Region Archives: US West

As part of a strategy to reduce wildland fire fuels on a densely timbered tract of land surrounding Tally Lake, about 13 miles west of Whitefish on the wildland-urban interface (WUI), the Flathead National Forest issued a draft decision approving a project to thin trees and conduct other treatments on more than 40,000 acres of mostly public land. Dubbed the Cyclone Bill Project, foresters say the aim is to reduce tree densities and fuel loading on the WUI, buffering residential communities from hazardous, fire-prone sections of the forest. The project would also improve diversity and resilience of the trees and “contribute to continued timber production and economic sustainability,” according to a U.S. Forest Service proposal. On Wednesday, Flathead National Forest officials released the draft decision notice for the Cyclone Bill Project, initiating an administrative review process and setting the stage for the public to submit objections for the next 45 calendar days.

California — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 12 declined to halt a logging and vegetation clearing project atop Pine Mountain and Reyes Peak in Ventura County’s Los Padres National Forest. Various environmental groups, plus Ventura County, Ojai and Patagonia Works, have sued the U.S. Forest Service to halt the project on grounds that it would violate environmental laws, harm vulnerable wildlife, and do irreparable damage to intact roadless areas of the forest. “We had hoped the court would rule in favor of the planet, biodiversity and the community,” said Hans Cole, head of Environmental Activism at outdoor apparel maker Patagonia. …The ruling comes four years after the Trump Administration first proposed the project, leading to significant opposition from conservation organizations, Indigenous groups, scientists, businesses and local governments, according to Los Padres ForestWatch, one of the plaintiffs. The project’s opponents are considering their next steps, including whether to seek a rehearing.

SHASTA-TRINITY NATIONAL FOREST, California — Restrictions are now in place for people who want to visit the Mount Shasta wilderness area of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. According to the U.S. Forest Service, from now until November of 2026 forest order restrictions to protect the habitat, soil and natural resources of the Mount Shasta wilderness area will be enforced. After those two years are up, the Forest Service will look at the restrictions to decide if they will once again be renewed or expanded upon. According to Wilderness Program Manager Nick Meyer, the restrictions will be in place for the foreseeable future and have been in place for over two decades. Meyer says these restrictions are to help reduce the impacts of the 100,000 or more visitors they receive each year.

Discussions about how to best manage Washington forests often get heated. And nothing seems to incite a more negative response than the idea of clear-cutting. In a recent Seattle Times article, there was this description of a logging site: “It still looks like a clear-cut — hashed, bashed, and slashed.” (“Meet the loggers who cut your trees,” Oct. 14). As a second-generation small-forest landowner, I’d like to celebrate the clear-cut, one stage of a working forest. For the decades before harvest, tree roots have aerated and fed the soil below, needles and leaves have replenished the ground, and softly filtered rain has nourished ferns and salal. …In one of our clear-cuts, we counted over 50 different native plants and flowers six months after the harvest. Soon, trees that need full sun to grow, including the Pacific Northwest’s iconic Douglas fir, will be planted and begin a new forest. 

On Earth Day in 2022, President Joe Biden declared the importance of big, old trees. “There used to be a hell of a lot more forests like this,” he said, extolling their power to fight climate change. …The president uncapped his pen, preparing to sign an executive order to protect mature and old-growth forests on federal lands. “I just think this is the beginning of a new day,” Biden said. But two years later, at a timber auction in a federal office in Roseburg, Oregon, this new day was nowhere to be seen. …Up for sale were the first trees from an area of forest the Bureau of Land Management calls Blue and Gold. A week after Biden’s executive order, the Blue and Gold logging project had been shelved. Now it was back on. The BLM is moving forward with timber sales in dozens of forests like this across the West.

ARIZONA — The vast ponderosa pine forest destroyed by the 468,000-acre Rodeo-Chedeski Fire more than 20 years ago hasn’t come back, and in some areas, it never might. This conclusion has emerged from a decade of study on the recovery of the centuries-old forest dominated by ponderosa pines that burned in the fire. The Rodeo-Chedeski Fire was one of the first in a succession of fires that have plagued the Southwest since. The fire came in the midst of an historic drought. It rampaged across half a million acres… 30,000 people were evacuated from Show Low and other White Mountains communities. The forest has changed dramatically across the burn scar, according to ongoing studies by Northern Arizona’s Ecological Restoration Institute and others. Some areas are covered in pine seedlings. But another intense fire in the next century or so will prevent any of those seedlings from growing into fire-resistant, old-growth ponderosas.

Though population and housing density have been rising in the river valleys between Yellowstone National Park and Cody, Wyoming for decades, some of the recent growth may be thanks in part to the television show “Yellowstone,” starring Kevin Costner. The show… made owning a piece of this landscape glamorous around the same time the pandemic and remote work drove more people to do so. …Mounting development is a grave threat, carving up an ecosystem that must stay relatively intact to function. …Plenty of the new construction is in towns… but some is well outside population centers, and it displaces wildlife. …What we are up against now is time, and the desire of so many people to have a piece of “Yellowstone’s” America. The question is whether Americans’ obsession with the fictional Yellowstone will contribute to the destruction of the real one, or help fuel bold action and investment to save it. [Full access to this story requires a subscription to the New York Times]

Natalie Whitesel

Oregon’s current approach to wildfire budgeting is inherently incompatible with the level of risk it faces in a changing climate. In fact, the damages … are only likely to get worse. The solution? A carbon price. Making polluters pay corrects a long-standing market inefficiency, shifting the burden of wildfire costs from the shoulders of taxpayers back on to the responsible party: large carbon emitters. …In Oregon, modestly pricing the carbon emissions … could generate an additional $3 billion annually, providing ample resources to fund the state’s wildfire response efforts… A carbon price wouldn’t stop the world from warming. It’s too late for that. Climate change is here, it’s impacting Oregonians – their homes, their land, their lives – and it’s expensive. Adopting a carbon tax could alleviate Oregon’s wildfire funding woes, set the stage for better budgeting and ensure a safer, more resilient Oregon for years to come by making the polluters pay.

Scientists have confirmed that—a massive forest of quaking aspen trees in Utah known as Pando—is between 16,000 and 80,000 years old, solidifying its place among the planet’s most ancient organisms. The forest, whose Latin name means “I spread,” is a single living thing: one tree that has cloned itself tens of thousands of times. Spanning 42.6 hectares of Utah’s Fishlake National Forest, Pando consists of approximately 47,000 individual stems all connected by a single, vast root system. “Pando looks like a normal forest,” said William Ratcliff, an evolutionary biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and co-author of the study. “But while the trees last only about 200 years, they continually regenerate from the root system, which kind of lives forever.” Pando has unique genetic makeup. The tree is triploid, meaning its cells contain three copies of each chromosome instead of the usual two.

Tara Umphries

PORTLAND, Ore. — Tara Umphries, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the U.S. Forest Service, has been appointed as the new Forest Supervisor for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Umphries, who has served as Acting Forest Supervisor since July 15, will officially take over the position on December 1, following her tenure in the Rocky Mountain Region as a Special Assistant to the Regional Forester, where she concentrated on Shared Stewardship and the Wildfire Crisis Strategy. …Umphries began her career in wildland fire in 2002 as a wildland firefighter, progressively advancing to key leadership roles, including Fuels Program Manager for the Willamette National Forest and Fire Planner for the Pacific Northwest’s Region 6. She also served as District Ranger on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, where her work further solidified her reputation for partnership building and proactive fire management strategies. 

SEATTLE — As candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands, Republican Jaime Hererra-Beutler has consistently asserted that, according to “the science,” it’s necessary to log our legacy forests to keep them from “burning up.” She asserts that “too many of our forests have been undermanaged or outright neglected, and they’ve turned into crowded, diseased tinderboxes, just waiting for a spark.” They’ve “fallen into disrepair,” she says, and need “cleaning up.” But is it true? Is there really a scientific consensus saying so? And what type of forest is she talking about? Washington is a big state. Legacy forests are identified only on the west side of the state and then only below 3,500 feet. There, you have to differentiate between forests that are naturally regenerated (legacy forests) and those already converted to timber plantations (managed plantations).

The western U.S. has a debt to pay, one that has been piling up interest for over a hundred years. “If there’s an accumulation of fuel, it’s due for a fire. It’s a fire debt,” said Danny Whatley, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. “If you don’t pay it this year, it’s due next year. And if you forego, it’s just a bigger debt every year you put it off.” Western forests want to burn. Decades of federal fire suppression policies aimed at extinguishing all blazes have allowed forests to grow dangerously dense creating conditions for wildfires to get out of control. Many of the estimated 99 million people living near overgrown forests are now coming to accept this wildfire paradox – that more fire is how they make payment and save the place they love.

DNA samples from one of the world’s largest and oldest plants — a quaking aspen tree (Populus tremuloides) in Utah called Pando — have helped researchers to determine its age and revealed clues about its evolutionary history. By sequencing hundreds of samples from the tree, researchers confirmed that Pando is between 16,000 and 80,000 years old, verifying previous suggestions that it is among the oldest organisms on Earth. They were also able to track patterns of genetic variation spread throughout the tree that offer clues about how it has adapted and evolved over the course of its lifetime. The findings were posted on the bioRxiv preprint server on 24 October.The work has not yet been peer reviewed.

PORT ANGELES — The Elwha Legacy Forest Coalition may not be the Lorax, but they still speak for the trees. On Tuesday, the state Board of Natural Resources (BNR), which oversees the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), will vote on whether to move forward with three timber sales, totaling 725 acres, that are fully or partially located within the Elwha River Watershed. To oppose these timber sales and their potential environmental impacts, organizations and citizens bonded together to form the Elwha Legacy Forest Coalition. …These forests in questions have been labelled “legacy” forests by advocates — mature, structurally complex forests that contain a breadth of diversity. …“Whenever and wherever we find it [old growth], it is permanently conserved,” said Duane Emmons, DNR assistant deputy supervisor for State Uplands. …If the sales are postponed or canceled, many junior taxing districts are worried about the loss of timber sale revenue.

Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday to stop a plan to kill barred owls, which is part of a federal plan to save endangered spotted owls. Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington state challenging a plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill a maximum of 450,000 barred owls over the next 30 years. Northern spotted owl populations have been rapidly declining due in part to competition from invasive barred owls, which originate in the eastern United States. …USFWS said it worked for years on a plan that would remove less than one-half of 1% of the North American barred owl population. …“As wildlife professionals, we approached this issue carefully and did not come to this decision lightly,” USFWS Oregon State Supervisor Kessina Lee said in announcing the decision in August.

Monday night’s planning meeting for the McDonald-Dunn was the fourth public session in Oregon State University’s multi-year process to come up with a new management plan for these public forests. One would think the leaders of the College of Forestry would have fine-tuned their process for public engagement, but the litany of complaints from frustrated citizens showed that they still have a lot to learn. The unwelcome involvement and comments by the dean of the College created further discontent with OSU’s planning process. …It is both alarming and telling that nearly all twelve of OSU’s scenarios still involve a significant amount of clearcutting, termed, “rotational forestry.” On average, OSU’s twelve scenarios dedicate roughly 40% of the McDonald-Dunn to clearcut forestry. …It remains to be seen whether OSU is willing to incorporate public input to any meaningful degree. At Monday’s meeting, the community soundly rejected both OSU’s forest management and its approach to forest management. 

The closure of Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula and Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake put 250 workers out of a job this year. Samuel Scott is a forest economist with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana. In a presentation Friday requested by the Montana Forest Collaboration Network, Scott said the mill closures could lead to a 20% reduction in Montana’s timber harvest, if the lumber industry isn’t able to add processing capacity. “…This is a worst case scenario of where we could be headed if nothing changes,” said Scott. It’s unclear how or when the work done by Pyramid Mountain and Roseburg could be replaced. Pyramid Mountain began auctioning off its machinery and equipment last week. The company says the mill is working with a potential buyer and that they would likely bring in all new equipment if they complete the purchase.

WASHINGTON — A petition seeking to stop a logging and forest management project in October Mountain State Forest was signed by nearly 600 citizens and submitted this week to Gov. Maura Healey. The petition by the group, Preserve October Mountain State Forest, was also sent to state Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Brian Arrigo. The document says the group wants to not only stop the project in what is the state’s largest forest, but also to place this entire property into a forest reserve “so it will be primarily by natural processes with minimal human interference.” “The goal,” the petition says, “is to retain an intact forest for wildlife, water and soil protection, carbon accumulation and recreation.”

Three forest stands whose timbers have been authorized for sale but had been paused – are now back on the chopping block as the Board of Natural Resources (BNR) will consider re-approving them for auction on November 5. These forest stands are Juneau, Carrot, and Cabbage Patch, representing 430 acres of forestland. Money-wise, the three forest stands represent $1.9 million in timber revenue for the county, according to projections by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Olympia and Rochester school districts are the most significant beneficiaries, which stand to gain $596,129 and $367,850 from the revenues over several years. All three stands are in the Capitol State Forest and are considered “legacy” forests, especially by certain environmental groups. Legacy Forest Defense Coalition defines legacy forests as “forests that retain significant biological, structural, and genetic legacies of the natural and old growth forests that once dominated the Pacific Northwest.”

Nicole Hynson normally gets roped in to help when all else fails. The conservation biologist from the University of Hawaii is involved in bringing back all kinds of critically endangered plants from the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, she’s kept busy in her home state, Hawaii, which is also known as the extinction capital of the world. Her latest conservation target is a flowering tree that’s fighting a losing battle in the wild: the Gardenia brighamii, or, as it’s known among some local communities, the na’u. The na’u is one of three gardenia species endemic to the archipelago. The na’u’s crowning glory is its fragrant flower, a pearly blossom that was once frequently woven into traditional floral wreaths called leis.

Trucks line an unpaved road about 50 minutes up Robinette Mountain Road near Dayton, Washington. Crews are ready to burn over 37 acres at the Rainwater Wildlife Area. As wildfire season winds down, crews around Washington and Oregon perform prescribed fires. Lindsay Chiono is a wildlife habitat ecologist with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. During this burn, she’s also the firing boss. That means she’s guiding the lighters — the people setting the fire. “We’ve tried to burn this unit for three years in a row. Just a few weeks ago was summer, and high fire hazard. So it’s a small window up this high elevation,” she said. Chiono and 22 members from tribal, governmental and private organizations performed the prescribed fire on the tribe’s lands in late September.