Region Archives: US West

Business & Politics

Pyramid’s manpower problem linked to housing, septic battle

By Griffen Smith
Billings Gazette
March 20, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Todd Johnson

SEELEY LAKE — Pyramid Mountain Lumber may still have a chance to stay open, but it would take nothing short of a miracle. The company, which announced its impending closure on March 14, said it needs one of two things to stay in business: tens of millions of dollars in investment into automation, or roughly 50 more employees to return the mill to full operational output and increase revenues. …While the money for automation is non-existent within the company, the lack of employees stems from Seeley Lake’s longtime standoff with the county government over a community sewer system that’s stifling affordable housing. …The health department told the Missoulian that such restrictions are necessary to limit groundwater contamination from nitrates, and doubled down that the real solution is a public sewer system. …Seeley Lake had the opportunity to build a $12 million sewer system and $5 million collection system in 2021.

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Uncertain future lies ahead for Western Montana forestry and forest products industries

By Zach Volheim
8KPAX Missoula & Western Montana
March 22, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

MISSOULA — The forestry and forest products industries have been staples in Western Montana’s economy for decades. But with the two recent announcements of the closures of Pyramid Mountain Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products, the industry has been shaken once again, now processing what kind of a future lies ahead. … The closure of these two companies came as a surprise to much of the community. But the Montana Wood Products Association — although saddened at the losses — knew that with the current forest products market, many mills were struggling. … “It’s all about the inventories, it’s all about supply. Yes, the workforce and housing has complicated our situation for sure,” Montana Wood Products Association Executive Director Julia Alemus explained. “But, like I said, if we had had a steady supply of wood products, you know wood fiber moving from the forest to the mill, I think that things could have been a little bit different.”

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Missoula-area wood industry closures mean ripple effects for workers, tax base, forest management

By Katie Fairbanks
The Montana Free Press
March 22, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

MONTANA — The pending closures of Missoula County’s two largest wood products employers, announced separately this month, will have effects beyond the local economy, limiting options for landowners and other mills throughout the region and making forest management projects more expensive, according to local and industry officials. “It’s not just the facilities and jobs that are impacted at those facilities,” said Todd Morgan, director of the University of Montana’s Forest Industry Research Program. “It’s going to have a bigger impact on the landscape, on forests, on communities in and around the forest and certainly on the economies of those communities.” …The closures will not only affect the approximately 250 people employed by Pyramid and Roseburg, but potentially another 100 or so jobs indirectly associated with the facilities, like log truck drivers, Morgan said. …Missoula County finance staff members are looking at how the closures will affect the tax base.

In related coverage:

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Environmental concerns over Drax air quality permit prompt hearing

By Caleb Barber
The Longview Daily News
March 21, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

PORT OF LONGVIEW, Washington — Environmental and public health concerns over the proposed Drax wood pellet factory are prompting the Southwest Clean Air Agency to hold a public hearing before approving the company’s air discharge permit. Public hearings aren’t initiated for every permit, which sets caps on how much pollution can be emitted, only for applications where the agency determines there is enough public interest, Southwest Clean Air Agency engineer Danny Phipps said. The permit states emissions should not exceed 44.02 tons of hazardous air pollutants per year. A number of Longview residents and environmental justice nonprofits have submitted letters to the SWCAA, calling for a more comprehensive review of the proposed site’s air quality control measures. …The hearing on Drax’s air discharge permit is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28.

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Finally some truth from the timber industry

By George Ochenski
The Daily Montanan
March 22, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

George Ochenski

For decades whenever an industrial facility closed in Montana, there was always someone to blame besides the owners, operators, board decisions or economic conditions. That someone was all-too-often industry’s favorite whipping boy, the environmentalists. But when two timber mills in western Montana recently announced closures they finally told the truth — they made business decisions based on a number of factors, none of which could be blamed on environmentalists, lack of logs, or the industry’s latest favorite scapegoat “serial litigators” filing “frivolous lawsuits.” …But on this one — and the mill owners finally told the truth. The closures are primarily about the cost of living in Montana, a deficient labor pool, and newer, more efficient technology. When it comes to formulating policy on our national forests truth and science are the most prudent foundations — not demonizing those who oppose the attempts by the industry and Forest Service to log the last of our old growth forests.

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Roseburg to End Operations at Missoula, Montana Particleboard Plant, Permanently Close Facility

Roseburg Forest Products
March 20, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

MISSOULA, Montana — Roseburg announced that it will permanently end operations at its Missoula, Montana, particleboard plant on May 22, 2024. The closure is the final step in the company’s strategic plan to exit the particleboard manufacturing business and focus resources on other product segments, including MDF, engineered wood, plywood, and lumber. Roseburg acquired the Missoula particleboard plant from Louisiana-Pacific in 2003 in an expansion of the company’s composite panel business. Built in 1969, the age of the manufacturing platform created challenges as the mill competed with more modern plants. …CEO Stuart Gray said “Unfortunately, Missoula’s older platform and technology is simply not competitive from a cost structure perspective in a marketplace with many new, modern particleboard facilities. …The plant currently employs approximately 150 team members. Roseburg will work closely with local resources to assist affected team members as the closure date approaches.

Related coverage in the Billings Gazette: Roseburg in Missoula to close, 150 jobs affected

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A legacy lost: Seeley Lake mill and the urgent need for affordable housing

By Mike Marshall
Seeley Swan Pathfinder
March 21, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

For 75 years, our family-run lumber mill, Pyramid Mountain Lumber, has been a cornerstone of Seeley Lake. They’ve weathered economic storms, provided jobs and supplied lumber that built homes across Montana. Now, facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge — the lack of affordable housing — they are on the verge of shutting down. The irony is gut-wrenching. They offer good wages, a stable work environment … yet, they can’t find enough qualified workers to produce enough product to survive because those workers simply can’t afford to live here. …This isn’t just our story. Across Montana, small businesses like Pyramid are struggling to stay afloat due to the lack of affordable housing options for working families. …This isn’t a handout; it’s an investment in Montana’s future. …It’s a call to action. We urge our leaders to address this critical issue before more Montana families and businesses are forced to face the same heartbreaking reality. 

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Seeley Lake lumber mill closure impacts greater community

By Alania Margo
ABC Fox Montana
March 19, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

SEELY LAKE, Mont. – The largest employer of the Seely Lake community, Pyramid Mountain Lumber, has announced its closure at the end of the month – due to the local cost of living skyrocketing and the price of lumber plummeting. …We spoke with a local business owner, who has been involved with the company for over 70 years, about how this will impact the community. …Johnson is a Seely Lake local through and through and has sourced lumber from Pyramid for four decades for his business. He says that this closure will force him to source these materials from outside of the community – which will cost him more money. Aqua Creek Products in Missoula bought wood for pallets from Johnson’s company Timberline – this wood sourced from Pyramid. Dwayne Frandsen, the Purchasing Manager of Aqua Creek said, “It came as a shock, you know, because we really we rely on Timberland and Pyramid Lumber for all of our lumber needs.”

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Community leaders: Pyramid mill closure in Seeley Lake ‘devastating,’ ‘heartbreaking’

By Keila Szpaller
News From The States
March 15, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

MONTANA — Community leaders said Friday news that Pyramid Mountain Lumber plans to close the Seeley Lake mill, the area’s largest employer, will change the fabric of the town in the Seeley-Swan. …“Among other problems, labor shortages, lack of housing, unprecedented rising costs, plummeting lumber prices, and the cost of living in western Montana have crippled Pyramid’s ability to operate,” the company said. Claire Muller, head of the Seeley Lake Community Foundation, said the news is heart-wrenching for the community, and she believes it must have been heartbreaking for the owners. …Friday, an economic development leader in Missoula County said the closure could have impacts across the region, and “interested parties” are talking about whether there’s a way to keep the facility open. Grant Kier, head of the Missoula Economic Partnership, said the announcement is devastating for people who have built lives and livelihoods around the mill.

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Cross-Laminated Timber Industry to Gain New Manufacturing Facility in Oregon’s Mid-Willamette Valley

By Timberlab Inc.
LTLA Los Angeles
March 15, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, Oregon — Timberlab, a subsidiary of Swinerton Inc. and national provider of mass timber systems, unveils its plans to construct and operate a state-of-the-art cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing facility in Oregon’s mid-Willamette region. This strategic initiative represents a significant milestone in the firm’s mission to accelerate the mainstream adoption of mass timber construction across the United States, providing a low-carbon and renewable material for the construction industry. “Timberlab’s objective has been to remove pinch points in the mass timber industry,” states President Chris Evans. “Over the last four years, we have added two CNC facilities in Portland and Greenville focused on expanding the supply chain for mass timber. …Plans for the 250,000-square-foot CLT manufacturing facility… with an annual output of 100,000 cubic meters of finished CLT products, the facility will integrate automated processes and is expected to create 100 manufacturing jobs at full capacity.

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Pyramid Mountain Lumber announces closure

KPAX Missoula & Western Montana
March 14, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

SEELEY LAKE — After providing jobs to the Seeley Lake community for 75 years, Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc. will shut down its operation this Spring. In a press release, Pyramid Mountain Lumber officials site labor shortages, lack of housing, unprecedented rising costs, plummeting lumber prices, and the cost of living in Western Montana to cripple Pyramid’s ability to operate. According to the press release, Pyramid’s management group and Board of Directors worked on many of these issues for years to find a way to address these issues. They say despite their best efforts, they see no way out of this current situation. Pyramid will cut off logs on March 31, 2024, run the log inventory through the sawmill, and surface, and sell all lumber before auctioning the mill equipment. According to their website, Pyramid Mountain Lumber has been family-owned and operated since 1949 and it is the oldest surviving family-owned and operated lumber mill in Montana.

Additional coverage in the Missoulian, by Griffen Smith: Pyramid Mountain Lumber announces closure

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Portland International Airport’s new terminal is the largest sustainable mass timber project in the US. Here’s how it came together

By Kale Williams
KGW8 News
March 21, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

WHITE SWAN, Wash. —  As a member of Yakama Nation, Christy Fiander cultivated a reverence for the trees that grow in central Washington. Fiander is the resource manager for Yakama Forest Products who contributed wood to the new terminal being constructed at Portland International Airport, touted as the largest sustainable mass timber project in the country. The new terminal’s undulating, wood-lattice roof spans some nine acres. “It’s our one shot at really making a statement here,” Vince Granato, chief projects officer with the Port of Portland said. …Roughly 2.6 million feet of Douglas fir went into the roof of the terminal alone and much of that was grown outside of White Swan, Washington, a town of around 800 people on the Yakama Reservation, where the tribe operates its mill.The terminal will feature signage acknowledging the contributions of people like Fiander, which will come with its own sense of pride, she said. 

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Forestry

Montana can’t have healthy forests without a healthy timber industry

By Dawn Terrill, Duane Simons & Roman Zylawy – Mineral County Commissioners
Clark Fork Valley Press
March 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The recent closures of Pyramid Mountain Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula County is a warning for Montana and a symptom of broader challenges threatening the region’s forest and wood products sect of which is pivotal for thousands of private sector jobs and crucial for federal efforts to improve forest health, mitigate wildfire risks, and cater to the escalating demand for carbon-friendly wood products. Montana’s timber industry, an integral component of the state’s identity and economy, faces a multitude of challenges – from workforce shortages and affordable housing crises to the whims of volatile markets. However the underlying issue driving mill closures across the west is a declining supply of raw material to manufacturers, a critical concern given that Montana’s wood products manufacturers are surrounded by federally owned forests. …Currently, the milling demand in Montana, spurred by the public’s demand for wood products, surpasses the available and projected log supply.

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The rush to improve forest resilience has unintended consequences.

By Michael Hoyt, guidebook author Bitterroot Mountains
The Missoula Current
March 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Michael Hoyt

For years the Forest Service, BLM, and timber industry have claimed that publicly owned forests are unhealthy and therefore susceptible to insects, disease, and worst of all, wildfires. They have asserted the only solution is increasing the amount of logging and thinning, euphemistically known as vegetative management. The concept of improving forest health by increasing logging and thinning remains unsupported by scientific evidence and an increasing number of people oppose such activities. …Now, as evidenced by the recently announced closure of two forest products businesses, Pyramid Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products, we’re discovering there can be economic consequences to unchecked logging and thinning. ..Unsaid is the fact that, in this case, plummeting lumber prices are caused, not because there is diminishing demand, but by a market glut. …The Forest Service and BLM should reevaluate the validity of their internal culture based on logging and other extractive activities. 

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School district sues state in attempt to undo forest habitat conservation plan

By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregon Capital Chronicle
March 26, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

One of the smallest school districts in Oregon is suing the state in an attempt to send a landmark forest habitat conservation plan back to the drawing board. On behalf of the Jewell School District in the Clatsop State Forest in northwest Oregon, a Portland law firm filed the suit on March 20 against the Oregon Department of Forestry, State Forester Cal Mukumoto and state forest chief Mike Wilson. The suit alleges that the recently passed Western State Forests Habitat Conservation Plan will drastically reduce revenue for the school district, forcing it to cut staff and services. The conservation plan, which has been years in the making, was approved March 7 by the Oregon Board of Forestry on a narrow vote. It will regulate logging and conservation on about 630,000 thousand acres of state forests for the next 70 years, including the Clatsop State Forest, to protect 17 threatened or endangered species.

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Timber sales in county would destroy mature forests

By Karen Crowley, president, League of Women Voters of Snohomish County
Everett Herald
March 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Karen Crowley

Some of the oldest, most biologically diverse and carbon dense lowland forests that remain in Snohomish County are at risk. Ten state timber sales are planned for auction by the Department of Natural Resources this year in Snohomish County that would collectively clearcut more than 500 acres of these rare, publicly owned forests, including trees that are more than four feet in diameter and over 100 years old! …The DNR’s own policies require that the agency develop a plan to restore old-growth conditions across a minimum of 10 percent to 15 percent of state forestlands before logging any mature or structurally complex forests. Currently, only about 3 percent of state forestlands in the North Puget Sound region can be classified as old-growth forests, and yet the DNR continues to allow the clearcutting of the oldest remaining forests in the region at an alarming rate.

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Forest Service slashes 4-Forests Restoration Initiative budget

By Peter Aleshire
Payson Roundup
March 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service has drastically cut funding for the 4-Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) on which the future of Arizona’s watersheds and every forested community depend. 4-FRI funding hit $123 million in fiscal 2023, but will come in closer to $48 million in fiscal 2024, said Scot Rogers, the 4FRI Forest Restoration Initiative Program Manager for the Coconino National Forest. He broke the news to the Natural Resources Working Group meeting in Show Low on Tuesday. The Eastern Arizona Counties Association sponsors the group, which includes local officials and timber industry representatives. The dramatic drop in funding comes as sawmills, forest crews and the state’s only biomass burning power plant struggle in the shadow of bankruptcy to find enough wood to stay in business. …Thanks to the expiration of several federal stimulus and infrastructure programs, the increasing chaos in federal budgeting and the identification of 21 high-priority, fire-menaced landscapes all now competing for dwindling federal funding.

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Critical reservoir thinning project has a not-so-secret Santa

By Peter Aleshire
The Payson Roundup
March 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The effort to save the C.C. Cragin Reservoir watershed is finally ramping up, even as the larger 4-Forests Restoration Initiative faces a crisis. A series of projects this year and next will make headway on thinning the 64,000-acre reservoir on which both Payson and Valley cities rely for their water supply, the Natural Resources Working Group learned last week. The progress relies on extra funding from the Salt River Project, the Valley utility that manages the reservoir. The plan calls for logging, firewood, thinning projects and prescribed burns on more than 10,000 acres on the watershed of the reservoir this year, said Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management project coordinator Christine Mares. “We’re hiring like crazy right now” to start cutting when the forest dries out, said Mares.

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Dead and dying trees in the watershed present fire hazard, council told

By Morgan Rothborne
Ashland News
March 19, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Ashland, Oregon — Wildfire Division Chief Chris Chambers presented a case for a far reaching and expensive helicopter logging project in the Ashland watershed to the Ashland City Council during its study session Monday. Chambers sketched a series of grim predictions for the forest and big numbers for the scale of the project. “Forests are vanishing all across the west,” he said. Throughout drought stricken western states such as California, climate change is transforming forests into grassland. The rapid die-off of Douglas fir trees in the Ashland watershed in recent years has reached a level that requires action to preserve the forests, he said. The helicopter logging project would remove a carefully chosen number of dead or dying trees to give the remaining healthy trees a better chance at survival. Leaving high numbers of dead trees in the watershed increases the fuel load and wildfire risk for the city of Ashland.

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Biologists Urge Natural Grizzly Recovery in the Bitterroot

By Laura Lundquist
The Missoula Current
March 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers ways to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Bitterroot ecosystem, both biologists and politicians are encouraging plans to allow the bears to move in on their own. On Tuesday, more than two-dozen conservation organizations and scientists released the details of a citizen alternative that they sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during public scoping on options for restoring grizzly bears to the Bitterroot ecosystem. The public comment period closed on Monday. The citizen alternative encourages the agency to enable natural grizzly recovery through migration from other ecosystems rather than human-aided translocation. They point out that attempts to repopulate the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem with bears translocated from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem have mostly failed. …The Ravalli County Commissioners submitted a letter expressing concern about grizzly bear restoration. They support using migration compared to translocation, although they emphasized that they preferred no action.

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Investing in Idaho’s forestry workforce

By Shawn Keough and forest products businesses in Idaho
The Sandpoint Reader
March 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

It’s no secret that forestry is an important part of Idaho’s economy. A 2023 University of Idaho study found that the forest products business sector contributed $2.5 billion to Idaho’s gross state product in 2022. The vast majority of the $61 million in state endowment lands money that went to public schools in 2023 came from timber harvesting proceeds. …While vital to Idaho’s economy, the forest products sector faces uncertainty due to workforce challenges. …But there’s reason for optimism. Recent investments through Idaho’s new Career Ready Students program represent an infusion of both energy and capital in cultivating new pipelines of young talent into Idaho’s forest products sector. …Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield and the 11-member Career Ready Students Council have awarded grants totaling more than $43 million to Idaho schools. Grants will be used to teach students new skills that prepare them for successful careers here in Idaho. 

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Arizona officials warn of potentially ‘explosive’ wildfires this summer

By Martin Dreyfuss
The Tucson Sentinel
March 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Forestry officials said Arizona is on the verge of a volatile wildfire season, and they urged state residents to be prepared and to take steps now to head off the worst of it. Aaron Casem, the prevention officer at the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management spoke at a news conference Monday where state officials said a wet winter spurred excessive growth of vegetation that has the potential to become a “heavy fuel load” for fires as the state dries out this summer. That wet winter should delay the start of fire season in high country, where heavy snows fell, but at lower elevations there is the potential for “explosive” fire behavior this summer. …The warnings follow several years of relatively mild wildfire seasons in Arizona. The state recorded 1,837 wildfires in 2023 that burned about 188,000 acres – well below 2020 when 2,519 fires over 978,519 acres.

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Boise, Payette forest staff receive recognition

By Brad Carlson
The Capital Press
March 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The staffs of the Boise and Payette national forests have received a national award for their work to mitigate extreme wildfire risk and promote sustainability. “With a goal of reducing wildfire risk to our mountain communities, it is exciting to see the hard work of our employees and partners recognized on a national level by the chief of the Forest Service,” Payette National Forest Supervisor Linda Jackson said in a news release. The Honor Award, from Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, “is validation that the work we have accomplished together is important and meaningful to the people of Idaho and to the preservation of our public lands,” she said. “Our efforts to focus on increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration and fuels reductions is truly paying off,” Boise National Forest Supervisor Brant Petersen said. “This work will help reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic wildfires threatening our communities and natural resources.”

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CalFire announces $10 million available for forest conservation

Lassen County Times
March 19, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is announces up to $10 million in funding for Forest Legacy Grants to conserve and protect environmentally important privately-owned forestland. This funding supports California’s goals of conserving working forests to help protect natural landscapes threatened with conversion to other uses, promote sustainable and resilient forest practices, and encourage long. term stewardship in line with the goals of the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. Under this competitive grant program, CalFire purchases or accepts donations of conservation easements or fee titles of productive forest lands from willing sellers, to encourage long-term conservation throughout the state.

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Timber industry presses Congress on mill closures

By Marc Heller
E&E News
March 19, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Timber companies are telling members of Congress that the wood products industry will continue to suffer mill closures unless federal land policies take a friendlier view toward logging. In a letter, the American Forest Resource Council said the Pacific Northwest is particular is struggling despite an abundance of trees appropriate for lumber and other wood products. The trouble is largely due to state-level policies that restrict access to timber on privately owned land, as well as to past damage from wildfires, the group said, citing the recent closure of three mills in western Oregon. But the federal government could help fill the gap by boosting timber harvests in national forests, the AFRC said, and make healthier forests in the process. “A logical outcome of historic Congressional investments to accelerate forest health treatments on millions of acres of at-risk Federal forests would be additional log supply,” said the AFRC.

 

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Cal Fire showcases new firefighting helicopter at 86th Redwood Region Logging Conference

By Adelmi Ruiz
KRCR TV
March 15, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Cal Fire was at the 86th Redwood Region Logging Conference’s third day to showcase their helicopters and explain what it is they do. The Northstate’s News got to check out Cal Fire’s new chopper which can hold many gallons of water to fight fires. I spoke with members of Cal Fire who say they hope the public learned about their safety resources. Cal fire Del Norte unit’s Battalion Chief of Aviation, Jhon Bonnam, said, “we’re here today at the Redwood Region Logging Conference to showcase a couple of aircraft’s. We have our UH1H Super Huey and then behind me we have our S70I fire hawk.” The public is invited to come check out these aircraft as well as speak with our Cal Fire teams. They will be at the Redwood Region Logging conference through Saturday.

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An Oregon Bill to Cut Millions in Timber Taxes Is Dead, Despite Backing by Industry and the Governor

By Rob Davis
ProPublica
March 18, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner seemed to have a lot of power and momentum behind her effort that would have shifted the costs of wildland firefighting further onto taxpayers this year. The influential timber industry, which stood to save millions and is a major source of campaign cash in the state, worked behind closed doors to help craft Steiner’s proposal. Republican leaders threw their support behind it. Gov. Tina Kotek, whose staff assisted in the bill’s development, also came out in favor. But there was fallout from the effort. …And then, in the Legislature’s waning moments, Steiner’s bill died. In an email to ProPublica, she blamed “technical difficulties” without specifying what they were. …The bill’s failure leaves unresolved a debate over how much the timber industry pays for services like fire protection in Oregon, decades after a series of massive tax cuts whose harms… [were] documented in a 2020 investigation.

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Native Hawaiian organizations to benefit from $12M in new reforestation funding

Maui Now
March 16, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Privately owned or managed forests comprise 66% of forest cover in Hawai’i, but when it comes to funding for new climate and environmental initiatives, traditionally underserved communities are often overlooked. In efforts to make reforestation more affordable and accessible for underserved landowners, American Forests has received a $12 million investment from the USDA Forest Service. With funds awarded through its Forest Landowner Support Program, the investment will support 10 tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations seeking to restore damaged forests, resulting in more than 2 million trees planted and over 1 million metric tons CO2e removed from the atmosphere, announced American Forests. …The award is one of twenty that will be receiving a total of $116 million from the Forest Service through the Forest Landowner Support Program. Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, the program is investing $145 million in organizations that support underserved and small-acreage forest owners. 

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Mountain Counties Water Resources Association adopts forest management principles to solve effects of mega wildfire

By Madison Schultz
Tahoe Daily Tribune
March 15, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – In early February 2024, the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association, also known as MCWRA, adopted new “Forest Management Principles,” with the goal to solve the ongoing problem and severe effects from California’s mega wildfires. “Over 100 years of suppressing wildfires and changing climate have produced overgrown forests and catastrophic mega wildfires that are impacting communities, degrading California’s headwaters’ water quality, water infrastructure, and forest resources in Sierra Nevada watersheds, [ultimately] creating a toxic smoke health hazard throughout the state,” MCWRA’s website reads. …In the development of MCWRA’s new forest management principles, the organization states that there’s a significant lack of recognition and funding for proper forest management to manage these critical headwater resources.

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Sustainability of forests top priority for Idaho

By Scott Bedke, lieutenant governor of Idaho
Idaho Business Review
March 14, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Scott Bedke

The Gem State is home to more than 21 million acres of dense and plentiful forests. They provide watersheds for drinking water and habitats for wildlife. …The sustainability of our forests needs to be a top priority for the state of Idaho, for both the longevity of our timber supply and the availability of quality jobs. …Our Idaho economy relies heavily on our forests… Sustainable harvesting, including selective logging, reforestation and habitat preservation, upholds a delicate social contract between industry and society. …The new Idaho LAUNCH Program is one helpful step. High school seniors can apply for a grant of up to $8,000 to use toward Idaho post-secondary education for an in-demand career. This means interested students can use LAUNCH to help them study for a degree or learn a trade that is needed in Idaho’s forest products sector. A true win-win for both future forestry professionals and the Gem State!

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Mechanical thinning, prescribed fire or both?

By Hilary Clark, Pacific Southwest Research Station
US Department of Agriculture
March 13, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Pacific Southwest Research Station Ecologist Eric Knapp learned a lesson after the 2021 Antelope Fire burned through long-term research plots in northeastern California. “It was upsetting to think 20 years of research went up in flames,” Knapp said. Knapp and other scientists, initiated studies at this landscape, known as the Goosenest Adaptive Management Area, in the late 1990s. …Shortly after the fire the returned to the 2,300-acre study area to take stock of the damage. …Analysis of the data showed areas previously treated with thinning and prescribed burning fared best, with the most living trees. Untreated control areas where no treatments occurred were in the worst shape. At these sites, high-intensity crown fires completely consumed the needles and branches of many trees, leaving bare, blackened stems. Plots treated with either mechanical thinning or prescribed burns, but not both, came out somewhere in the middle, with about half of the trees dying.

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History repeating itself: Federal court strikes down Flathead National Forest plan

News From The States
March 13, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A federal court magistrate has found that the Flathead National Forest has failed to consider the impacts of new road-building projects on grizzly bears and bull trout, saying the United States Forest Service is ignoring science in order to arrive at its approval for the project which has been contested since 2018. Magistrate Kathleen DeSoto said that, like a previous court decision, the Flathead National Forest ignored roads that had been “decommissioned” but still exist and allow for motorized vehicle travel, which is technically illegal, but the USFS acknowledges happens. In the Forest Service’s 2009 plan, officials called for removing many of those roads, but opted to “decommission” them by blocking them, which severely curbed, but didn’t eliminate their use. …The Forest Service or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 14 days to file written objections to DeSoto’s order, or the findings will become permanent. If either party objects, the case will be reviewed by a federal judge.

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Managed forests on family tree farms reduce greenhouse gases

By Don Brunell, former president, Association of Washington Business
Sequim Gazette
March 13, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Don Brunell

As climate change concerns grow, researchers are turning to family tree farmers for assistance. …The American Tree Farm program has emphasized sustainability and managing lands for water quality, wildlife, wood, and recreation. In recent years, it has included climate change. According to the American Forest Foundation, families and individuals collectively care for the largest portion of forests in the U.S., more than the government or corporations and an area larger than California and Texas combined. …Well-managed working forests improve the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide — the primary greenhouse gas —and discharging oxygen. That CO2 is locked in the trees and surrounding soil — a so-called “carbon sink.” Researchers have found that younger, faster growing trees and trees in thinned forests metabolize CO2 rapidly. …What is needed is fair and workable federal, state, and local laws and regulations by which they are governed — and reasonable and affordable taxes and permit fees.

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Investing in Idaho’s forestry workforce

Bonner County Daily Bee
March 14, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A 2023 University of Idaho study found that the forest products business sector contributed $2.5 billion to Idaho’s gross state product in 2022. …While vital to Idaho’s economy, the forest products sector faces uncertainty due to workforce challenges. Twenty-four percent of the log truck drivers are over the age of 60 and the logging contractor owner/operators have on average 29 years of business experience. Like many Idaho businesses, without a stable workforce, forestry’s tremendous impact on our state’s economy is at risk. But there’s reason for optimism. Recent investments through Idaho’s new Career Ready Students program represent an infusion of both energy and capital in cultivating new pipelines of young talent into Idaho’s forest products sector. In March 2023, Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield, with the help of the Idaho Legislature, secured $45 million to create a new program that would invest in career technical education and career training around our state.

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Logging Restrictions Approved Despite Protests

By Kristy Tallman
The New Era
March 13, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Amidst protests and heated debate, the Oregon Department of Forestry Board (ODF) made a divisive decision on March 7, voting 4-3 to advance a contentious proposal aimed at curbing logging across 640,000 acres of state forests while prioritizing the protection of endangered wildlife. The Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) seeks to align western Oregon’s forests with the federal Endangered Species Act, safeguarding habitats crucial for at least 17 imperiled species. However, the plan also involves reducing timber harvests on state forests, which could lead to diminished revenue for local county services and a decline in employment opportunities in rural areas. It was a day of betrayals and high injustices to the loggers who lined the streets of Salem in protest of the decision that would, in their eyes, seal their fate. Despite fervent appeals from the public and unsuccessful attempts to postpone the decision through three separate motions, the board forged ahead with its vote.

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U.S. Forest Service cuts back Southeast Alaska timber sale after public comments

By Angela Denning
KFSK
March 12, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Timber sales in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest often spark conflict between environmental groups, the timber industry, and the U.S. Forest Service which is making the sale. …But a new sale near Petersburg focusing on second-growth trees has all those groups on board. The sale design is the result of the Forest Service changing its public process over the years. …The initial Thomas Bay timber sale proposal was for about 22 million board feet, mostly clear-cut. After a few years of public process, they shrunk the harvest to 12.6 million board feet to be harvested through a patchwork of areas over several years….Harvesting smaller areas over time could be better for wildlife and it could allow small sawmills more opportunities. Those are comments the Forest Service has heard during the public process leading up to the sale.

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Environment, climate policies mostly took a backseat during Oregon’s 2024 short session

By April Ehrlich, Alejandro Figueroa and Courtney Sherwood
Oregon Public Broadcasting
March 12, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon lawmakers spent much of the short 2024 legislative session focused on housing regulations and drug criminalization. That often left environmental policies around wildfires, farms and climate change on the back burner. Most efforts to beef up the state’s wildfire resiliency died this session — although a measure limiting the financial pinch for people recovering from wildfires made it through. State worker pension funds will stop investing in coal companies, but a push to get state agencies to buy from clean tech companies failed. Housing legislation that passed included support for immigrant Oregonians, including agricultural farmworkers, but a program helping workers who lose work due to extreme heat or smoke did not get funded. Two bills aimed at guiding the state’s transition to green energy through offshore wind and battery storage did win approval. Here’s a look at some of the top environmental bills that were introduced this session, and where they stand.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

How the drought hit WA’s farms, forests, fisheries and drinking water

By Conrad Swanson
Seattle Times
March 25, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Washington suffered during last year’s drought. Groundwater wells ran dry, fields produced fewer crops, trees died in greater numbers, fish faced disease and famine, according to a study from the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group. Now those sectors are bracing for yet another poor water year as El Niño conditions, compounded by climate change, produced well-below-normal snowpack. The state also his recently hit record high temperatures for this time of year. The state’s water woes will continue, even worsen, in the decades ahead, said Karin Bumbaco, one of the study’s authors. The Climate Impacts Group study underscores the need for scientists to gather more data, to better prepare for the inevitable, she said. …All of the 13 forestry respondents felt the drought, the report says. This includes greater tree mortality (73%), leaf or needle drop or scorched/sparse canopy (55%) and more disease and insect damage (36%).  Each of these conditions increases wildfire risk as well. 

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Forest Fires

Northeast Wyoming Already Blowing Up As Wildfire Hot-Spot

By Mark Heinz
Cowboy State Daily
March 25, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

Most of Wyoming appears to be relatively safe from massive wildfires — at least through June — but the northeastern corner of the state is already in trouble. “We’ve already burned more acres so far this year then we did all of last year,” said Charles Harrison, fire warden for the Crook County Volunteer Fire Department. And it hasn’t been just prairie grass fires. There’s already been two roughly 200-acre forest fires in the county, one near New Haven, and another near Moorcroft, he told Cowboy State Daily. …There’s no shortage of potential fuel for forests fires. There are vast swaths of beetle-killed timber, either standing or already down on the ground. …“There’s acres and acres of standing dead trees,” spokesman Evan Guzik said.

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Forest History & Archives

Missoula’s long history with lumber mills, wood products takes last gasp

By David Erickson
The Missoulian
March 22, 2024
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: United States, US West

On the morning of March 14, there were two large wood products businesses operating in Missoula County, the last remaining vestiges of a timber processing industry that powered the region’s economy for a century and a half. Within the span of six days, both Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake and Roseburg Forest Products’ Missoula particleboard plant had announced they were shutting down permanently. The closures mark the final knockout punch locally to an industry that helped build Missoula and put food on tables here for over 150 years. The settlement of the Hellgate Trading Post was renamed Missoula Mills in 1866 due to the importance of logging and the mills in what is now Bonner and Milltown. …Missoula has a long history of absorbing the shock of huge industrial wood products businesses shutting down due to unfavorable economics. The timber of western Montana helped build the town and fuel its economy…

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