Region Archives: US West

Wildfire season in most parts of the western United States could be delayed this summer with heavy snow still covering many mountain ranges, national fire forecasters say. Still, the risk of damaging wildfires continues to trend upward as the climate warms, one factor making it more difficult to predict how the season will shake out. Forecasters and fire ecology experts said changes to fire behavior make it challenging to predict conditions in the late summer and the early fall. Fire seasons are growing longer. Hotter temperatures zap fuels of their moisture faster. And more people are living near the wilderness — and potentially, in harm’s way. …The National Interagency Fire Center is predicting above-normal fire activity in parts of the Pacific Northwest, including eastern Oregon and central Washington, in July and August. Elsewhere in the West, forecasters are predicting normal or below-normal fire activity for those months.

The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday afternoon to pass an updated version of a city ordinance regulating trees on private property, which had not been adjusted since 2009. The legislation will fully overhaul the ordinance for the first time since the section of code protecting trees was adopted in 2001, years before the climate and housing crises came to dominate both city discourse and priorities. Seattleites have since become aware of the many benefits trees provide, from cooling to improving people’s health and general well-being. The city is losing trees faster than it is replanting them, and is thousands of housing units short to meet the demand of a growing population. …But the Urban Forestry Commission and tree advocates worry that the legislation so long in the making was rushed through the voting process. 

Additional coverage in the Seattle City Council Blog: Seattle City Council Passes Stronger Tree Protection Ordinance That Protects Ten Times as Many Trees While Increasing Housing Stock

Droughts can be good for trees; certain trees, that is.  Contrary to expectation, sometimes a record-breaking drought can increase tree growth. Why and where this happens is the subject of a new paper in Global Change Biology.  A team of scientists led by Joan Dudney at UC Santa Barbara examined the drought response of endangered whitebark pine over the past century. They found that in cold, harsh environments—often at high altitudes and latitudes—drought can actually benefit the trees by extending the growing season. This research provides insights into where the threats from extreme drought will be greatest, and how different species and ecosystems will respond to climate change. …The authors found a pronounced shift in growth during times of drought when the average maximum temperature was roughly 8.4° Celsius (47.1° Fahrenheit) between October and May. 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After years of massive, destructive wildfires, California and much of the American West may see a shorter and more manageable wildfire season thanks to an extraordinarily wet winter. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the state has only just begun to see a historic snowpack melt into streams and rivers, and the flows could be high for many weeks. The agency’s Southern California coordination center reported in a briefing Monday that most of California has seen below normal temperatures since Oct. 1. These conditions have helped about 68% of the state exit drought conditions within three months — a feat that would have required two or three wet years otherwise. …The wet winter and lingering snowpack may also translate to fewer wildfires. 

Picture an IMAX-style aerial film of a high-elevation wetland complex boasting every shade of green, from lime to emerald to olive, amid its vast landscape. Behind this image is Forest Service hydrologist Kyle Wright, his feet firmly on the ground, operating an unmanned aerial system or “drone” over this portion of Big Marsh in Oregon’s Little Deschutes River Basin. Landscape restoration has a new aerial view thanks to this scientific tool. Drones, which have been used traditionally on fire management projects, are now telling important resource stories to help scientists inform other kinds of projects, from stream restoration to timber management. …Central to the project’s purpose has been focus on one of the smaller marsh creatures—the Oregon spotted frog. The reddish-brown frog with black spots requires wetland habitats with a variety of water depths to support all its life stages. The aquatic frog is rarely found more than 6 feet from water.

IDAHO – Idaho Senator Jim Risch has introduced a wildfire prevention bill aimed at reducing the risk and severity of catastrophic wildfires in the west by empowering land managers with cutting-edge technology to target large scale treatments in the highest risk areas. The Forest Improvements through Research and Emergency Stewardship for Healthy Ecosystem Development and Sustainability (FIRESHEDS) Act also aims to restore forest health and better equip local land managers and strengthen state authority by allowing governors to enter into joint agreements with land management agencies to specifically designate fireshed management areas and expedite management projects. …Organizations and businesses supporting the FIRESHEDS Act include: the Idaho Forest Group; the Associated Logging Contractors of Idaho; the American Forest Resource Council; the American Forest & Paper Association; the American Property Casualty Insurance Groups; the Hardwood Federation; the American Loggers Association; and the National Association of Counties.

Deb Haaland

The U.S. Interior Department will review the environmental impacts of a possible land swap deal that would allow a new road to cut through an Alaska wildlife refuge, it said on Wednesday. The move comes two months after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland withdrew a Trump-era land exchange deal between her agency and the Alaska Native American-led King Cove Corporation, but said she would be open to considering other proposals to replace it. …Interior said it would consider an exchange that would allow for a road corridor for noncommercial use through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and the Izembek Wilderness Area. Supporters say the road would give residents of King Cove village access to nearby airstrip in case of medical or other emergencies. Environmentalists have said a road would destroy valuable habitat for birds along Kinzarof Lagoon, and would set a dangerous precedent for other wildlife refuges.

A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s ruling that had blocked the Hanna Flats logging project in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, which includes several thousand acres of grizzly bear territory. The ruling will allow the U.S. Forest Service to resume its designation of parts of the national forest for commercial logging — a treatment aimed at reducing the risk of wildfires and disease. Environmental group Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service in 2019 after the authorization of the Hanna Flats logging project, which permitted extensive commercial logging and prescribed burning, temporary road construction and maintenance and excavated skid trail construction next to a recovery zone for the protected Selkirk grizzly bear.

The California red-legged frog, Rana draytonii has found a favorable foothold in foothill freshwater thanks to efforts by the U.S. Forest Service in the Georgetown Ranger District of the Eldorado National Forest. Development, over-harvesting, climate change, invasive species and pesticides contributed to the species being added to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife threatened species list in 1996. Between 2014 and 2016, crews in the northern zone of the Eldorado National Forest began construction of nine areas that would provide potential breeding grounds for the frogs and western pond turtles in the area around Georgetown. Of those initial nine areas, six are still around (three, built in-stream, were blown out in 2017 during the heavy winter), with three serving as a consistent breeding habitat for the red-legged frogs, according to Forest Service aquatic biologist Maura Santora. The ponds have also seen frequent visits from bats, deer and other local wildlife.

MISSOULA – The University of Montana recently was selected to lead one of the first-ever Regional Innovation Engine awards from the National Science Foundation. UM’s project is designed to advance precision forestry and rangeland technologies. As with the 43 other awardees selected across the country, UM will receive an initial $1 million over two years. This will support and develop a team that will create an implantation proposal, which could lead to as much as $160 million in additional regional economic investment over 10 years. UM has 18 partners on the project all working in forest and rangeland management. They include regional research universities and tribal colleges, national nonprofits, federal and state agencies, industry associations and venture capital firms. …Julia Altemus, director the Montana Wood Products Association, said a plan developed by the Montana Forest Action Advisory Council has identified 3.4 million acres in the wildland urban interface as high priority acres in need of restoration.

The University of California San Diego has launched a new cutting-edge system made up of more than 1,000 cameras positioned across the state designed to prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires and other natural hazards. The system integrates and expands on what was formerly the ALERTWildfire camera network that is now known as ALERTCalifornia. The expanded state-focused program manages more than 1,000 pan-tilt-zoom capable cameras and sensor arrays across the entire state and collects data regularly that can provide real-time, actionable information that serves to inform public safety during natural disasters. …Some of the new installations have more than traditional cameras. Some incorporate infrared systems that allow emergency responders to identify hotspots and flare-ups through thick smoke and provide firefighters with real-time updates on evolving situations on the ground during a wildfire.

MISSOULA, Montana — Neptune Aviation and the National Museum of Forest Service History in Missoula have announced a partnership to provide Tanker 12 a new permanent home. Neptune Aviation retired its Lockheed P2V airtankers in September of 2017, closing the final chapter on the world’s last active fleet of former maritime patrol aircraft, dating back to the Cold War era, which served for years as national aerial firefighting assets. …Before Tanker 12 began its history as an aerial firefighting aircraft, the P2V served the U.S. Navy in anti-submarine warfare missions. From 1993 Neptune operated a fleet of Lockheed Martin P2V aircraft, and its ships put in about 47,000 firefighting missions, dropping a total of 97 million gallons of retardant. …The National Museum of Forest Service History is a nonprofit organization with a mission of sharing the history of America’s conservation legacy. 

MONTANA — One would have to be mighty gullible to believe the Forest Service’s claim that the Knotty Pine Project would benefit the declining population of Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bears because the 5,000 acres of logging with massive new clearcuts would allow more huckleberries to grow. If that sounds too outrageous, that’s because it is. The evidence was so clear and convincing, the Court halted the project. The Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bears are the most imperiled population in the Northern Rockies and are considered crucial to the on-going efforts to recover the species. Yet the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has documented a consistent decline in population numbers. In 2018 the Agency counted 54 grizzlies in its monitoring report. In 2019 only 50, down to 45 in 2020 and the 2021 estimate was only 42 bears. …According to peer-reviewed scientific literature, losing three Cabinet-Yaak female grizzlies in a single year will likely result in a population decline. 

As Northern California see temperatures reach into the 90s this week, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, a transformation is unfolding that is expected to affect the region’s fire season for the next several months. A change in ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific is transforming the weather pattern from El Niño to La Niña…With the change, the weather outlook for May and June is for near normal to above normal rainfall over Northern California and from normal to below normal temperatures, a forecast that is not conducive to large-scale wildfires, according to a report by the Northern California Geographic Coordinating Center’s Predictive Services. The outlook for July and August is for “near to above normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.” …While the wetter winter and spring may delay the outbreak of larger fires, the North State’s hot summers eventually take their toll, leaving the forests dried out by August and September…

MONATANA — Visitors to the Custer Gallatin National Forest west of West Yellowstone have likely seen the dense stands of lodgepole pine that are ripe for insect infestation, disease and wildfire. It is only a matter of time before a wildfire is ignited in this area, potentially endangering the community, other adjacent properties, and possibly the tens of thousands of people that visit the area each year. …To reduce this risk and improve local water quality, public lands managers have developed the South Plateau Project on the Hebgen Lake Ranger District to thin these unnaturally dense stands and restore them back to health. The project will implement a variety of proactive and science-based resiliency treatments, including commercial timber harvest, non-commercial fuels treatments, and associated activities such as pile burning, temporary road construction and rehabilitation of disturbed sites.

A wet winter is likely to delay wildfires, but ongoing drought in eastern Oregon could make for a worse fire season east of the Cascades, Gov. Tina Kotek said. Kotek’s press briefing came just ahead of a forecasted heat wave bringing temperatures in the 90s to the Willamette Valley later this week. Klamath County is expected to see sunny weather in the mid-80s Saturday. …The Oregon Department of Forestry already has 22 firefighters helping combat ongoing wildfires in Alberta, Canada, where nearly 1 million acres have been destroyed and 30,000 people have evacuated, said Mike Shaw, the department’s fire chief. As fires continue throughout the summer, firefighters from western states and several Canadian provinces will help each other. Shaw said rainy conditions this spring and a strong winter snowpack are good signs. The snowpack — snow accumulated on mountains — is at about 140% of its normal level for this time of year.

SEATTLE — Mast Reforestation, the leading vertically integrated reforestation company, announced a $15 million financing agreement with Carbon Streaming Corporation to advance its post-wildfire reforestation projects throughout the American West. This first-of-its-kind project financing will cover the high upfront costs of reforestation projects, accelerating Mast’s forest restoration work and enabling the company to serve more landowners affected by wildfires. Under the stream financing agreement, Carbon Streaming will provide Mast with up to $15 million to advance its pipeline of post-wildfire reforestation projects. In addition to the $15 million project financing agreement, Carbon Streaming has invested $2 million in Mast.