about the Cowichan Bay Sawmill curtailment lasting through September, we have no information beyond that,” Butler noted. …“It remains a very difficult period of time for our members in these operations,” Butler said. …WFP spokesperson Kelly Marion said the Cowichan Bay mill closure is “in response to persistently weak market conditions.” She added that the company is continuing “to work to mitigate the impact on employees by providing work opportunities at our other operations where possible.”
PITTSBURGH – United Steelworkers (USW) International President Roxanne Brown and IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) International President Brian Bryant sent a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, urging him to reconsider tariffs on Canadian goods and instead employ a trade policy built on the long history and unique relationship the two nations share. “While it’s true that workers and their communities have suffered greatly from decades of so-called free trade, Canada has never been the problem,” said Brown. “Our two nations share a deep collaboration built on decades of economic integration as well as intelligence and defense cooperation. Rather than imposing further tariffs … we should work together with our Canadian allies to limit illegal trade practices and advance our shared prosperity.” “…we urge the administration to work with the Canadian government to preserve the integrated manufacturing relationship that supports workers on both sides of the border,” said Bryant.
Sidney S. Frissell died in Hamilton, MT, on March 13, 2026. He was a Forestry professor and Dean at the University of Montana, woodsman and an avid birder, watercolor painter of birds in their natural habitats, and lifelong Ham radio operator. …Sid earned a Forestry degree at the University of Minnesota and went to work for the US Forest Service in Randall, Washington. Within a year he returned to graduate studies at Minnesota, earning a Master’s degree and then pursuing a PhD. …In collaboration with colleagues he made lasting contributions in wildlife ecology and management, forest recreation, and wilderness management, coauthoring a methodology for assessing sustainability of use of campsites still applied by forest managers today. After serving several years as Associate Dean of the School of Forestry at the University of Montana, he was promoted to Dean in 1986. …He retired at a relatively young age to pursue a second career in wildlife illustration and bird painting…
Washington has been developing new wildfire safety regulations for several years, including building codes for homes constructed in risky areas and rules for managing plants and vegetation. But restrictions that affect people’s homes and gardens can be unpopular. After public pushback, state legislators backtracked and repealed some of the requirements. Other Western states have also struggled to pass wildfire regulations affecting homeowners’ properties. …Understanding wildfire risk can be challenging in many Western states. For floods, the federal government releases national maps showing which places are at risk of inundation. Wildfire mapping is left to the states, which involves using complex computer models to determine the chances of a fire based on vegetation, terrain and fire behavior. …Washington state officials say the new wildfire maps will be released in December. …Oregon faced similar pushback while developing its wildfire regulations. …Building codes for housing in wildfire-prone areas were pioneered by California.
NORTH DAKOTA — Eric Hoffer, senior project manager at JLG Architects in Bismarck, North Dakota, says mass timber projects are surging due to updated building codes, regional supply chain advantages and a growing focus on embodied carbon — the emissions from manufacturing and transport. Despite accounting for fewer than 1% of national building projects, mass timber is one of sustainable architecture’s fastest-growing trends, with roughly 20% annual growth. “Mass timber sequesters carbon, which then acts as a carbon sink,” Hoffer explained. …The growth of mass timber construction, including cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber (glulam), continues to gain momentum. Project owners are choosing mass timber for a number of reasons, including lower embodied carbon than conventional concrete and steel, faster prefabricated construction, and the warm, natural interior aesthetics it provides. …Some examples of mass timber projects in the region include the Wurth Elektronik Headquarters expansion in Watertown, South Dakota, completed this spring. 
CALIFORNIA — More than 4 million acres of California forest land may lose protected status under a proposed rollback of the Roadless Rule by the U.S. Forest Service. The federal government says the rollback is necessary to allow responsible timber production and wildfire mitigation efforts. Opponents argue rescinding the rule, which prohibits road construction and logging on 45 million acres of national forest land, would increase development, harm wildlife habitat, threaten water supplies and worsen wildfire risk. A public comment period on the proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule is open through midnight Sept. 21, 2026. More than 95% of roadless areas are in 10 Western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, per the USDA. In California, the proposal would open up 4,416,000 acres of roadless land across the state, which has nearly 21 million acres of national forest, the most of any state except Alaska.
California has adopted the toughest rules in the country to help protect communities from burning. Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas will be required to limit plants within five feet of their house, a protective measure that wildfire experts say can help prevent homes from igniting. …Wednesday’s vote by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection comes after years of debate and delays. The state originally considered rules that would have restricted all vegetation within five feet of a house, aside from well-maintained trees. That generated pushback from some communities. …California regulators ultimately struck a compromise. Lawns, flowers and non-woody plants up to 18 inches tall will be allowed, unless they are located directly under the roofline of a house. Trees will be allowed, though branches must be trimmed five feet away from a structure. The rules will apply to new construction right away, but will be phased in for existing structures.
The United States Forest Service is proposing to amend the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) to allow cutting older trees across the western portion of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. As a fifth generation native of the west coast, I have spent a lifetime in these forests as a private citizen and a 40 plus year career as a U.S. Forest Service employee specializing in forestry and forest engineering. The primary proposed change in the 19.4 million acres of forestlands is to allow cutting trees up to 120 years old compared to 80 years in the current plan. Conservatively speaking, 90 or more percent of the old growth forests in the NWFP area were clearcut in the logging and road building boom from 1950 to the mid 1990’s. …The U.S. Forest Service likely lacks the experienced staff needed to carry out the proposed increase in timber harvest. Years of NWFP implementation, combined with recent federal workforce reductions, have significantly weakened the agency’s institutional knowledge. 
As the climate warms, some mountain trees are moving higher up, while others are spreading downhill. Scientists say something inside the trees may explain why. And that split could reshape watersheds and wildfire risk. For years, scientists have expected mountain trees to move upslope in search of cooler conditions. But a new global study found nearly one-third of tree species are moving downhill instead. That matters because where trees grow can affect how forests burn and how much water they soak up before it flows downstream to rural communities, cities and farms. So why are some trees moving in one direction while others head the other way? The answer may lie in how trees move water. Tim Rademacher, a researcher at the University of Vermont and a co-author of the study, says some species can move water quickly and efficiently, helping them grow. But that efficiency comes with a cost.
The Babylon Fire left parts of the burned landscape more vulnerable to flooding, erosion and debris flows, with increased runoff and erosion likely to recur intermittently for five to 10 years as the landscape recovers. The Forest Service’s newly released Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) report recommends emergency work to reduce those risks, including road-drainage improvements, debris racks at culverts, warning signs, closures and stabilization at old mine sites. Although the most severe soil damage covered only 5% of the area assessed, the report identified five drainages with the highest potential for debris flows. The lightning-caused Babylon Fire started June 26 in the Abajo Mountains about 25 miles southwest of Monticello and burned across parts of Elk Ridge, Dark Canyon Wilderness and Bears Ears National Monument within the Manti-La Sal National Forest. …The report says ground cover typically takes three to five years to re-establish and can take up to 10 years, particularly if drought persists.
The northern spotted owl is in trouble—per usual. This vanishingly rare subspecies of spotted owl earned its iconic status in the late ’80s and early ’90s, during the height of the Timber Wars in the Pacific Northwest. For forest defenders, the spotted owl is a sacred totem. For loggers, it’s been a pest. In 1990, federal officials reclassified the raptor as a threatened species, and greens won the Timber Wars with the establishment of the Clinton-era Northwest Forest Plan. The spotted owl left the trees standing—yet the number of spotted owls continued to decline. The culprit? The barred owl. …Today, just 15,000 spotted owls remain across North America; in comparison, there are some 3.5 million barred owls. So officials with the US Fish and Wildlife Service have come up with a bold plan to help the spotted owls: Shoot the barred owls.
Drought and wildfires are straining wildlife and the habitats they depend on across Colorado, prompting Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to closely monitor habitat conditions as animals face increased stress in their search for food, water and shelter. Wildfires rapidly alter ecosystems by removing vegetation that provides food and cover for wildlife. While ecosystems are adapted to periodic fire and will recover over time, large wildfires may reduce habitat quality, displace animals and increase competition for limited resources. Species unable to relocate quickly or that rely on specialized habitats are especially vulnerable this summer. …CPW is adjusting hunting and fishing season structures and license quotas in areas affected by wildfire damage, closing boating ramps during extreme drought conditions, and establishing voluntary and mandatory fishing closures to help sustain healthy habitats and wildlife populations. …Give wildlife extra space and respect area closures. Do not feed wildlife; let them find natural food sources. 
Today, many Washingtonians may be unaware that a looming federal policy change could have major consequences for the availability, quality and cost of the freshwater they rely on daily. …In August 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officially launched a process to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Implemented in 2001, the Rule designated special areas across nearly 60 million acres of forests within the National Forest System. …The Rule reflects scientific evidence that extensive logging and road building contributed to widespread loss and fragmentation of habitat for wildlife and salmon, and degraded water quality for downstream communities. Just how important are roadless areas in national forests? To answer this question, we conducted the science and 
The soupy, toxic fog that hung over Seattle and the Puget Sound region last week was a constant reminder of the wildfires raging across Eastern Washington. It can feel insufferable and inevitable — that the fires will burn, increasingly in every corner of the state, as the years become hotter and drier. But rather than resigning ourselves to this fate, the smoky skies should reinforce a call to action, for every Washingtonian. The wildfires that consumed neighborhoods in Spokane and enveloped forests in Chelan and elsewhere have a kind of performance-enhancing drug feeding their flames: climate change. As a society, we can choose to deny this reality, but it does little good to do so. The forecast each year will continue to be tinderbox-like conditions. We must do all we can to prepare for it. …Inaction will lead to devastation. Facing this growing risk is the only option. [to access the full story a Seattle Times subscription is required]
This fog-shrouded patch of coastal forest in the heart of Yurok Country was tended by the tribe for millennia. But in the Gold Rush era it was taken away and, later, used by the logging industry, reshaping the landscape. Now, as the land heals from the scars of a long-running lumber mill, it has been returned to its original stewards, who will operate it as a public gateway to Redwood National and State Parks about 50 miles south of the Oregon border. Save the Redwoods League in June conveyed the 125-acre property to the Yurok Tribe following a yearslong project to restore the degraded industrial site to a diverse riparian habitat. It opens to the public Saturday as ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway, which features interpretive exhibits and trails leading to old-growth redwood groves.
The U.S. Forest Service has promised to approve at least 20,000 acres a year worth of forest thinning projects annually to support forest restoration and wildfire protection in the footprint of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, or 4FRI. The commitment is key to the 4FRI effort to save Northern Arizona’s forests and forested communities, partly because it provides a guarantee of biomass to support loggers and support industries. The 4FRI collaboration on the Tonto, Coconino, Apache-Sitgreaves and Kaibab forests remains the most ambitious forest restoration effort on the continent. However, the fitful approvals of logging and restoration projects has hobbled the timber industry needed to thin millions of overgrown, fire-prone acres. The slow pace of project approvals has limited the growth of the logging industry, especially crucial operations that can make use of the low-value biomass produced by every thinning project.
Trump administration officials and members of Congress walked along the burn scar from Utah’s devastating Cottonwood Fire last week…. If the forest had been thinned, with “a lot fewer trees per acre, and maybe even some controlled burns to take the underbrush out, there’s just not the fuel there when these fires start to make them catastrophic fires,” Rep. Bruce Westerman said. The Arkansas Republican chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. But these traditional fire prevention methods may no longer work with a changing climate that makes hot, dry weather increasingly the norm said Dominik Kulakowski, a professor of geography at Clark University in Massachusetts. “The implication of that,” he said, “is that we’re losing our ability to manage forest fires.” …The Trump administration issued a directive this year calling on federal agencies to aggressively suppress all fires — including the smaller ones that forests evolved with and may keep them healthy.
The Trump administration is drastically changing the way the country protects endangered species, potentially jeopardizing years of policymaking in Oregon. Still, Oregon land regulators are moving ahead with plans for protecting Oregon’s forests that are essential for endangered species, including marbled murrelets and spotted owls. …For more than six years, Oregon land agencies, conservationists and loggers have been crafting plans that will protect Oregon’s most sensitive habitats, while also helping landowners avoid lawsuits when their logging projects harm federally endangered species. …Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it is removing the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act, effective in September. …Last year, Gov. Tina Kotek and multiple Oregon state agencies submitted comments opposing the change. …“In Oregon, where approximately 53% of the land is federally managed, habitat protection is essential to ongoing conservation efforts,” Kotek wrote.
Seven years ago, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, with the support of local residents, took the U.S. Forest Service to federal court to halt the Hanna Flats logging, road-building and burning project on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests in North Idaho. The good news — for grizzly bears, old growth forests and the local populace — is that a federal appeals court just ruled for the Alliance. The logging project is located in the habitat of the imperiled Selkirk grizzly bears, which have been reduced to a mere 50 bears when the minimum needed for recovery is 100 bears. The bears suffer from human-caused mortality at unsustainable rates and are regularly displaced and harmed from logging and road-building. …There is no hope of recovering this imperiled grizzly population as required by the Endangered Species Act unless the government starts complying with the law. This court decision is one step in the right direction.
PORT ANGELES, Washington — The Clallam County commissioners are set to throw their support toward a company exploring the possibility of repurposing the former McKinley Mill site. The commissioners discussed a letter of support for Candelaria Industries’ Biopower Redevelopment Proposal with the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities’ request for proposals for repurposing closed wood products facilities for bioenergy development. Candelaria Industries purchased the former McKinley Mill site in June and is evaluating potential reuse of the industrial property and existing infrastructure. …On June 15, the endowment launched a funding opportunity to assessed closed wood products facilities for bioenergy development, the site states. Up to $500,000 in funding is available “to test the renewable energy and economic potential of idled industrial sites in forest-dependent regions,” according to the site.
A man charged with starting one of the wildfires in Spokane, Washington, that have destroyed hundreds of buildings planned the crime for weeks and researched when the weather would be best for igniting it, police said. In an interview after his arrest, Aaron Farinacci said “fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth,” Spokane County Detective Michael Drapeau wrote in a court filing Wednesday. Farinacci, 37, is charged with starting the Old Trails fire, one of three blazes in the Spokane area that have burned more than 850 buildings, destroying whole neighborhoods and streets. …Farinacci served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Mesa, Arizona, in 2010. He also shot himself. He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault. Farinacci’s lawyer repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health during the case.
Just three days into August, Oregon has already broken its record for its worst wildfire season on record, with more than 2 million acres burned across the state. …Oregon has seen wildfire activity surge in 2026, with the Oregon Department of Forestry counting more than 1,300 fires so far this year. Here is an update on the largest fires burning across the state:
