Region Archives: US West

Business & Politics

A busy local lumber mill gives LA’s fallen trees new life

By Erin Rode
SF Gate
July 3, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US West

©Angel City

Across the Los Angeles River from downtown Los Angeles is an unexpected sight, in the nation’s second-biggest city: a working lumber mill. The dusty, noisy mill is processing logs from the city itself. Angel City Lumber’s “whole purpose is to connect Angelenos to their community trees,” said founder Jeff Perry, by turning fallen local trees into wood products like tabletops, benches and flooring. The city of Los Angeles is home to over 10 million trees … an average of 2,000 trees are removed each year when they die and other reasons. …Angel City Lumber now works with municipal crews during tree removal, arriving in time to scoop up the trunks and bring them back to its mill to be processed into lumber. …Part of Perry’s vision involves rethinking the perception of street trees, chosen for ornamental or shade benefits, as the “perfectly good lumber” that most of those trees could become after their death.

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Oregon Legislature approves $1 Million for World Forestry Center’s Campus Transformation

The World Forestry Center
July 1, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US West

World Forestry Center is proud to announce that the Oregon Legislature recently approved $1 million for World Forestry Center’s planned campus transformation, one of 13 projects recommended through the Cultural Resources Economic Fund (CREF). The funding supports World Forestry Center’s campus transformation project in Portland’s central Washington Park, including the development of a new Mass Timber Experience Center. This innovative facility will complement the existing Discovery Museum and serve as a dynamic public space featuring an exhibition hall, auditorium, canopy, cafe, and renovated outdoor plaza. The Experience Center is designed to engage all visitors on the critical issues shaping the future of forests and the communities that depend on them.

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Western Forest Products Announces Fire Damages Columbia Vista Division Sawmill

Western Forest Products Inc.
June 30, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Western Forest Products announced today that the sawmill at its Columbia Vista Division, located in Vancouver, Washington, sustained extensive damage in a fire, rendering the mill inoperable. “On behalf of Western, I want to extend my sincere gratitude to the firefighters and first responders who attended the fire at our site,” said Steven Hofer, Western’s President and CEO. “While we are shocked by the damage to the mill, we feel incredibly fortunate that no employees or emergency personnel were injured. We are focused on supporting our team members and completing an incident investigation and assessment.” The Columbia Vista Division produced approximately 53 million board feet of lumber in 2024, with production focused on Douglas Fir specialty products for Japan and U.S. markets.

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Oregon Legislature approves tax for wildfires as survivor bill fails

By Zach Urness
Statesman Journal
July 1, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US West

It was a mixed bag for wildfire funding this session in the Oregon Legislature. Lawmakers came in with lofty ambitions — to create more stable funding to fight and prevent wildfires, to repeal an unpopular wildfire risk map and to get relief for 2020 wildfire survivors still waiting to be paid lawsuit awards. …The biggest wildfire funding bill that passed was House Bill 3940 — which includes a tax on oral nicotine products, taps the state’s rainy day fund and uses a very small increase to the timber tax. The bill should raise about $40 million per year to pay primarily for wildfire mitigation. …Ultimately, the legislature approved more than $200 million from the budget that can be used for wildfire suppression for the 2025-27 biennium. However, it didn’t come up with any new or longer-lasting funding source, Golden said. That means for now, money for suppression will come from Oregon’s general fund.

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Northeast Oregon sawmill Woodgrain Inc. is closing

East Oregonian
July 1, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

PILOT ROCK, Oregon —  Woodgrain Inc. is closing its sawmill in Pilot Rock on or after Sept. 1. The Dislocated Worker Unit of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission’s Office of Workforce Investments on Tuesday, July 1, issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification — or WARN notice — about the pending closure. According to the notice, Woodgrain will layoff all 62 workers at the plant. Tracy Hayes, the director of Human Resources for Woodgrain Lumber and Millwork Division, sent a letter July 1 to Michael Welter, the rapid response coordinator for the Office of Workforce Investments, and to Pilot Rock Mayor Randy Gawith telling them about the coming shutdown. …Affected employees do not have bumping rights, as they are not represented by a union.

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Hampton Lumber to build new sawmill in Fairfax, South Carolina

Hampton Lumber
June 24, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West, US East

Hampton Lumber announced it selected Allendale County to establish the company’s first sawmill on the East Coast. The company’s $225 million investment will create at least 125 new jobs. Headquartered in Oregon, Hampton Lumber is a fourth-generation, family-owned producer, operating nine sawmills in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Hampton Lumber will construct a state-of-the-art, 375,000-square-foot lumber mill located at Highway 321 and Barker Mill Pond Road in Fairfax. The new operation will specialize in producing quality Southern Yellow Pine framing lumber. Operations are expected to be online in 2027. Individuals interested in joining the Hampton Lumber can learn more about employment opportunities on the company’s careers page. The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to the project. “We are proud the company recognized South Carolina as the ideal home for its first East Coast mill,” said Governor Henry McMaster.

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A historic Garfield industry rises from the ashes

By Savannah Beth Withers Taylor
Utah Business
June 23, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US West

…In August 2024, a lumber mill owned by K & D Products and nestled in Panguitch, Garfield County’s largest city, went up in flames. Reports stated that, while the blaze didn’t get to the timber, the site’s machinery was severely damaged. The destruction landed a heavy blow to the community and the Frandsen family, who have owned and operated the mill for generations. …Between the area’s lumber heritage and the need to balance out tourism’s seasonal employment waves, Fiala gained enthusiastic support from state and local governments to build another sawmill. With his business partner, Barco — a logging company — Fiala acquired 25 acres north of Panguitch and began clearing space and bringing in power, water and gas. When the K & D Products sawmill burned during Fiala’s development, he spoke to the Frandsens and together they worked out a way for Fiala to take over what was left of the old mill and utilize it for his new business.

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U.S. Senate passes bill to reauthorize funding for rural Oregon, Idaho schools

By Mia Maldonado
Herald and News
June 23, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill to reauthorize a program that has provided billions to schools, roads and other services in rural Oregon and Idaho. The U.S. Forest Service’s “Secure Rural Schools and Self-Determination Program,” was initially crafted in 2000 to help offset the loss of timber revenue in rural counties. The program expired at the end of 2023, but the recently passed “Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025” would reauthorize the funding for more than 4,000 school districts and 700 counties across the country through the 2026 fiscal year. The bill’s lead sponsors include U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Oregon Democrats, and U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, both Idaho Republicans. …This year, bill sponsors are urging the U.S. House to reauthorize the program. Without its passage in the House, rural counties in Oregon, Idaho and across the country will fall short of funds that support local services.

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Idaho Sens. Risch and Crapo come out against public land-sale provision

By Rose Evans
Idaho Statesman
June 21, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Idaho Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo made statements Friday opposing the sale of more than 3 million acres of public land as part of the federal budget reconciliation bill. The Republican senators had not previously spoken out on the controversial provision, proposed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that would fold the land-sale into the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” …If passed, Lee’s provision would require BLM and Forest Service officials to publish a list of tracts of land nominated or considered for sale every 60 days. It would cap the amount of land that could be sold at 0.75% of each agency’s land — up to 3.2 million acres, the Statesman previously reported. …Lee said the legislation — which requires land sold be used for housing or “associated community needs” — would make “housing more affordable for hardworking American families,” according to a news release announcing the draft language.

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Finance & Economics

House passes Trump’s domestic policy bill. Here are 5 ways it will impact Oregon

By Amelia Templeton, Dirk VanderHart, Michelle Wiley and Courtney Sherwood
Oregon Public Broadcasting
July 3, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: US West

Congressional Republicans have passed their domestic policy bill that makes sweeping changes to entitlement programs like Medicaid and SNAP, significantly increases funding for immigration enforcement efforts and cuts funding for a number of environmental programs.  …In Oregon, the impacts of the legislation will be significant. An analysis …found the state would be disproportionately hit by the cuts to Medicaid. The Senate’s version of the bill would also cut funds to the state’s timber counties, and could reshape Oregonian college tuition and student loans. …Oregon will see more logging, less timber money going to local communities and less support for private forest owners. …However much more is logged, Oregon counties will not get a cut. That’s a change from current practice. Many counties in rural areas rely on a cut of revenues from timber sales on federal public lands to pay for schools, law enforcement and public infrastructure.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Using mass timber could elevate wood in hospital construction

University of Oregon
July 8, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: US West

University of Oregon researchers hope to make wood — often overlooked in health care facilities — more commonplace in those settings. Exposed wood, they’ve found, can resist microbial growth after a brief wetting. During the study, wood samples tested lower for levels of bacterial abundance than an empty plastic enclosure used as a control. “People generally think of wood as unhygienic in a medical setting,” said assistant professor Mark Fretz, co-director of the UO’s Institute for Health in the Built Environment and principal investigator for the study. “But wood actually transfers microbes at a lower rate than other less porous materials such as stainless steel.” Numerous studies support those properties of wood. A UO-led research team including scientists from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego and Portland State University wanted to explore what happens when wood gets wet and then dries. 

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Study shows engineered wood is more microbe-resistant than plastic

By University of Oregon
TechXplore
July 7, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Picture a hospital and you might imagine concrete, stainless steel or plastic. But University of Oregon researchers hope to make wood—often overlooked in health care facilities—more commonplace in those settings. Exposed wood, they’ve found, can resist microbial growth after it briefly gets wet. During their study, wood samples tested lower for levels of bacterial abundance than an empty plastic enclosure used as a control. “People generally think of wood as unhygienic in a medical setting,” said assistant professor Mark Fretz, co-director of the UO’s Institute for Health in the Built Environment and principal investigator for the study. “But wood actually transfers microbes at a lower rate than other less porous materials such as stainless steel.” In a recent study published in Frontiers in Microbiomes, they shared their discoveries about the effects of moisture on surface microbes and volatile organic compound emissions from mass timber.

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One of the biggest obstacles to building new California housing has now vanished

By Ben Christopher
Cal Matters
July 1, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

A decade-spanning political battle between housing developers and defenders of California’s preeminent environmental law likely came to an end this afternoon with only a smattering of “no” votes. The forces of housing won. With the passage of a state budget-related housing bill, the California Environmental Quality Act will be a non-issue for a decisive swath of urban residential development in California. In practice, that means most new apartment buildings will no longer face the open threat of environmental litigation. It also means most urban developers will no longer have to study, predict and mitigate the ways that new housing might affect local traffic, air pollution, flora and fauna, noise levels, groundwater quality and objects of historic or archeological significance. And it means that when housing advocates argue that the state isn’t doing enough to build more homes amid crippling rents and stratospheric prices, they won’t — with a few exceptions — have CEQA to blame anymore.

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Chico State Celebrates Opening of California State University System’s First Mass Timber Building

By Michael Drummond
Chico State Today
June 23, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: US West

Chico State will make California State University history on Wednesday, June 25, with the grand opening of its University Services Building (USB)—the first in the 23-campus CSU system to be constructed almost exclusively from mass timber. To honor the achievement, the University will host a celebration at the new building with its campus community, project partners, and members of the City of Chico community. …“This project is a major achievement for Chico State,” said Zachary Smith, director of design and construction at Facilities Management Services. “Mass timber allowed us to build sustainably, efficiently, and beautifully. The warm, natural wood makes the building unique while fitting into our picturesque campus.” The USB was brought to life through a collaborative effort between Swinerton and Dreyfuss & Blackford. …The building features modern open offices, conference rooms, flexible workspaces, and inviting break areas—all infused with the warmth and calming presence of natural wood.

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Mass timber company picks Portland for manufacturing facility

By Kyra Buckley
Oregon Public Broadcasting
June 21, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

A mass timber company from Switzerland has chosen Portland for one of its North American facilities. Zaugg Timber Solutions is entering into a long-term lease with the Port of Portland to develop a manufacturing site at Terminal 2. Port commissioners approved the transaction this month. The company is expected to be the anchor tenant for the port’s efforts to create what it describes as a mass timber housing and innovation campus at the terminal. “Having Zaugg as this incredibly trusted international leader within mass timber really adds a lot of credibility to the vision,” Kimberly Branam, chief trade and economic development officer at the port, told commissioners. “It will bring the vision to life.” That vision, Branam said, is to have manufacturing facilities alongside research and development sites. …Zaugg is a manufacturer of engineered wood products and uses its own materials to build structures.

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Forestry

Fish, Wildlife and Parks Approves Next Phase of Project to Conserve Timber Forests in Northwest Montana

By Tristan Scott
The Flathead Beacon
July 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) completed its review of a proposal to permanently protect 53,000 acres of private timberland in Flathead and Lincoln counties, recommending the state purchase a conservation easement that would keep the working forest in timber production while guaranteeing year-round public access and preserving wildlife habitat. The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal on Aug. 21 in Helena. …In total, the project would encompass 85,752 acres of private timberland owned by Green Diamond Resource Company. The first phase of the project… received final approval in December. The new easement would encompass forestlands in the Cabinet Mountains between Kalispell and Libby. …If approved, Green Diamond would maintain ownership of the land under an easement owned by FWP [allowing them to] sustainably harvest wood, preclude development, protect important wildlife habitat and associated key landscape connectivity, and provide permanent free public access to the easement lands.

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Rainy Rambles: The importance of dead wood to a forest

By Rebecca Lexa
Discover Our Coast
July 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Our many stunning hiking and walking trails in the Columbia-Pacific region offer locals and visitors alike wondrous views of forests of many different stages of succession, from recent clearcuts attempting to come back to life, to ancient old growth stands that somehow avoided the ax and the saw. The beauty of our area is one of its most valuable assets — so it may seem odd to some people that these forests include significant numbers of dead trees. Some call them ugly, while others refer to them as beautiful, but they do in fact have formal names. A standing dead tree is known as a snag, but once it falls to the ground it is a nurse log, so named because its rotting wood nurses young plants and fungi in their first years of life. One could also refer to a decaying stump covered in mosses, lichens, and other green growing things as a nurse stump.

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How can we protect cool water in Western Washington’s forest streams?

Department of Ecology
State of Washington
July 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Streams that wind through Western Washington’s forests are essential habitat for frogs, bugs, and lots of other tiny critters. These streams are also a critical source of clean, cool water downstream. This means these streams are an important part of large watershed ecosystems. For the past 26 years, the timber industry, Tribes, environmental organizations, and Washington State agencies have worked together to address pollution and meet water quality standards through the “Forests and Fish Agreement.” The agreement aims to address pollution that can come from forestry activities like logging and forest road construction and maintenance, while maintaining both a viable timber industry and water quality. This coordination primarily happens through the Forest Practices Board, an independent state agency chaired by the elected Commissioner of Public Lands. Rules adopted by the Board are implemented and enforced by Washington’s Department of Natural Resources.

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As Wyoming protests, public land sell-off ‘just getting started’

By Angus Thuermer
Rocket Miner
July 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In the face of a backlash, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee has revamped his public land sell-off measure to target only Bureau of Land Management holdings while also declaring, “we’re just getting started.” A reconciliation budget proposal revised by Lee’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee targets BLM land within five miles of undefined “population centers.” It puts checkerboard BLM holdings back on a priority list for his “mandatory disposal” measure and takes lands under permit for grazing off the auction block. The revision would shift 15% of revenue to local governments and conservation. The bill would appropriate $5 million to carry out the mandatory sales, which are designed to be offered within 60 days of passage and regularly thereafter. …But opposition to Lee’s measure comes from “all walks of life,” said Land Tawney, former president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. That includes “Democrats, Independents, Republicans, hunters, anglers, bird watchers, kayakers, ranchers [and] loggers,” he said.

 

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Colorado’s beetle battle: Forest Service combats mountain pine beetle surge with fake pheromones

By Mary Shine
The Gazette
July 6, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Don Hardin’s hillside was largely cleared of trees killed by the mountain pine beetle. Some of the trees have died in just a few weeks with Ips beetles munching their tops and mountain pine beetles coming through their bark in large visible holes. …Across Colorado, mountain pine beetles also are on the rise in Douglas, Jefferson and Gilpin counties, among other areas, said Dan West, forest entomologist with the State Forest Service. The agency’s annual aerial survey shows the number of infected acres increasing from less than 2,000 acres in 2021 to nearly 6,000 acres last year. …To combat the beetle, the State Forest Service is putting small packets on trees to send the message to mountain pine beetles to seek a home elsewhere, West said. The message will be sent through a synthetic replication of beetle pheromones that sends a “no-vacancy signal” to adult pine beetles looking for a healthy tree to infest.

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Yellowstone’s 1988 Fires Eviscerated Forests. Will They Ever Recover?

By Mark DeGraff
The Mountain Journal
July 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

In the parched summer of 1988, wildfires ripped through more than one-third of Yellowstone National Park during the most severe fire year in park history. Approximately 1.2 million acres scorched by September. …While new forests sprouted in most of Yellowstone’s charred woodlands, recent research has identified that 16 percent of the forests consumed by the fires still have few trees. A recent study found that much of this land has transformed into green meadows full of grasses and wildflowers. Of the roughly 965 square miles of forest killed by the fires, 158 remain unforested, largely due to a lack of available seeds to start the next generation of trees. Seventy square miles of the previously forested land is now open meadow… The forests that [recovered quickly] were full of lodgepole pines with serotinous cones. …Alternatively, the areas that remain unforested were mainly above 8,200 feet in elevation and dominated by subalpine fir, Engelmenn spruce and non-serotinous lodgepole pines.

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Washington forest health survey finds 545,000 acres of stressed or dead trees

By Emily Fitzgerald
Washington State Standard
July 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

More than half a million acres of trees spread across Washington were sick, struggling, or dead last year, according to the results of an aerial survey of forests by the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Surveyors identified about 545,000 acres with some level of tree mortality, defoliation, or disease, the department said this week. That’s less than 1% of the total forestland surveyed. The amount of forest with problems is up nearly 30,000 acres from 2023 and more than the 10-year average of 519,000 acres, but well below the acres mapped with diseased or dead trees in 2022, according to the Department of Natural Resources. The Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service partnered to conduct an aerial survey of 22 million forested acres in Washington state to observe recently killed and damaged trees. They carried out the survey between June and September last year.

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USDA Signs Historic Agreement to Reduce Wildfire Risk in Montana

US Department of Agriculture
June 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

HELENA, Montana — US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced US Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz and Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a historic Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, establishing a new framework between the US Forest Service (USFS) and the State of Montana to advance forest restoration and reduce wildfire risk across the state. Montana’s Shared Stewardship Agreement expands collaborative efforts to accelerate active forest management, safeguard communities, and support sustainable timber production. …“By cutting burdensome, unnecessary red tape and empowering Montana to lead, we’re proving that through real partnership, conservation and economic growth can go hand-in-hand. …The Forest Service and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) will jointly identify and execute large-scale forest management projects, initially focusing on approximately 200,000 acres in northwest Montana.

Related coverage: Governor Gianforte Press Release

 

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Judge considers delay of Garnet Mountain logging

By Laura Lundquist
Missoula Current
July 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A federal judge has less than two weeks to decide whether to halt a U.S. Bureau of Land Management project east of Missoula for its potential harm to grizzly bears or Canada lynx. On Monday, Missoula federal district judge Dana L. Christensen heard arguments on whether five conservation organizations were likely to win their lawsuit against the Missoula BLM Office regarding a series of logging projects in the Garnet Mountains, known as the Clark Fork Face Project. …The BLM has already accepted a bid and appropriated $880,000 to pay for the Big River Thinning Project, which is supposed to start on July 15. So Christensen needs to decide before then whether or not to grant the injunction. The plaintiffs also seek to stop three other timber sales but they’ve yet to be sold.

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Federal budget bill would boost logging — but cut funds to Oregon timber counties

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
July 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Republican-backed budget bill that passed in the U.S. Senate Tuesday authorizes dramatic increases to logging on federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. But Oregon counties won’t see most of those revenues if the bill clears the U.S. House unchanged. “Rural counties, all counties that receive timber revenue from the Forest Service and the BLM will lose,” said Doug Robertson, executive director of the O&C Counties Association, a group that supports Oregon timber counties. …Counties can’t collect property taxes from federal lands that are within their boundaries, which leaves many counties with limited options to raise local taxes to pay for schools, law enforcement and public infrastructure. …Oregon counties have typically gone with Secure Rural Schools, since it provides more funding. That funding expired in 2023. …Counties wouldn’t see any of the revenues from those long-term sales.

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Final decision released for Bonanza Project in Castle Mountains

The USDA Forest Service
June 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, Montana — The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest has released a final decision for the Bonanza Project, located in the Castle Mountains just east of White Sulphur Springs. Primary management activities planned include timber harvest and prescribed fire. “The project area is highly impacted by the mountain pine beetle and some areas have experienced 90% tree mortality,” said District Ranger Jason Oltrogge. “The timber generated from this project will provide wood products to local companies and prescribed fire will restore forests and reduce wildfire severity.” The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest partnered with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to plan this project, and the joint effort made this project a reality. …The project includes commercial timber harvest on 1,980 acres and prescribed burning on 918 acres. Project implementation is anticipated to start later this summer.

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Watch Out For This Tree Eating Bug

The US Department of Agriculture
June 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

SANTA FE — If you see brownish-yellow or red discoloration of trees while exploring the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF), it may be the result of defoliation from the Douglas-fir tussock moth (DFTM). Do not pick up this cute – and potentially dangerous – caterpillar. These caterpillars have thousands of tiny hairs covering their bodies. The female moths, egg masses, and cocoons also have hairs, which can cause tussockosis, an allergic reaction from direct skin contact with the insects themselves or their airborne hairs. …Trees with brown branches signal the outbreak of the Douglas-fir tussock moth, whose larvae feed on the needles of a variety of fir tree species. …An aerial survey will also be conducted to pinpoint specific locations and assess the acreage of the defoliation. …Anyone seeing these caterpillars is asked to leave them on the ground and report the sighting to the nearest Santa Fe National Forest district office. 

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Merkley, Murray, Heinrich, and Klobuchar demand immediate halt to forest service reorganization, funding cuts

Jeff Merkley, Senator for Oregon
June 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Washington, D.C. – Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to immediately cease its plans to reduce Forest Service staffing and to distribute federal funding to states and communities as the law requires. The letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins follows U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz testifying before the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee and admitting the agency was intentionally withholding Congressionally approved federal funding. “We write to express our concern that the staff reductions and unauthorized funding cuts that have occurred since February 2025 threaten the Forest Service’s ability to fulfill its statutory responsibilities to states, local governments, Tribes, and forest landowners.” They are asking for a response by July 9, 2025.

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US Agriculture Secretary says ‘roadless rule’ roll back impacts all but two states — Colorado and Idaho

By Robert Tann
Sky-Hi News
June 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

When U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on Monday that her department would be opening up more US Forest Service land to development, she did so with the caveat that just two states — Colorado and Idaho — would not be impacted.  Rollins, who serves in President Donald Trump’s cabinet, unveiled the plans during a meeting of Western state governors in Santa Fe, where she told reporters that the Agriculture Department would be rescinding the 2001 “roadless rule” established under former President Bill Clinton. The rule, hailed by conservationists as a landmark preservation effort, protects roughly 58.5 million acres of backcountry Forest Service land from road construction, logging and other development. “For too long, Western states, especially those with large swaths of land administered by our incredible Forest Service, have been inhibited from innovating because of burdensome regulations imposed by the federal government,” Rollins said.

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Oregon House passes bill to repeal controversial wildfire risk map

By Zach Urness
Idaho Statesman Journal
June 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

After a longer wait than expected, the a bill that would eliminate the unpopular Oregon Wildfire Hazard Map passed the Oregon House on June 24. Senate Bill 83 repeals a map meant to identify parts of Oregon at high risk of catastrophic wildfires but has become a lightning rod for anger from rural residents who say it places an unfair burden on them. The bill, which passed the Senate in April, now heads to the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek. The map, which was released earlier in 2025 and identifies areas at high wildfire risk, requires stricter building codes and creation of defensible space for roughly 100,000 properties in the name of wildfire prevention. The map was roundly condemned by impacted residents who said it was inaccurate, decreased property values and imposed burdensome regulations.

Related content:

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Idaho Roadless Rule won’t be affected by revocation of national directive

By Eric Barker
Moscow-Pullman Daily News
June 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

The Idaho roadless rule is not included in the effort by the Trump administration to rescind the national rule. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, “the Idaho state-specific roadless rule was part of the Administrative Procedures Act petitions and will not be affected by rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule.” The rule, a collaboratively written offshoot of the national rule, was spearheaded by then-Gov. Jim Risch in 2006. It is more flexible than the national rule and allows limited logging and road building in some of the state’s roadless forests that are not otherwise protected as wilderness areas. But it also offers more stringent protections to the most remote areas. …Risch’s Idaho-specific roadless rule, implemented in 2008, overrides the national rule and forbids logging and roads on 3.2 million acres of the state’s 9 million acres of inventoried roadless areas. Some logging and roads are allowed, under limited circumstances, on the remaining 6 million acres.

Additional coverage in the Idaho Statesman: USDA to end rule that kept logging from national forests. What’s it mean for Idaho?

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Trump’s elimination of Roadless Rule concerns conservationists

By Laura Lindquist
The Missoula Current
June 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Less than two weeks have passed since the public learned of a Senate proposal to sell off public lands, and now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has removed roadless protections for more than 58 million acres of federal land across the nation. …Helena Hunters and Anglers …decided to call an emergency meeting for Tuesday to discuss the implications of the announcement. If roadless areas were truly gone, the group might not continue their yearly monitoring of roadless areas. Montana has almost 6.4 million acres of inventoried roadless areas… Helena Hunters and Anglers has been monitoring some of those roadless areas for the past few years to assess their condition, and some of the findings aren’t good. …A number of other conservation organizations immediately criticized the action, calling it another handout to corporations to the detriment of the American public and future generations. The Colorado-based Center for Western Priorities said Rollins’ reasons were suspect.

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Oregon wildfires have already burned 20,000 acres and destroyed 56 homes. What’s next?

By Zach Urness
The Register-Guard
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

It’s been a busy and destructive start to Oregon’s wildfire season. Two state parks have already been evacuated by fast-moving wildfires, 56 homes have been destroyed, and 20,300 acres have burned in more than 400 fires — mostly east of the Cascades. Rafters on the popular John Day River have twice found themselves floating through the middle of an active blaze. …At one point, Interstate 84 was closed due to wildfire activity. …“What’s striking is the size of the fires we’ve seen this early in the season,” Oregon Department of Forestry wildfire spokeswoman Jessica Neujahr said. …High fire danger is expected to persist across the entire summer and into fall. …A combination of factors has led to the large wildfires seen so far this year. A wet winter led to the rapid growth of fuels like grasses in eastern Oregon, which then dried out rapidly under hot and dry spring conditions.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Proposed California project pivots from wood pellets to wood chips

By Erin Krueger
Biomass Magazine
June 26, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

The board of Golden State Natural Resources on June 25 voted to revise its plans for the proposed development of two wood pellet plants in California and will instead move forward with the development of two smaller-scale wood chip projects. GSNR is a nonprofit public benefit corporation … their initial plans focused on the conversion of woody biomass gathered as part of forest treatment and restoration activities into wood pellets… The board, however, voted to move forward with a plan to revise the scope of the project, which could include reducing the size and throughput of both facilities while transitioning from producing wood pellets for export to the production of wood chips for domestic use. GSNR noted wood chips could have applications in domestic alternative energy production, such as sustainable aviation fuel, marine biofuels, or in bioenergy with carbon capture and storage applications. Alternatively, wood chips can be used to produce wood products, such as oriented strand board. 

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California nonprofit revises plan for controversial wood pellet project

By Edvard Pettersson
Courthouse News Service
June 25, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

A California nonprofit organization has decided to revise its controversial plan to build two wood pellet processing plants that would turn excess biomass in the state’s forests into pellets to be shipped overseas for use in renewable energy generation. Golden State Natural Resources said Wednesday it will develop a reduced-scale project focused on domestic, rather than international, use of sourced wood, producing wood chips instead of pellets. The project will target emerging demand in California and nearby regions for sustainable energy and alternative wood products. The organization’s proposed Forest Resiliency Project has drawn the ire of environmentalists who say California needs to rethink “falling for the biomass delusion.” Golden State Natural Resources was formed by rural counties to reduce massive wildfires fueled by overgrown, undermanaged forests. The project aims to use low-value forest material like ladder fuels and dead trees to lower wildfire risk and improve forest health. 

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A forest the size of North America would be needed to offset Big Oil’s reserves, study finds

By Hayley Smith
Los Angeles Times
June 19, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

The world would need to plant a forest the size of North America in order to offset planet-warming emissions from the 200 largest oil and gas companies, new research has found. A study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment analyzed the economic and ecological benefits of planting trees as a means of balancing potential carbon dioxide emissions from the projected burning of oil reserves held by the fossil fuel industry. …The burning of fossil fuels represents about 90% of planet-warming emissions. …But, as the paper notes, “fossil-fuel companies currently face little incentive to reduce the extraction and use of fossil fuels, and regulatory measures to limit these activities have been slow to materialise.” …Indeed, the researchers acknowledged that the study has limitations as it relies on broad assumptions, including that all existing fossil fuel reserves will be sold and burned.

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Forest Fires

Madre Fire in California explodes to nearly 80,000 acres

By Meredith Deliso & Patricio Chile
ABC News
July 6, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

A massive California wildfire has prompted evacuation orders and a highway closure. The Madre Fire ignited Wednesday afternoon in San Luis Obispo County, according to Cal Fire. It has since grown to 79,936 acres and is 30% contained as of Sunday, fire officials said. The fire — the largest in California so far this year, according to Cal Fire data — is burning in a largely rural area in the Los Padres National Forest near Highway 166, officials said. Evacuation orders were issued near Highway 166 in San Luis Obispo County. The highway is closed from U.S. 101 near Santa Maria to Perkins Road in the New Cuyama area of Santa Barbara County, according to the California Department of Transportation. …Approximately 50 structures are threatened, according to Cal Fire. Officials warned that the fire has a high rate of spread.

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France Canyon fire now burning 23,353 acres, at 10% containment

By Renisha Mall
ABC News 4
June 23, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: US West

PANGUITCH, Utah — The France Canyon fire has increased to 23,353 acres and is currently at 10% containment, according to the latest information posted by the U.S. Forest Service – Dixie National Forest. Officials say fire activity increased at around 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 22, pushing eastward into the Kings Creek Campground area. Firefighters had to conduct a tactical firing operation to protect the campground. A total of 749 personnel are battling the fire and working on securing structures within Wilson Peak, the Hillsdale and Johnson Canyons. Firefighters are also working to keep the fire west of East Fork Road. Efforts are also underway to protect the Bryce Woodland community on the southwest side of the wildfire perimeter.

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Forest fires in Southwest New Mexico force evacuations, emergency orders

By Roz Brown
Kiowa County Press
June 21, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: US West

Forest fires have broken out in parts of New Mexico that state forecasters had already warned would see an elevated wildfire risk this summer due to high temperatures, low snowpack and ongoing drought. At least 25 New Mexico jurisdictions imposed some level of fire restriction this spring. State Forester Laura McCarthy said the peak of fire season is still a week away, beginning June 26. …On Tuesday, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency in response to the Trout Fire, which is burning in the Gila National Forest, forcing residents to evacuate. The Buck Fire also has burned more than 57,000 acres in the same area of Southwest New Mexico. The governor has urged localities to ban fireworks and restrict water usage. …”If you look at every single big fire we’ve had, there was either a lightning strike or a person behind it,” she added.

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Forest History & Archives

Washington Forest History Interviews: Toby Murray, Murray Pacific Corp.

By Elisa Law
History Link
June 23, 2025
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: United States, US West

Lowell Thomas “Toby” Murray III (b. 1953) served as the president and CEO of the Murray Pacific Corporation from 2001 to 2017. Murray Pacific is a family-owned timber business founded by Lowell Murray, Sr. (1885-1971). In this June 2025 interview with HistoryLink’s Elisa Law, Murray recounts the 104-year history of the Murray Pacific’s business, from its establishment as the West Fork Timber Company in 1911 to its sale to Sierra Pacific Industries in 2015. Murray reflects on the successes and unique challenges faced by each generation. He discusses his grandfather’s pioneering efforts with selective logging in the 1920s and 1930s and how his father, Lowell Murray, Jr., engaged in a protracted battle with the St. Regis Paper Company in the 1970s to reclaim the family’s tree farm. He also talks about his experiences managing the family business, including restoring the family’s tree farm after years of mismanagement, and his experiences navigating a new era of environmental regulations.

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