Region Archives: US West

Business & Politics

84 Lumber to open 2nd component plant in South Carolina

The LBM Journal
October 10, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Clarendon County, South Carolina — 84 Lumber announced it has selected Clarendon County to establish the company’s second component plant in South Carolina. The $13.4 million investment will create 78 new jobs, according to the South Carolina Department of Commerce. …84 Lumber’s new operation, located at 2678 Ram Bay Road in Manning, will be used as a floor and roof truss manufacturing facility. This is the company’s second truss plant in South Carolina, focusing on coastal Carolina markets in Savannah, Charleston, Myrtle Beach and the surrounding areas. The company’s first component plant in the state was announced in December 2023 and is located in Lugoff.

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Stoltze Lumber Company opens its doors to the community as part of Manufacturing Month

By Kiana Wilson
KPAX.com
October 9, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

MONTANA — Stoltze Land and Lumber Company, which has been logging and producing lumber in the Flathead for 112 years, held a tour on Tuesday to show exactly how lumber is produced. As one of the last surviving lumber mills in Montana, Stoltze opened its doors to the community during Manufacturing Month to show the people behind the product. …While a lot of lumber companies across Montana have been closing, Stoltze is thriving with about 120 employees and producing around 60 million board feet of lumber per year. “You know, it’s sad that these other mills are going down and shutting down. It’s heart-wrenching, you know, not just for the family, but for the community,” said Kjensrud. But Stoltze has no plans to close its doors and continues to upgrade its machinery and technology to make a more efficient and profitable mill.

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‘It is bad for women’: Workers condemn culture at Oregon Forestry Department

By Noel Crombie
The Oregonian
October 9, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

The state has received about a dozen complaints against Oregon Department of Forestry leaders this year, with some employees alleging a hostile culture toward women, a lack of diversity and a fear of retaliation. The complaints include one from Brenda McComb, vice chair of the Oregon Board of Forestry, who told state officials that she had seen little evidence that the Forestry Department had advanced “diversity representation” among its workforce or advisory committees. [to access the full story, an Oregonian subscription is required]

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Montana’s Pyramid Mountain Lumber nearing full scale closure

By Ian Alvano
Montana Right Now
October 8, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

SEELEY LAKE, Montana – Pyramid Mountain Lumber, once the largest employer in Seeley Lake, Mont., is reaching the end of its operations. Back in March, Pyramid’s closure was announced, and now the last units of lumber have been processed. Currently, around 25 employees remain from an original workforce of nearly 100. They are staying on as the company prepares for an online auction at the end of October, followed by a complete shutdown 10 days later. Todd Johnson, General Manager of Pyramid Mountain Lumber, said, “You think it’s a long way off as you’re moving through this process but as you’re getting towards the end it’s kind of surreal,” said Johnson. “It’s a little depressing to see what’s going on and see your history, your company being put on piles and getting ready to be auctioned you know.”

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New sawmill opens outside of Flagstaff to help prevent wildfires

By Mason Carroll
AZ Family
October 8, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

FLAGSTAFF, AZ  — The largest sawmill in the Southwest officially opened Tuesday just outside of Flagstaff. It will help Coconino County on its mission of forest restoration to prevent major wildfires. Since 2010, wildfires have burned over a quarter million acres in Coconino County. Coconino County Flood Control District community relations manager Sean Golightly said the county takes wildfires and their consequences very seriously. “Wildfire and post-wildfire flooding are the two biggest public safety threats in Coconino County,” Golightly said. …Forest Restoration director Jay Smith in Coconino County Public Works said that without a mill, it can end up costing the county more to do nothing with the wood. “The timber has so little value or if we’re trying to remove biomass, there’s a cost involved versus just the timber paying for itself to get out of the woods,” Smith said.

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Roseboro plans $120 million expansion in Springfield, Oregon

By Nathan Wilk
Oregon Public Broadcasting
October 4, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

SPRINGFIELD, Oregon — Roseboro plans to spend around $120 million to expand its manufacturing site in Springfield. Founded in Springfield in 1939, Rosboro claims to be the largest producer of glue-laminated timber products in North America. Now, the company said it will construct two new mills on its Springfield campus, and expand its timber-drying operation there. …Rosboro VP of Marketing and Strategic Development Brian Wells said the dry-kiln expansion is almost complete, and both of the new mills should be operational by the end of 2026. He said altogether, this could create up to 100 new union jobs. …In February of this year, Rosboro laid off 25 workers when it closed down its stud mill in Springfield. Wells said due to market conditions and government regulations, that facility was making a product that wasn’t profitable.

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Ronald Parker elected Chair of Roseburg’s Board of Directors, replacing Allyn Ford

Roseburg Forest Products
October 1, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Ronald Parker

Ronald Parker, a longtime director of Roseburg, former Roseburg chief financial officer and former CEO of Hampton Lumber, has been elected Chair of Roseburg’s Board of Directors. Parker replaces Allyn Ford, who led Roseburg’s transformation over the past 30 years. Ford will continue as an active member of the Board. Parker is the first non-Ford family member to serve as the Board’s chair in the company’s nearly 90-year history. The transition, effective October 1, 2024, will further the family ownership’s goal of ensuring long-term leadership and governance in the next phase of company growth. Parker joined Roseburg’s Board in 2005 after serving as the company’s CFO from 1986 to 1995. He retired as vice chairman of Hampton Affiliates and previously served as its president.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Grants to fund two clean energy projects in Clallam County

By Emma Maple
Sequim Gazette
October 2, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Two clean energy projects are underway in Sequim and Port Angeles, aided by funding obtained from the state Department of Commerce. These projects will help reduce byproduct waste for the Composite Recycling Technology Center (CRTC) and aid in construction of an independent microgrid for the Clallam County Public Utility District (PUD) No. 1. The CRTC will use about two-thirds of its $437,000 grant to buy equipment that can repurpose wood byproducts resulting from housing kit production. The remaining one-third will go to the Makah Tribe, which will also use the funds to reduce wood byproducts… The CRTC thermally modifies the lumber, which collapses the wood and removes much of the moisture, resulting in pressure-treated wood without the use of chemicals.

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Forestry

USDA and Arizona Sign Shared Stewardship Agreement to Reduce Community Wildfire Risk and Increase Forest Health

US Department of Agriculture
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PHOENIX – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Dr. Homer Wilkes and Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed a Shared Stewardship Agreement to strengthen collaboration between state and federal land management agencies in the State of Arizona. The State of Arizona and the USDA Forest Service have a long and successful record of collaborating on efforts to improve forest health and resilience. Today’s agreement focuses on federal and state agencies working together to respond to land management challenges and concerns across Arizona forests. Today’s agreement builds on a 2020 Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, aimed at accelerating the pace and scale of projects like the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), and will assist the state and the Forest Service in their continued efforts to address the wildfire crisis in Arizona’s high priority “firesheds ” using funding from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

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Washington State Provides More Information About Suspension of Deputy Director at Department of Forestry

By Nigel Jaquiss
The Willamette Week
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon state officials today released records that shed some light on the abrupt suspension of the second-ranking official at the Oregon Department of Forestry, deputy state forester Mike Shaw. WW first reported in August that the agency had placed Shaw on leave during the height of the largest wildfire season in Oregon history. …On Aug. 6, Shaw’s boss, Cal Mukumoto, the state forester, sent DAS director Berri Leslie an email with the subject line “ODF sensitive issue.” …The alleged misconduct is not specified in Mukumoto’s letter, but other emails that show a series of emails from a former female Department of Forestry diversity, equity and inclusion official expressing frustration that Shaw had excluded her from what the agency calls “leadership team” meetings. …On Oct. 10, The Oregonian reported a story on ODF that appears related.

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The Forest Service is cutting its seasonal workforce and public lands will suffer

By Nick Bowlin
High Country News
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Americans visit hiking and camping areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service more than 150 million times each year. …Due to a looming budget cut, the agency will not be hiring seasonal staff for the next fiscal year, leaving thousands of people out of work and putting essential conservation and biodiversity work at risk. …The spending bill that recently passed the U.S House of Representatives gave the agency around half a billion dollars less than it requested, meaning that the Forest Service faces a large budget cut. Most of the other environmental and science-based federal agencies also face large cuts. Meanwhile, the money that the agency received from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s signature climate law, has already been spent. …This decision does not apply to the more than 11,000 temporary firefighting positions that the Forest Service hires every year.

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How the Northwest Forest Plan may reshape management of our woods: Part 1 of 2

By Nathan Wilson
Columbia Gorge News
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In March 1989, environmental activists from Earth First! chained themselves to trees and buried themselves under rocks, unsuccessfully preventing the North Roaring Devil timber sale in Breintenbush Hot Springs, Oregon. Dubbed the “Easter Massacre,” it ignited the Timber Wars, a years-long slew of protests, academic disputes and legal battles fixated on protecting mature, old-growth forests and the endangered northern spotted owl, ultimately culminating in the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Passed in 1994, the NWFP is a land management strategy that governs more than 24 million acres of federal forests across Oregon, Washington and Northern California — balancing conservation and ecological resilience with a logging economy that many small, rural communities depend on. Now, it’s getting amended, and much has changed over the past three decades. …The USFS intends to release its draft plan on Nov. 6. While the agency isn’t required to adopt any of the FAC’s recommendations, incorporating just some may reshape how the Northwest’s forests are managed.

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Washington businesses turn to pine cone collectors to regrow burned forests

By Matthew Smith
Fox 13 Seattle
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

DARRINGTON, Washington – Locals are being tapped to collect pine cones in an effort to store seeds to re-grow forests before wildfires destroy natural seed banks in the Pacific Northwest. This fall, cone collectors hit mountainous locations in search of fresh pine cones around Darrington. …Collecting cones for cash is hardly new, though, there is more attention on the work than ever before as concerns grow with larger, more destructive wildfires along the West Coast. In Darrington, a non-profit called Glacier Peak Institute acts as the middleman between Mast Reforestation and Silvaseed, the end-users of the seeds being collected today. …Kea Woodruff, Silvaseed’s general manager, “Under whatever future scenarios happen in the landscape, we had the seed we’re collecting that captures all that range of diversity so we can put trees back into the landscape in the future.”

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How forest management helps mitigate an increasing fire threat

By The Washington Forest Protection Association
The Seattle Times
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Fire has always played a significant role in Pacific Northwest forests. Fire in the Cascades, historically sparked by lightning strikes, led to a natural succession that cleared debris on the forest floor, eliminated old and weaker individual trees, provided room for new plant growth, and, in the case of ponderosa pines, induced germination. …Yet today, due to several factors, the historical “fire season” has been replaced with the “fire year.” “Climate change has had a dramatic impact on the forest,” says George Geissler, deputy supervisor over Fire Management at the Department of Natural Resources. …As Washington state’s forester, Geissler is charged with maintaining healthy forests across the state. He says the region’s diverse environments require specific management techniques, noting that the dry eastern foothills of the Cascades are significantly different from the “almost tropical” forests of the Olympic Peninsula.

 

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U.S. Forest Service, Calif. fire agencies battle over wildfire aviation policies

By Tony Saavedra and Sean Emery
The Orange County Register in Fire Rescue 1
October 5, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — The Orange County Fire Authority and U.S. Forest Service are battling over accusations that USFS policies grounded an elite aerial unit during major fires and left the Cleveland National Forest susceptible to the recent Airport blaze that torched 23,526 acres. Southern California congressional members want answers from Forest Service officials. One point of contention involves the Southern California-based Quick Reaction Force, a squad of night-flying, converted military helicopters that can drop 3,000 gallons of water and fire retardant. The force’s operators, led by Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy, allege the USFS at times grounded the team during one of the busiest fire seasons in recent history. …The crux of the issue: for the last four years, U.S. Forest Service policy has required that all aerial supervisors …must be government employees … they must work for a government agency. This policy applies only to fires in national wildlands or using USFS resources.

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Idaho officials grapple with worsening fire season

By Chloe Baul
Courthouse News in the Missoula Current
October 7, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

BOISE, Idaho — …the Wapiti Fire that tore across the steep terrain of the Boise National Forest … was a fitting example of this year’s Idaho fire season, which has left officials scrambling to keep up. Wildfires are striking more frequently and with greater intensity across the United States, a trend that will continue without action to address climate change. According to Josh Harvey, chief of fire management for the state Department of Lands, Idaho has had 318 fires this year, which have collectively burned 53,765 acres. Of those, 133 were caused by humans, while 119 were sparked by lightning. Another 66 are still under investigation. …The wildfire threat is increasing for several reasons, Harvey said, including population growth and more people moving into areas that used to be untouched. …Jen Pierce, an associate professor of geosciences at Boise State University, noted how climate change is reshaping fire seasons across the United States. Idaho is no exception.

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Only active management can prevent forest fires

By Cecilia Greco, policy fellow, American Conservation Coalition
Lompoc Record
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Cecilia Greco

As climate change heightens wildfire activity and extends the wildfire season, it is imperative to implement commonsense, responsible methods of active forest management to control and mitigate wildfires. …With six out of the last seven years being the planet’s most intense wildfire seasons on record, active forest management is vital in mitigating the effects of fires and preventing future fires from spreading uncontrollably. …active forest management cannot be implemented unless bureaucratic red tape is cut and environmental review processes are reformed. …Active forest management involves using time-tested and systematic techniques to reduce the occurrence of wildfires. …To go from fire mismanagement to active management, two members of the House Committee on Natural Resources have proposed the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act. The act aims to streamline the environmental review process for efficient approval of forest management projects, ensuring they are timely and cost-effective.

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Families and fire: Forest Service group aims to keep more women fighting wildfires

By Ellis Juhlin
Montana Public Radio
October 3, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Megan McKinnie

Megan McKinnie [was a] smokejumper, parachuting out of planes to fight wildfires for the U.S. Forest Service until she found out she was pregnant with twins. Today, McKinnie coordinates the flights at a nearby tanker base that drop retardant onto wildfires, while juggling her family. “I saw a lot of women that started families and ended up leaving the agency,” McKinnie says. Data collected by the Forest Service shows that most women firefighters leave the field six or seven years in, when many begin having kids. …McKinnie is part of the Forest Service’s new Women in Wildland Fire Advisory Council, formed to encourage more women to stay in the profession. Jamey Toland created the council almost a year ago, that includes 22 women across the country. They’re looking at solutions like daycares at Forest Service facilities, changing the agency’s pregnancy and postpartum fitness requirements for firefighters, and building all-women training camps.

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Oregon struggles to recover more than $24M from people responsible for wildfires

By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregonian
October 2, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Department of Forestry investigates the cause of every fire it responds to and if someone is found to have been negligent or malicious in starting or spreading a significant fire, the agency pursues reimbursement for its firefighting costs. The agency has not been very successful in recouping those costs, according to a report discussed by the Emergency Fire Cost Committee. The account offered a rare glimpse into the scale of the costs and the efforts to recover them. But it only represented a snapshot of the problem, excluding a full list of all the fires the state is investigating or pursuing for reimbursement said forestry spokesperson, Jessica Neujahr. …The report showed the forestry department spent at least $24 million to respond to 36 significant fires caused or spread negligently or maliciously by people or groups since 2004, and that in pursuing reimbursement, it has collected just $86,000 from “responsible parties.”

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Litigation looms over latest round of Washington state timber sales

By Bill Lucia
Washington State Standard
October 1, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Conservation advocates are prepared to sue over more than half of the timber sales Washington’s Board of Natural Resources approved on Tuesday, the latest flare-up in the fight over whether older trees on state-owned forestland should be spared from logging. The board approved a package of nine sales that would involve cutting roughly 1,200 acres of trees across western Washington, with minimum revenue expected to be around $13.8 million. Staff at the Department of Natural Resources put together plans for the sales and money generated would go largely to schools, counties, and public universities. Tacoma-based Legacy Forest Defense Coalition opposed five of the nine sales… “We’re probably going to appeal every single one”.

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Kaniksu Land Trust receives easement from Idaho Forest Group

By Eric Welch
The Bonner County Daily Bee
September 5, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

BOISE, Idaho — On Aug. 30, Idaho Forest Group and Kaniksu Land Trust put pen to paper to protect nearly 2,000 acres of North Idaho wilderness forever. In the deal, Idaho Forest Group donated the development rights for land along Prichard Creek, a tributary of the Coeur d’Alene River, to ensure the land is conserved for generations to come. “It’s a big deal,” said Regan Plumb, Kaniksu Land Trust conservation director. “To be able to protect almost an entire watershed and make sure that this stream is safe forever is really unique.” The agreement was conceived four years ago when Idaho Forest Group approached Kaniksu about gifting an easement for the area. Now, after years of paperwork and approvals, Kaniksu safeguards the right to develop or significantly subdivide the land — a privilege valued at $3 million.

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As many forests fail to recover from wildfires, replanting efforts face huge odds — and obstacles

By Tammy Webber, Brittany Peterson, and Camille Fasset
Financial Post
September 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

As the gap between burned areas and replanting widens year after year, scientists see big challenges beyond where to put seedlings. The U.S. currently lacks the ability to collect enough seeds from living trees and the nursery capacity to grow seedlings for replanting on a scale anywhere close to stemming accelerating losses, researchers say. It also doesn’t have enough trained workers to plant and monitor trees. The Forest Service said the biggest roadblock to replanting on public land is completing environmental and cultural assessments and preparing severely burned areas so they’re safe to plant. That can take years — while more forests are lost to fire… 

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Can Washington state hack and burn its way out of a future of megafires?

By Amanda Zhou
Phys.Org
September 30, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

After over a century of policies that prioritized fire suppression, unhealthy and overgrown forests are widespread across Eastern Washington. When a wildfire sweeps through these forests, which historically would experience periodic fires, they burn to a crisp because of decades of accumulated leaves, pine needles, shrubs and younger trees in the understory. Nevertheless, barriers and questions remain. Prescribed fire, an essential step in making forests more resilient to wildfire, has been thwarted by workforce shortages and regulatory roadblocks. Hundreds of thousands to millions of acres still need some kind of intervention to be restored to health… Forest resiliency scientists argue the treatments—if done at scale—have the potential to fundamentally change fire behavior in the state.

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Alaska resource projects and landscapes are again in the crosshairs of a presidential election

By Alex DeMarban
Anchorage Daily News
September 29, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Major Alaska resource projects, and the land they could be built on, may be at stake in the presidential election. They include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and elsewhere in Alaska, logging in the Tongass National Forest, and cutting a 200-mile road through Alaska wilderness to access the Ambler mining district… Trump could attempt to again repeal the Roadless Rule in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to open up logging potential, undoing Biden’s reversal. But procedures and timelines may not leave much time for timber sales… More consequential for Alaska will be the next president’s position on climate change… If Harris wins, she’s expected to build on Biden policies that in Alaska support renewable energy and related efforts.

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Sustaining old growth requires active stewardship

By Nick Smith
The Seattle Times
September 26, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Active, science-based stewardship is crucial to protecting these forests. In areas where active management has been implemented, the data suggest old-growth forests have increased. This shows that careful and strategic timber harvesting, among other methods, is an important conservation tool… The timber industry has moved on from the timber wars. It no longer seeks, nor is it equipped to harvest and process the biggest and oldest trees to make the products we all use every day. Today’s industry is focused on maintaining the region’s leadership in advanced forestry and manufacturing green building products that store carbon for generations. Without healthy forests, there is no timber industry. If we truly care about the future of our old-growth forests, we must prioritize action over process.

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Nearly five months in, Oregon wildfire season expected to last into mid-October

By Alex Baumhardt
The Herald and News
September 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon’s forest and fire leaders were succinct in describing this year’s wildfire season to a group of Oregon senators. “It just won’t quit is essentially where we’re at, and our folks are really tired,” Kyle Williams, deputy director of fire operations at the Oregon Department of Forestry, told the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire on Tuesday. Williams and two others — Doug Graffe, Gov. Tina Kotek’s wildfire and military advisor; and Travis Medema, a chief deputy for the Oregon State Fire Marshal — told senators the state would likely wrap up its now five-monthlong fire season in mid-October, following a record 1.9 million acres burned. That’s nearly three times as many acres as the state’s 10-year average. Medema said projections from the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which coordinates wildfire resources, showed one or two more “significant event days” before the state is fully out of the 2024 wildfire season.

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Colorado’s Wildfire Review Committee Approves Bills to Bolster Forestry Workforce and Improve Prevention and Mitigation Strategies

Colorado House Democrats
September 26, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

DENVER, Colorado – The Wildfire Matters Review Committee advanced bills to bolster the forestry workforce and improve wildfire prevention and mitigation strategies. Bill 2, sponsored by Representatives Tisha Mauro, D-Pueblo, and Ron Weinberg, R-Loveland, and Senators Janice Marchman, D-Loveland and Mark Baisley, R-Woodland Park, would grant landowners who allow access to their property during an emergency immunity from civil liability charges for damage or injury to people or property. …Sponsored by Senator Lisa Cutter, D-Jefferson County, Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs and Representative Andrew Boesenecker, D-Fort Collins, as well as Marchman, Bill 3 would support outreach programs to bolster the forestry workforce. The bill would direct Colorado State University to develop outreach programs to build skills and forestry career awareness, and to promote degree programs in forestry. Additionally, it would require the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to provide grants for firefighter and trainer certification.

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As many forests fail to recover from wildfires, replanting efforts face huge odds — and obstacles

By Tammy Webber, Brittany Peterson and Camille Fassett
The Associate Press
September 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

BELLVUE, Colo. — Camille Stevens-Rumann, interim director at the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and her research team are monitoring several species planted two years ago on a slope burned during the devastating 2020 Cameron Peak fire, which charred 326 square miles (844 square kilometers) in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. They want to determine which species are likely to survive at various elevations, because climate change makes it difficult or impossible for many forests to regrow even decades after wildfires. As the gap between burned areas and replanting widens year after year, scientists see big challenges beyond where to put seedlings. The U.S. currently lacks the ability to collect enough seeds from living trees and the nursery capacity to grow seedlings for replanting on a scale anywhere close to stemming accelerating losses, researchers say. It also doesn’t have enough trained workers to plant and monitor trees.

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State leaders send forestry department extra $47.5 million to cover mounting wildfire costs

By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregon Capital Chronicle
September 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Department of Forestry is getting help from the state’s general fund to pay its bills after a record wildfire season. The Legislative Emergency Board voted Wednesday to send $47.5 million to the forestry department to help cover the costs of the 2024 wildfire season. Spending on wildfires so far this year has topped nearly $250 million, about 2.5 times the amount budgeted for the forestry department and the State Fire Marshal’s Office for wildfire response. …About half of the $47.5 million was previously earmarked for a potentially expensive wildfire season, while $20 million was appropriated as emergency funding by the board. There have been more than 2,000 fires this year that have scorched nearly 2 million acres – a record in the state and more than three times the 10-year average for acres burned. Gov. Tina Kotek has invoked the Conflagration Act 17 times this year – a new record. 

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Province-wide coalition aims to overhaul BC forestry laws

The Prince George Citizen
September 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, US West

Herb Hammond

PRINCE GEORGE, BC — The Power of Forests Project, a BC-wide coalition that want to see changes made to the province’s forestry industry, will be in Prince George on the weekend. The event happens Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Canfor Theatre from noon to 3:30 p.m., with forester Herb Hammond and Michelle Connolly of Conservation North, a volunteer-led group in Prince George. …Project organizers are calling for a new provincial forestry act, the primary objective of which would be to maintain the ecological integrity of forest ecosystems while developing community-based jobs that would strengthen the provincial economy. …“With 55,000 jobs lost in 20 years and all the damage being done, the current forestry system is not worth keeping. Legislation must safeguard the people and nature – our very survival depends on it,” said Jennifer Houghton.

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Feds to auction off dead trees in southern Oregon that conservationist says are healthy

By Roman Battaglia
Oregon Public Broadcasting
September 24, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The federal Bureau of Land Management plans to auction off almost 500 acres of forestland on Thursday to log dead or dying trees. But, one conservationist says many of the trees are actually healthy. The Boaz and Forest Creek timber sales in the Applegate Valley are meant to harvest Douglas fir trees impacted by recent outbreaks of invasive beetles and drought. The Medford BLM said trees were marked for removal based on criteria developed with Oregon State University scientists to identify which trees are dead or dying. But Luke Ruediger, executive director of the Applegate Siskiyou Alliance, said a number of the areas proposed for logging don’t meet the BLM’s criteria for dead and dying trees. “The BLM is clearly manipulating the public’s concern around beetles to implement clearcut logging in previously controversial stands that have been opposed by the public,” Ruediger said.

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Plan would make 1 million acres of federal land in Oregon available for solar energy projects

By Alex Baumhart
Herald and News
September 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

More than 1 million acres of federal land in central and southern Oregon could soon be leased for solar energy projects. Officials at the federal Bureau of Land Management announced Aug. 29 they had finalized a plan to add Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming to its existing Western Solar Plan — an Obama-era project that expanded permitting for solar projects on federal land. When it was first implemented in 2012, it only included Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The expansion includes 1.1 million acres of land in Oregon that officials deem to be of low risk for any adverse environmental effects from solar installations, and the plots also are within 15 miles of existing or planned transmission lines.

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Health & Safety

Pilot crashes fire suppression plane in northern Minnesota lake

By Kim Hyatt
The Minnesota Star Tribune
October 9, 2024
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says a pilot crashed a fire suppression aircraft Tuesday into a Cass County lake. Eyewitnesses helped rescue the pilot, who survived the crash. DNR spokesperson Gail Nosek said the agency contracted with the fire suppression aircraft and the pilot was on a proficiency flight when he crashed around 2 p.m. in Inguadona Lake near Longville. “Pilots must conduct proficiency flights, sometimes called mission currency flights, to meet minimum flight hours each month,” Nosek said. Cass County Sheriff Bryan Welk said in a statement that eyewitnesses helped rescue the pilot, a 56-year-old man from Texas. He was the only occupant and was treated on scene for minor injuries.

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Washington state fines Georgia Pacific $650,000 after an employee is killed

The Associated Press
October 4, 2024
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

CAMAS, Washington — Washington state authorities have fined one of the world’s leading paper and pulp companies nearly $650,000 after one of its employees was crushed by a packing machine earlier this year. The penalty comes after Dakota Cline, 32, was killed on March 8 while working on a machine at Georgia-Pacific’s paper mill in Camas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Portland, Oregon, The Columbian reported. The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries said Wednesday it cited and fined Georgia-Pacific in August for violating fundamental safety rules that directly contributed to Cline’s death. Management and workers told inspectors that permanent safety guards on the machine Cline was working on were taken off in 2017. The safety guards were replaced with a fence around the machine, but the fence didn’t stop people from getting too close to dangerous parts that could cause serious injury or death. …Georgia-Pacific is appealing the department’s decision.

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Forest Fires

Umatilla National Forest officials say unexpectedly dry, windy weather pushed prescribed fire beyond boundaries into Walla Walla’s watershed

By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
October 8, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

WALLA WALLA — A prescribed fire intended to help protect the source of Walla Walla’s drinking water from wildfires spread into the watershed on Oct. 1 as the weather turned drier and windier than Forest Service fire managers expected. But officials from the Umatilla National Forest, which manages the Mill Creek watershed in the northern Blue Mountains, said the flames have mainly stayed on the ground and had the beneficial effects that prompted the Tiger Creek prescribed fire. There was “minimal” torching of tree canopies when the fire initially burned into the watershed, Brett Thomas, the Umatilla’s fire management officer, said Oct. 3. That remained the case after the fire grew to an estimated 593 acres as of Tuesday, Oct. 8, said Johnny Collin, Walla Walla District ranger. …Adrian Sutor, water operations manager for Walla Walla, said he is not concerned about the effects of the fire.

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Huge Idaho Wildfire Engulfs Over 68,000 Acres—Barely Contained

By Tom Wowarth
Newsweek
October 10, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

A huge fire continues to blaze across the Salmon-Challis National Forest, expanding to over 68,000 acres, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The fire, named the Red Rock Fire, is currently 19 percent contained, with 513 personnel actively battling the flames. Nearby, the Garden Fire is also growing, now approaching 10,000 acres with no containment yet. In total, 15 wildfires are burning across 469,308 acres in Idaho, as reported by the National Interagency Fire Center. The Red Rock Fire, located approximately 15 miles west of Salmon, is the largest mostly uncontained fire in the state. According to a U.S. Forest Service update issued on Monday, the fire resulted from two smaller fires merging. “Red flag conditions yesterday continued to challenge firefighters,” the U.S. Forest Service — Salmon-Challis National Forest said in an update on Facebook. “While there continued to be little fire growth on the west side in the Wilderness, other areas of the fire remained active.”

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The Shoe Fire burning in steep terrain behind Lake Shasta reaches 300 acres

By Damon Arthur
The Redding Record Searchlight
October 9, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

The Shoe Fire broke out sometime between 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday and was burning rapidly in steep, thick forest, according to images from Alert California, which records images and videos of wildfires across California. Kimblery Hill, a Shasta-Trinity National Forest spokeswoman, said the agency had a heavy response to the fire, including four helicopters, eight engine crews, a bulldozer, one hand crew with three more on order. She said the fire was near the Madrone Campground off Fenders Ferry Road, which runs around the back side of Lake Shasta. It continued to spread Wednesday night. By late afternoon it had reached 300 acres, with no containment. Shasta County sheriff’s officials have ordered evacuations in the area of the fire, which is burning off Fender’s Ferry road northeast of the lake. …Fender’s Ferry Road was closed from Highway 299 to the McCloud River bridge at Gilman Road.

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Elk Fire nears 73,000 acres as crews race to protect homes and structures

By Dan Cepeda
Oil City News
October 7, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

CASPER, Wyo. — The Elk Fire burning in the Bighorn National Forest near Dayton has now reached 72,998 acres, according to an update from the U.S. Forest Service on Monday morning. The fire is now 10% contained along the northeast edge, north of Dayton. Crews are working on the southern end to get ahead of fire movement to protect potentially threatened communities and municipal watersheds in the Big Goose drainage area. …Structure protection work continues today northwest of the fire in Little Horn Canyon, and along subdivisions near US Highway 14 between Dayton and Burgess Junction. …Crews are also working on strategies to protect homes and communities, the Sheridan watershed and key infrastructure south of the fire, they said. Some 700 cattle were transported off the fire area early Monday due to collaborative efforts by the community and emergency agencies. …Multiple structures and outbuildings have been lost, including two primary residences.

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Mandatory evacuations ordered after Yellow Lake Fire triples in size

By Averie Klonowski and Jeff Tavss
Fox News 13
October 6, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

HIGHLAND, Utah — Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in connection to the Yellow Lake Fire burning in eastern Wasatch County, which tripled in size after what officials called a “challenging day” on Friday. As of Saturday morning, the fire had grown to 7,798 acres. By Sunday, the estimate jumped up to over 15,000 and is only 7 percent contained. The fire has been determined as human-caused, although the exact cause remains under investigation. People must evacuate from the western and northern forks of the Duchesne River. Meanwhile, campers in the Grandaddy Lakes area of Ashley National Forest are in ready status and should prepare to evacuate. Red Flag conditions allowed the fire to explode in size thanks to high winds, low humidity and record-breaking temperatures for the month of October. Similar weather conditions were forecast for Saturday, which will force firefighters to take a conservative approach to putting out the wildfire.

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State agencies coordinate with local, tribal and federal resources to fight widespread wildfires in western North Dakota

By the Office of the Governor
Government of North Dakota
October 5, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

Doug Burgum

BISMARCK, N.D. – North Dakota state agencies are coordinating with local, federal and tribal firefighters and emergency responders to battle several large wildfires that spread quickly today across western North Dakota, driven by strong winds, dry ground conditions and low humidity. “Strong winds and dry conditions are creating extremely challenging firefighting conditions, and the state continues to mobilize all available resources to assist local, tribal and federal agencies in protecting lives and property,” Gov. Doug Burgum said. Several large wildfires were being fought in western North Dakota on Saturday including near Grassy Butte, near Johnson’s corner along Highway 73 and near Mandaree. Those followed fires Friday night and earlier today that burned thousands of acres including near Arnegard, Keene and Charlson. Evacuation orders were issued in multiple areas and temporary shelters were opened for those displaced. 

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