Region Archives: US West

WASHINGTON — Members of a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee said at a hearing Wednesday they were focused on keeping pay for wildland firefighters at the higher level set in a 2021 law and urged Forest Service Chief Randy Moore to focus on ways to maintain a healthy timber industry. Senate Interior-Environment Subcommittee Chair Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and ranking Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said they were committed to funding Forest Service programs to prevent wildfires and to maintain healthy forests. As the temporary additional funding to the agency appropriated in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and Democrats’ 2022 climate, taxes and policy law approaches an end, lawmakers and the agency must work on a way to continue strong funding for an agency that is on the front lines of a changing climate, Merkley said. “Those are one-time investments,” Merkley said of the additional spending passed in recent years. “And those funds are running out.”

Those who make that their livelihood, and others with a stake in Washington’s forests, are looking back at the successes and failures of 50 years of environmental protection and what lies ahead for the next five decades. …Grays Harbor College hosted the annual meeting of the Washington State Society of American Foresters April 3-5. Attended by about 130 people including state forest and wildlife managers, representatives from private timber companies and tribal natural resource managers, the meeting orbited around the anniversary of the important forest law. …Washington’s earliest forestry laws date back to 1946, when the state first started requiring the industry to replant harvested trees. …The collaborative approach to solving natural resource conflicts when it comes to logging practices continues today. But it’s not without ups and downs. Court Stanley, who has spent nearly 40 years in the wood products industry, likened the collaborative relationship to a marriage.

There is an even larger impact on our local economy beyond the significant loss of direct and indirect jobs from the impending closure of Pyramid Mountain Lumber. The mill directly affects the flow of revenue to our community’s education system and local infrastructure. State Trust lands are managed to return revenue to the school trust to fund our public school system. Forest products have been the backbone of state trust land revenue for generations. Without a mill to sell logs to, the state will not be able to generate revenue from managing forests. ….In the short term it will mean less money for public education. …Without mills, and a strong network of foresters and logging contractors this money is off the table. …There are two likely outcomes … either taxes will go up, or the funding available for education and road maintenance will go down.

A report by a team of 40 experts outlines a new approach to forest stewardship that “braids together” Indigenous knowledge and Western science to conserve and restore more resilient forestlands. The report provides foundational material to inform future work on climate-smart adaptive management practices for USDA Forest Service land managers. “Our forests are in grave danger in the face of climate change,” said Cristina Eisenberg, an associate dean of forestry at Oregon State University. “By braiding together Indigenous knowledge with Western science, we can view the problems with what is known as ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’ ”. Eisenberg co-led the report team with Susan Prichard, a fire ecologist at the University of Washington. …Other members of the core leadership team are Paul Hessburg, a senior research ecologist with the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, and Michael Paul Nelson, a professor and director of the Center for the Future of Forests and Society at OSU.

A proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill roughly half a million barred owls to protect the spotted owl has conservationists and animal welfare advocates debating the moral issue of killing one species to protect another. Dozens of wildlife protection and animal welfare organizations signed a letter opposing the November proposal. A group of 75 organizations urged Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, to scrap what it calls a “reckless” plan. “Non-lethal management actions to protect spotted owls and their habitats should be made the priority action,” it read. But the USFWS says if no action is taken to cull the barred owl population, the northern spotted owl faces extinction. …To ensure the survival of the northern spotted owl, a threatened species, the service is proposing the mass removal of over 470,000 barred owls across California, Washington and Oregon over a three-decade span.

CALIFORNIA — Peak wildfire season in California is a few months away, and the wet weather could create more fuel to burn when that time comes. Despite rain and snow still in the forecast, firefighters are preparing now for wildfire season, and new changes are coming to the firefighting workforce. With fires growing in size and duration and the needs and costs for staffing, the U.S. Forest Service is pivoting to a new business model it says will offer more flexibility when responding to wildfires. “In order to keep that workforce going and to continue to feed the system of leadership throughout the workforce, we’re constantly bringing in new folks,” said Alex Robertson with the U.S. Forest Service. There’s been a growing strain on the wildland firefighting workforce as fires become larger and more involved. In past years, a shortage of top-level type 1 teams has resulted in type 2 teams taking on bigger assignments.

…In wildfires, safety depends on your co-workers. There’s luck and there’s the strength to resist stupidity, but often you rely on the experience level of the person beside you. The U.S. Forest Service is losing experience. Federal firefighters are quitting. Leadership is leaving. Recruitment is abysmal. The reason is simple: The government hasn’t significantly raised pay in decades. Thirty years ago, a fire job could afford you a modest home. The value proposition was fair — work a year’s worth of hours in one summer and come away with a year’s pay. But wages have barely gone up since then. …Lately, longer fire seasons subject firefighters to weeks of eight-hour days in spring and fall. No overtime, no hazard pay — missing family, and usually, still on call 24 hours a day. …As firefighters quit, it guts crews of experience, leadership and tradition. The firefighters who remain will be less safe. So will homes. [Full access to this story requires a Washington Post subscription]

Dusty Johnson resents the implication that he’s looking out for the timber industry at the expense of the Black Hills National Forest. “The idea that anyone in government wants to allow the timber industry to cut what they want to cut is absurd,” Johnson told South Dakota Searchlight. “I think it does a tremendous disrespect to this process.” Johnson, a Republican who is South Dakota’s lone U.S. representative, disliked a recent commentary written by retired U.S. Forest Service employee Dave Mertz and published by Searchlight. Mertz wrote the commentary in response to Johnson’s March 2 forestry roundtable discussion in Spearfish. “Repeatedly,” Mertz wrote, “panelists stated what the timber industry needs. Never was there any concern for what level of timber harvesting the forest needs.” …The researchers said wildfires and a mountain pine beetle epidemic drastically reduced the number of trees suitable for logging.

The Kootenai National Forest is conducting spring prescribed fire projects when weather, fuel conditions and air quality become favorable. Each project follows a prescribed fire burn plan. The prescribed fire projects are located and designed to be controlled to reduce the potential for adverse effects. Robust scientific data shows that strategically placed prescribed fire and mechanical treatments are vital to reducing forest fuels, lowering catastrophic wildfire risks and slowing or stopping the progression of wildfires. These projects will comply with Montana air quality standards and guided by the Montana/Idaho State Airshed Group to reduce the impacts of smoke to our neighbors, cooperators and surrounding communities.  Land and fire managers may opt to cease firing operations early, on the day of ignitions, for smoke dispersal or other factors.

SEATTLE – State and federal agencies and departments in Oregon and Washington have agreed to collaborate on addressing the escalating wildfire crisis by increasing use of prescribed fire and other forest fuel management strategies at larger geographic scales while also increasing outreach to nearby communities as these strategies are deployed. These strategies reduce forest fuels on the ground and allow for strategic burning that minimizes community and public health impacts relative to impacts from uncontrolled wildfires. “One of the best tools we have for making our forests more resilient against catastrophic wildfires is controlled burning,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller. “The agreement will help to ensure federal and state agencies are working together using the best science to identify where and when prescribed fires will occur, bringing local communities into the conversation, and providing resources to residents to prepare for smoke and have access to clean indoor air.”

SOUTHERN OREGON — Though the U.S. Supreme Court won’t review the legality of a national monument expanding onto Oregon forestland prioritized for logging, the timber industry isn’t yet conceding defeat. The nation’s highest court recently refused to weigh in on the near-doubling of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon, ending seven years of litigation over the issue. However, the timber industry’s legal and political experts still believe the broader controversy over national monuments restricting logging and grazing will probably result in a precedent-setting Supreme Court decision. …Debates over public lands management will likely get more widespread and contentious due to the federal government’s “30 by 30” initiative, which aims to impose conservation measures on 30% of American lands by 2030, Clark Judge said. “The fastest way to get to 30% is to impose the Antiquities Act”. 

After more than two years of analysis, and as part of an ongoing effort by land management agencies to reduce wildfire hazards in the region’s wildland-urban interface (WUI), Flathead National Forest officials announced they’ve issued a final decision notice and environmental assessment approving a timber project on a 28,300-acre segment of the Tally Lake Ranger District west of Whitefish. Called the Round Star Project and first proposed in December 2021, the plan calls for commercial timber harvests on up to 6,324 acres and non-commercial vegetation treatments on up to 2,866 acres, as well as the construction of more than 20 miles of new roads. Implementation of the project could begin as early as June 1. According to the final decision notice signed by Tally Lake District Ranger Bill Mulholland, approximately 92% of the Round Star project area is in the WUI, where the project would reduce tree densities and fuel loading on a total of 9,190 acres of forest.

OREGON — A coalition of environmental groups and activists are attempting to stop the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from allowing old growth trees to be logged in southern Oregon by waging a complaint in court and sitting in trees slated to be cut. On Monday, activists from the environmental group Pacific Northwest Forest Defense climbed high into several Douglas fir trees in a 10,000-acre forested area near Grants Pass. The bureau has sold more than 2,200 acres in it to six companies to log. Activists say some of the trees due to be harvested are up to 400 years old. …Sarah Bennett, a spokesperson for the bureau, said it is rare for officials to allow the sale of acreage with old growth trees and that environmental assessments have shown both contested harvest areas are low-risk for habitat destruction. George Sexton, conservation director of Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, said the bureau is being dishonest.

APACHE JUNCTIONS, AZ — Arizona wildland fire crews are putting their hard hats on and running toward it. “The mindset isn’t necessarily ‘I’m here to save people.’ It’s – ‘this is my duty,'” said Jeff Gallivan, the Battalion Chief for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. With 9 out of 10 wildfires being caused by humans, Gallivan is making sure response teams stay ready. …On April 1 and 2, DFFM held its annual wildland fire training with local, state and federal agencies. Crews learned how to combat wildfires through in-class learning and field drills, including fire shelter deployment and radio communication. Keyhan Tabak, the fire captain for the Superstition Fire Crew, said the hours of preparation come down to one key component – safety. Tabak said, “we want to make sure our firefighters are physically, mentally trained and capable and able to fight that fire so their safety comes number one.”

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has awarded $3.1 million for 13 projects to reduce wildfire risk to communities and improve forest health. The funding money is part of the $15 million Montana Forest Action Plan, which takes a big-picture approach to reducing the risk of wildfires. Wyatt Frampton, deputy division administrator of forestry and trust lands for the Montana Department of Natural Resources, said the money will be used to foster fire-management cooperation between state and private landowners across 3,200 acres of forest. “Through a variety of activities, such as prescribed fire, logging, mechanical thinning, hand activities as well as tree planting,” Frampton outlined. The 13 most recent restoration projects are spread across the state, including in Lewis and Clark County, the Bitterroot and the South Swan Valley.

In February, 21 members of the Northwest Forest Plan advisory committee met at the University of Oregon to hash out the future of Northwest forests. Committee members are foresters, political leaders, tribal members and lawyers, all with decades of experience in working with the government — except one. Ryan Reed is a grad student, a wildland firefighter, and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California. Despite his young age, it’s clear other committee members look up to him as a leader. …Federal and local governments in the U.S. have long determined how to use the lands that were taken from tribes, oftentimes without asking for their input. Forests were logged, rivers were dammed and freeways divided communities. Now government officials are increasingly calling for tribal inclusion in policymaking. But how much they engage tribes varies, and some Indigenous leaders question whether these agencies truly respect tribal input…

When it came to wildfires, 2021 was an increasingly common kind of year in Montana: Flames consumed 747,000 acres, an area nearly the size of Long Island. About 2,700 of those acres were on Don Harland’s Sheep Creek Ranch, where ever-drier summers have turned lodgepole pines into matchsticks ready to ignite. …A former timber industry executive, Mr. Harland knew the forest wouldn’t grow back on its own. The land is high and dry, the ground rocky and inhospitable — not like the rainy coastal Northwest, where trees grow thick and fast. Nor did he have the money to carry out a replanting operation, since growing for timber wouldn’t pay for itself. …Then a local forester suggested he get in touch with a new company out of Seattle, called Mast… who proposed to replant the whole acreage, free. Mast, in turn, was to earn money from companies that wanted to offset their carbon emissions. 

A federal judge has finalized the return of national forest protections for large trees growing east of the Cascades. The order brings back protections that had long prohibited logging trees larger than 21 inches in diameter from six national forests in eastern Oregon and Washington. …During the final days of the Trump Administration, the U.S. Forest Service amended its guidelines known as Eastside Screens. …The Forest Service claimed this sudden change was needed to thin forests and prevent major wildfires. …The following year, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman recommended the Forest Service restore the large tree protections, calling the agency’s decisions “arbitrary and capricious.” …On Friday, District Judge Ann Aiken issued an order agreeing with Hallman. Aiken concluded the Forest Service violated several federal laws and “failed to take a hard look at the amendment’s change and its impact on aquatic species.”

DENVER – Governor Jared Polis announced awards for the 2023-2024 Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation (FRWRM) grant program grant cycle. In total, the Colorado State Forest Service will award $7.2 million to 31 projects in 17 counties across Colorado. …Wildfire risk remains in Colorado, even after a cooler, wetter 2023. The milder conditions last year resulted in more flammable vegetation near our homes and communities, and some parts of the state still experience drought conditions. The State of Colorado provides funding to assist communities and groups across Colorado to reduce their wildfire risk and promote forest health through the Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation grant program, administered by the Colorado State Forest Service.

Washington state can’t auction an East King County forest for logging without first analyzing the local project’s climate change impacts, a judge ruled last week, blocking the controversial timber sale and putting officials under pressure to change how they evaluate public lands for harvesting. The agency responsible for such auctions is reviewing Thursday’s decision, while advocates who challenged the project in court are calling the ruling a significant win. The Wishbone sale was scheduled for last July with a $1.62 million minimum bid, then paused when opponents sued the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Metropolitan King County Council members and the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe had also raised concerns. “This is a major victory for carbon rich, biodiverse forests and the laws that protect them,” John Talberth, president at the Center for Sustainable Economy, said in a statement about the judge’s decision.

Fire plays a complex role in the development of forest structure and wildlife habitat in moist forests of the Pacific Northwest. Despite the perception that abundant precipitation and relatively infrequent lightning limited historical fire activity to large, high-severity fires during drought, recently developed fire histories document relatively frequent non-stand-replacing fires that shaped successional dynamics, forest conditions, and wildlife habitat in many moist forest landscapes. Non-stand-replacing fires facilitated the development of large complex tree crowns, multi-aged and multistoried canopies, mixed species composition, and the recruitment of snags and logs. …Cumulatively, contemporary fires have reduced late-successional and old-growth forest habitat, while also contributing to the complexity of future old-growth forests and creating structurally diverse early seral habitats that were rare until recently. [a webinar series by NCASI and the Washington Chapter of The Wildlife Society – Thursday, April 4 at 11:30am]