Region Archives: US West

Forests are extremely valuable for watersheds, wildlife, carbon storage, recreation and so much more. The deceptively named Fix Our Forests Act, or FOFA, does nothing to conserve forests to retain these values. Instead, it would emphasize logging and otherwise manipulating forests at a scale we haven’t seen on public lands for many decades, if ever. The misguided bill has already passed the House, and its Senate version was recently introduced by Colorado’s own U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and other Western senators. FOFA encourages the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management…, to avoid a careful examination of impacts from logging and ways to reduce harms under the National Environmental Policy Act. Under FOFA, projects up to 10,000 acres — over 15 square miles — would be excluded from consideration of possible impacts. What’s more, the public would have only one chance to provide input for logging projects and could only object in court.

Industrial-scale logging in the Tongass National Forest was due to monopolies created by the federal government and taxpayer subsidies… A study by the Southeast Conservation Council calculated the federal government spent $386 million for preparation and sale of Tongass timber while collecting only $32 million in stumpage fees from 1982 to 1988. While the heyday of the timber industry supported about 4,000 jobs, many were nonresidents or recent arrivals who left when the pulp mills closed. Most of my former colleagues at the Sitka mill went “back home” to Washington when the mill ceased operation. The pulp mills closed primarily because of tree farms in warmer climates such as South Africa, where forests grow much faster than the Tongass. Many fruit and vegetable farms in the southern U.S. converted to tree farms… So, are there enough standing old-growth trees to support a vibrant timber industry in the Tongass? It depends upon who you ask.

After Oregon’s devastating 2020 Labor Day fires, the Legislature passed a bill that was supposed to lead to more wildfire awareness and resilience. Among other things, Senate Bill 762 created a map of areas at high risk of fire. But that map led to a huge backlash from property owners — a backlash so strong that a few weeks ago, the state Senate voted unanimously to eliminate it. Jeff Golden is a Democratic state senator from the Rogue Valley. He voted to create the map in 2021, now he’s voted to get rid of it. …“We delegated to Oregon State University, which has credentials — among the best in the world in terms of maps like this — and gave them almost no direction, just said, ‘We need a map to fulfill this purpose. Let us have it within the next 18 months.’” At the time, very few lawmakers were worried about what would come next.

With the passing of the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire on May 10—during yet another bone-dry spring of the Modern Megadrought—we should consider a wildfire variation of the adage, “Those who don’t learn from (fire and forestry) history are doomed to relive it.” In the 1990s, Los Alamos and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) were warned, repeatedly, that they were vulnerable to wildfire. Today, Los Alamos and New Mexico in general, despite Cerro Grande and other fires, have not acknowledged or addressed the dangerous reality of today’s forests. As a correspondent for the Santa Fe New Mexican in the 1990s, I authored multiple stories featuring foresters and wildland firefighters who saw Los Alamos’ peril. I also witnessed, firsthand, the power and destruction of wildfires—Cerro Grande, Dome, Missionary Ridge, Los Conchas—in places I love. …Instead, it’s time to demand municipal, county, state, and federal leaders who acknowledge and aggressively address the wildfire threat.

Trump administration funding cuts and a loss of federal workers who help support wildland firefighting continues to make planning for the upcoming wildfire season a challenge, according to forest and fire officials in Washington state and Oregon. The biggest issue they’re facing is a lack of communication from the federal government as the West faces “a pretty significant wildland fire season,” Washington State Forester George Geissler said Thursday during a press conference hosted by Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. …A spokesperson with the Department of Interior, which oversees National Parks and other public lands, said “funding is not in jeopardy.” They’re supporting firefighting efforts by increasing pay for federal and tribal wildland firefighters across the U.S. The administration has refused to release the exact number of fired and rehired workers, but numbers are coming in from individual forests, she said.

By the end of this month, about 3,110 acres of private forestland outside Northwest Portland will become part of Oregon State University’s new research forest. OSU announced Friday that it’s finalizing its purchase of land northwest of Portland’s Forest Park for $27 million, all of it covered by federal and regional grants. This area, which OSU calls the Tualatin Mountain Forest, had been managed as a timber plantation by forest products giant Weyerhaeuser Company. As such, most of the trees are no older than 35 years. OSU leaders say this landscape will become more ecologically diverse under the university’s ownership. The plan is to research what effects different types of logging practices have on tree diseases, pests and fire resilience. …This land acquisition comes a year and a half after OSU suddenly backed away from yearslong plans to manage the Elliott State Forest near the Oregon Coast as a research forest.

PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County Superior Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order to halt all logging activity in two Elwha River watershed forest parcels for 14 days. As double assurance the forests are not logged, activists have placed debris in the middle of a road, blocking logging access to Units 3, 4 and 6 of a timber sale called Parched. …Together, these actions have temporarily halted logging-related activity for about 300 acres in the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) parcels named Parched and Tree Well. The parcels are currently being litigated on two fronts. …Judge Elizabeth Stanley’s order, issued Wednesday, stated that the LFDC demonstrated that “immediate and irreparable harm, including construction of roads, environmental damage and loss of forest resources within the boundaries of the Parched and Tree Well sales, will occur absent immediate injunctive relief.”

SEATTLE — Recent controversy over the management of Washington’s older state-owned forests has been dominated by an either/or framework: Either we clear-cut these tracts or prevent any harvest at all. Cut it all now or don’t cut any, ever? The human brain loves to dichotomize, but this type of either/or thinking doesn’t work in the woods. Ecologically, economically and culturally, our forests are too complex. Ecologically, climate change is altering our forests rapidly and radically. …Economically, rural areas in Washington state are a microcosm of a pattern that is global in scope. …Cultural values need to be considered as well. …We have to implement a broad array of management models and tools. Instead of re-fighting the 1980s War in the Woods and practicing lawsuit-driven forestry, we need to create flexible, forward-looking practices that will support the health of our forests and rural communities in a time of rapid change.

The Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection (DOF) is working with the Anchorage Fire Department (AFD) Wildfire Division to implement a shaded “fuel break” in the Anchorage Hillside area extending from Hilltop Ski Area Road to Prospect Drive. Known as the East-West Connector, this project was scheduled to begin May 5 and represents a renewed effort to reduce wildfire risk through coordinated mitigation work across the Municipality of Anchorage. Wildfire Division Chief, Anchorage Fire Department, Jon Glover shared this statement: “The collaboration between the State of Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection and the Anchorage Fire Department on the East-West Connector shaded fuel break represents exactly the kind of partnership our community needs. This project is more than a line on a map, it’s a commitment to proactive wildfire mitigation and public safety. Together, we’re building resilience and delivering long-term value to the residents we serve.”

Taking aim at “climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life,” President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 federal budget would reduce spending on public lands, shift some national park facilities and forest management to states, and consolidate federal wildland firefighting into a new service inside the Department of the Interior… If Congress approves the proposed budget, the cuts would go into effect on October 1, 2025, when the federal fiscal 2026 budget year begins… Trump’s budget recommends $4.7 billion in cuts department-wide, including $1.4 billion from Forest Service activities and research… “The President has pledged to manage national forests for their intended purpose of producing timber,” the letter states, but it reduces Forest Service salaries by $342 million, eliminates the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program’s $50 million allocation, and reduces “funding for recreation, vegetation and watershed management, and land management regulation.” It also recommends “transferring smaller, lesser visited parks to State and tribal governments.”

Environmentalists and tribal members who have defended the Tongass National Forest for decades are unsure how to proceed under the second Trump administration. Meanwhile, some people struggling in timber and mining feel renewed hope. Both sides say only time will tell as they watch federal actions fall. …Conservationists say public opinion overwhelmingly supports protecting the Tongass, based on comments collected by the Forest Service. Some Alaska policymakers and industry representatives argue that national polls and public comments are detached from the economic and existential reality of people living in Southeast. …Gordon Chew, owner of Tenakee Logging Co., said logging did not change the last time the Roadless Rule was rescinded. He finds it unlikely to be different now because he said no industry exists. The Forest Service no longer builds roads for timber operators.

A national strategy to increase timber production and use emergency authorities to protect forests from fire, insects and disease should be in place by May 3, according to an order by Forest Service Acting Associate Chief Chris French. At the same time, the agency is consolidating its nine regional offices into two or three centers. Simultaneously, its parent USDA could lose as many as 30,000 of its 100,000 employees. Approximately 12,000 of those are expected to leave in the second wave of buyout offers in late April. The remaining 18,000 USDA employees are expected to be fired, the firm said. How that might play out in Greater Yellowstone regions like the Bridger Teton or Custer Gallatin national forests is not clear. …With a looming fire and tourist season about to spin up activity in the woods, the Forest Service’s ability to handle baseline missions while reinventing itself has other longtime forest observers worried.

A big change could be coming to U.S. wildlife conservation policy. In mid-April, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to change how the term “harm” would be defined in the Endangered Species Act. …According to Paula Swedeen, policy director at Conservation Northwest, the goal of the change is to bring the definition of “harm” in the ESA closer to what the Trump administration believes is its originally-intended meaning. …Washington state has its own conservation plans that are already in place on state lands. According to Swedeen, there’s reason to think that the changes to the ESA won’t impact those too much. …According to Swedeen, the spotted owl is one of the best examples of how endangered species could be put at risk by the proposed new ESA reading. …changes could also impact other endangered species in Washington, like the grizzly bear

Oregon forestry officials now have a general idea of how they’ll find a new state forester — more than four months after Cal Mukumoto’s sudden resignation from the job. …It could take another two to four months to fill the role, state human resources staff told the Board of Forestry on Wednesday. …In February, Gov. Tina Kotek introduced a bill that would give her the power to choose Mukumoto’s replacement. Mukumoto resigned in January after months of turmoil over workplace conduct investigations, questionable spending and a massive, albeit temporary, financial deficit resulting from the state’s most expensive fire season on record. The ongoing leadership shakeup comes at a pivotal time for the forestry department, as the Legislature considers bills that could change how the state covers wildfire costs and reshape wildfire hazard mapping. The state also faces President Trump’s federal staffing cuts could lead to lackluster firefighting response.

During the Vietnam War, an American officer referred to the U.S. military’s decision to bomb a town of 35,000 people, saying, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” This quote comes to mind when examining a bill sponsored by Utah Sen. John Curtis, ironically named “Fix Our Forests Act,” S.1462, (FOFA). It should be renamed “We Have to Destroy our Forests to Save Them Act”. The bill is forest malpractice, climate malpractice, and public health malpractice. Sen. Curtis’s S. 1462 is a legislative enactment of Trump’s recent executive order to dramatically ramp up logging on federal lands, exempting 60% of national forest lands from meaningful environmental analysis and public participation under the pretense of a wildfire “emergency.” Remember Donald Trump is the environmental expert that insists the climate crisis is a hoax, and attributed Western forest fires to insufficient raking of the forest floors.

OREGON – Matt Donegan is working on a plan for Oregon’s forest problem. In 2024, the state saw 1.9 million acres burn. And last year, the agency was beset by scandal, management turmoil, and near-bankruptcy from the cost of putting out blazes. During the current legislative session, a lot of people—lawmakers, Gov. Tina Kotek, the state’s timber industry, environmentalists, electric utilities, and hundreds of thousands of beleaguered property owners—are all looking for a solution. …Donegan knows he’s walking a knife edge between conservation groups that zealously guard Oregon’s forests and a timber industry eager to increase cutting. …The problem is, the forests are so overstocked with dead, dry debris after a century of fire suppression that fires easily become catastrophic rather than restorative. …Donegan proposes to break off a small fraction of that amount for intensive management—thinning and prescribed burns—as a pilot project.

…a relatively wet 2023 for much of the state bolstered many trees against the spread of the mountain pine beetle, the separate spruce beetle and the spruce budworm. But a dry 2024 set the pests marching again by sapping forests of the water they need to stay healthy and fight off infestations, said Dan West, entomologist with Colorado State Forest Service. Colorado’s higher-altitude forests need several normal to wet seasons in a row to build up true resiliency, he said. One dry season meant Western spruce budworm affected 217,000 acres of state forests in 2024, up from 202,000 acres in 2023… Mountain pine beetle… grew to 5,600 acres of impact. The Douglas-fir beetle impacted 21,000 acres in 2024, its largest total damage in almost 10 years… Western balsam bark beetle …is still the … most widespread by acreage. The acres affected by the balsam bark beetle held steady at 27,000, but more of those trees die. 

Logging is not necessarily a dirty word in the environmental dictionary. There, I said it. Provided sustainable practices are used, namely the careful choice over what trees get chopped down, logging can have a positive impact on the health of our forests as part of an effective management strategy that includes mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. Selective logging can also mitigate the risk and destructive power of wildfires. …This is my way of saying logging shouldn’t automatically be perceived as an environmental threat – despite what history tells us is the result when chainsaws and bulldozers are employed by the wrong hands. …Environmental groups reacted with outrage to Trump’s order, calling it a thinly veiled attempt to bypass environmental laws in order to justify widespread commercial logging under the false pretense that such actions will reduce wildfire risk.

A Washington State University professor is one of a dozen researchers who signed an open letter noting that a proposed expansion of logging on federal lands may have some benefits — but that the firing of forestry experts and cuts in research could undermine that potential. The result, they say in the letter published Thursday at the website of the journal Science, could harm wildlife, increase wildfire risk and eliminate irreplaceable carbon stores in national forests. Austin Himes, an assistant professor in WSU’s School of the Environment, said that the idea of increasing domestic timber production and relying less on imports has promise. But focusing solely on speeding up the pace of logging risks other priorities that “evidence-based” forestry practices seek to balance. …the researchers said increased logging, if focused only on efficiently increasing timber production, could reduce the ability of forests to withstand growing threats from pests and wildfires.

Imagine you’re a college senior who just landed your dream job working for the U.S. Forest Service  — a career … fueled by a passion for the natural world and protecting our federal land. Then you receive an email terminating you. …A federal initiative to shrink the workforce affected the whole nation and directly impacted students on Utah State University’s campus. “Just seeing all these jobs go away and science being defunded — I guess I don’t really know what I’m doing with my life at the moment,” said Anna Hansen, sophomore in USU’s forest ecology and management program. …The Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State has several different majors. In years past, there were more forestry jobs than USU students to fill them… With the changes and terminations, the outlook for this year’s graduates could be very different and affect those still in college who are considering pursuing this career.

HULETT—Jim Neiman says that the best-case scenario for his family’s timber mill at the base of the Bear Lodge Mountains is that it doesn’t shutter. The Crook County sawmill in 2022 shrunk to one shift to survive hard economic times and a dearth of available timber. Three years later, there are what appear to be major industry tailwinds: a pro-logging presidential order, prospective tariff hikes on Canadian timber and now a U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary’s order declaring an “emergency” to stimulate logging on 112.6 million acres of national forest. The order covers nearly 60% of all national forest lands. Collectively, it stands to help, Neiman said. The timber sale approval process, which is run through the National Environmental Policy Act, is likely to go much faster. “The old process with NEPA could sometimes take a year and a half to five years,” he said. “This will speed that up to a few months.”

The federal government is readying to fire up more chain saws in the Northwest’s national forests. President Donald Trump’s executive order last month laid the groundwork for wholesale changes in national forest management. But just when and where more cutting could happen is up in the air. National forests are among the Northwest’s recreational jewels — the public lands that are available for camping and hiking offer more flexibility than national parks for bringing a dog, a horse, and motorized and mountain bike recreation on some shared-use trails. These forests also are logged for timber — and the administration wants to up the cut. Here at home, that means timber managers are under a directive to help contribute to a 25% increase in logging volume over the next several years.

SACRAMENTO – Protecting communities ahead of peak fire season, Governor Gavin Newsom today took action to fast-track critical projects to ensure wildfire resiliency statewide. Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 100 (Gabriel), which allocates over $170 million in accelerated funding to conservancies for forest and vegetation management across California. The bill also allocates $10 million to support wildfire response and resiliency. …In addition, Governor Newsom signed an executive order to ensure that the wildfire safety projects funded under Assembly Bill 100 benefit from streamlining under a previous emergency proclamation issued in March. 

A federal order to increase US timber production by 25% will touch all 18 of the Golden’s State’s national forests, officials said. The USDA said it does not yet have information about how many acres in each forest will be affected. California’s national forests are on the chopping block — literally — in the wake of the Trump administration’s April 5 order to immediately expand timber production. Last week, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued an emergency declaration that ordered the US Forest Service to open up some 112.5 million acres of national forestland to logging. The announcement included a grainy map of affected forests, which did not specify forest names or the amount of impacted acreage in each. However, USDA officials have confirmed that the order will touch all 18 of the Golden State’s national forests, which collectively span more than 20 million acres. [to access the full story a Los Angeles Times subscription is required]

BONNERS FERRY, ID – A federal district court has stopped a logging project in northern Idaho that would have carved more roads into the area and harmed the Selkirk grizzly population habitat. Only about 50 grizzlies live in the region. Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, which has been in litigation with the U.S. Forest Service over this issue for nearly six years, said the project would have resulted in more roads than is allowed under the agency’s rules. “The Forest Plan, which is their management plan that governs the forest, limits road density in Selkirk grizzly bear habitat,” he said, “because most grizzly bears are killed within a third of a mile of a road, and it’s usually a logging road.” The court decision found the government had been violating road construction limits for years. Court documents show the goal of the Hanna Flats Good Neighbor Authority Project was to reduce wildfire risk.

CALIFORNIA — State experts said they’re dubious about President Donald Trump’s claims that his directive opening up well over half of the country’s forests to logging will reduce wildfire risk and “save American lives.” Some, such as University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources climate-change scientist Daniel Swain, flatly called the administration’s rhetoric disingenuous and misleading. “It’s BS, frankly,” Swain told The Examiner. “Are we going to try and justify logging forests commercially under the guise of wildfire-risk reduction? …The Trump administration says the benefits of these actions are largely twofold: It will reinvigorate the economy by boosting a stagnant timber industry and significantly mitigate wildfires tearing through the West. …UC Berkeley wildfire researcher Scott Stephens said that logging can be a viable way to mitigate fire risk, as long as it’s done sustainably and arborists are strategic about what trees they’re chopping down.

Amid a growing number of wildfires, mostly across Western states, a U.S. Senate bill is aiming to protect areas where communities are most vulnerable to fires, using “good neighbor” agreements, cross-boundary collaboration and the expansion of tools to prevent fire hazards. The bill, titled the Fix Our Forests Act, was introduced Thursday by Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Tim Sheehy R-Mont., and Alex Padilla D-Calif. to “combat catastrophic wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient and responsive,” according to a news release. …The U.S. House version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., passed the House in January. The legislation designates the top 20% of the landscape areas where wildfires are likely to spread and impact communities, including tribal areas, as so-called Fireshed Management Areas. The areas would be selected based on factors including risks to communities and to municipal watersheds.

Los Angeles Times by Faith Pinho: California Sen. Padilla hopes Fix Our Forests Act will prevent more L.A. fires

A Salmon, Idaho man has pleaded guilty to a seven-count indictment for his role in schemes to rig bids, allocate territories, and commit wire fraud over an eight-year period while providing fuel truck services to the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire fighters. Kris Bird, 62, pleaded guilty at the end of March to all counts two weeks before trial, with no assurances from the government as to what sentence will be recommended when he goes before a judge with another involved executive in June 2025. The men were indicted after a federal wiretap investigation in December 2023… “The defendant illegally profited from American taxpayer money,” said Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed of the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. “The FBI and our partners are committed to rooting out fraud and protecting fair competition in the bidding for government contracts.”

A contentious Oregon wildfire map that imposed new regulations on high-risk landowners may be swapped for incentives meant to promote home hardening and defensible space. The Senate Natural Resources Committee has unanimously voted to scrap the state’s wildfire hazard map, originally approved in 2021, as well as the enhanced building code standards and other requirements it entailed. Repealing the wildfire map involved a “difficult conversation” but it’s proven necessary, not only because the provisions were deeply unpopular but because they were impractical, said Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, the committee’s chair. Senate Bill 83, which is now headed for a vote on the Senate floor, would eliminate the map and instead allow local governments to adopt model building codes intended to increase fire resilience.

Related content:

• Austin American-Statesman: Austin’s proposed wildfire risk map unlikely to hike property insurance rates

Environmental groups are sounding the alarm after the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared more than 100 million acres of national forest land “an emergency situation” that can only be helped with chain saws, wood chippers and the bigger, more destructive tools of industrial logging.  But an attorney specializing in environmental litigation and a longtime forester and policy analyst both say contrary to how bad the memo from USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins may sound, its contents could be a shot in the arm the U.S. needs to ramp up its response to the growing wildfire crisis and continue much-needed work on forest health and restoration where mill infrastructure exists… Trump’s executive order says the U.S.’ inability to “fully exploit” its timber supply has, among other things, contributed to wildfire disasters.

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• FOX 13 Seattle – Washington conservationists criticize Trump’s national forest logging plan

Gary Earney

The USDA’s order for the U.S. Forest Service to increase lumber production by 25% is being panned as both unwise and infeasible in Southern California’s sprawling national forests due to a lack of quality wood and nearby sawmills. But those four forests were heavily logged from World War I through the Korean War for soldier barracks and equipment needs, and then to support rapidly growing post-war housing markets, said Gary Earney, who managed timber sales and other multiple use permits for the San Bernardino National Forest from 1978 through 2007, and was a consultant to the forest through 2014. …A public lands advocate said via her action, Rollins is decreeing the agency only needs to propose one action for a given logging project, not the typically legally required range offering less and more environmentally harmful options, and also eliminates the public objection process.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The latest findings about the health of Colorado’s forests are a “mixed bag”, according to forestry experts. On Tuesday, the Colorado State Forest Service released its annual report tracking the damage from forest pests. “Insects are so closely tied to a lot of that temperature and precipitation so in Colorado it’s really been a number of years, actually 31 years, since we’ve been below average temperatures so that makes it really hard to be a tree in Colorado,” CSFS forest entomologist Dr. Dan West said. …According to the report, the front range is experiencing a surge in activity from the mountain pine beetle. In 2021, the insect impacted 1,500 acres statewide. In 2024, that number grew to 5,600 affected acres and included areas in Jefferson County and Castle Rock. …Not only do the dead trees cause forests to be less visually attractive, but they also create more fuel for more damaging wildfires.

An Oregon bill that would eliminate a controversial wildfire hazard map moved one step closer to reality on Tuesday after unanimously passing the Senate Committee on Natural Resources. Senate Bill 83 would repeal 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 moves to the Senate floor for a vote by the chamber. It would need to pass the House and be signed by the governor before becoming law. Most lawmakers say it’s likely to pass all of those hurdles. …The map was roundly condemned by impacted residents who said it was inaccurate, decreased property values and imposed burdensome regulations. Republicans who made killing the map a priority this session celebrated the progress.

Bettina von Hagen

PORT ANGELES — EFM, a forest investment and management firm based in Portland, Ore., has purchased 68,000 acres on the North Olympic Peninsula with plans of managing the forests through climate-smart practices. These coastal temperate rainforest acres were purchased for more than $200 million under the newly established entity Olympic Rainforest LLC, according to a press release. …The land was purchased from Rayonier, Inc, a timberland real estate investment trust which had owned the land for more than 80 years and used it for timber production, according to EFM CEO Bettina von Hagen. With its management strategy, EFM will prioritize sustainable forest management, landscape conservation, enhanced biodiversity, cultural significance and public recreation. …In addition to the management techniques, part of the company’s FSC-certified approach includes using diverse revenue streams from forests such as carbon credits and conservation easements, as well as traditional forest products, according to a press release.