Region Archives: US West

Environmental groups are trying to block the Sequoia National Forest’s plan to remove thousands of trees in response to two devastating wildfires in 2020 and 2021. Last month the Sierra Club, Earth Island Institute and Sequoia ForestKeeper filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service over the plan. …In 2020 the Castle Fire burned 171,000 acres, including over 9,500 acres of giant sequoia groves – one-third of all sequoia grove area across the Sierra Nevada. …In response to the fires, the U.S. Forest Service authorized the Castle Fire Ecological Restoration Project and the Windy Fire Restoration to restore the forests. …The plans include removing over 13,000 acres of forest within Giant Sequoia National Monument. …On Feb. 22 the three environmental groups filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, saying the two plans constitute logging.

The forests of the Pacific Northwest, sometimes soaked in feet of rainfall each year, are known for growing some of the largest trees in the world. Together, they store thousands of tons of carbon in their trunks and support hundreds of critters. But even these lush forests can be affected by climate change. If the world continues to emit greenhouse gases at its current pace, the North Cascades, Olympic Mountains, Puget Sound lowlands and Western Oregon Cascades could see at least twice as much fire activity in the 30 years following 2035, according to new research led by Alex Dye, a faculty research associate in the Oregon State University College of Forestry. Fire seasons — the dry and hot months — are expected to get longer, in some places spanning from early spring to late fall. …The new research aims to better describe how climate change is impacting a region where fire was historically infrequent, west of the Cascade crest.

More than $8 million will be used to plant trees in communities across Washington as the Washington State Department of Natural Resources announced the 45 recipients of the agency’s largest Urban and Community Forestry Grant Program ever. The record-shattering dollar amount is 14 times bigger than the previous single-year record of $550,000 and is nearly three times the total grants awarded by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for urban and community forestry projects since 2008. “Access to clean air, shade, and green spaces should be a basic human right, but the fact is that throughout our state, lower-income communities and communities of color more often live in neighborhoods with more concrete and asphalt, and too few trees,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz. “We need to bring the same urgency we brought to our wildfire crisis to our efforts to ensure everyone lives in neighborhoods with adequate tree canopy.”

WALNUT CREEK, California — At the one-year anniversary of CSAA Insurance Group’s announcement of a $25M investment in the California Wildfire Innovation Fund, several notable initiatives supported by the fund are underway to realize the stated goals of climate resilience and economic growth: Heartwood Biomass: The new facility in Tuolumne County will convert forest restoration byproducts, a potential wildfire fuel, into firewood bundles, wood chips and agricultural posts – reducing dependence on nonrenewable resources and stimulating the local economy through sustainable forestry practices AND Tahoe Forest Products: TFP supports regional hazardous fuels reduction goals by providing a sustainable outlet for timber sourced from local restoration projects as well as salvaged from wildfire-affected areas. As the first significant sawmill in the Sierra Nevada in several decades, it will provide employment opportunities for dozens of local citizens and Tribal members.

Montana met its forest management goals for the third consecutive year. State officials say they increased the amount of thinning, timber harvests, prescribed burns and restoration projects on forests by 16% over 2022 levels. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation last year placed over 36,000 acres under active forest management. Gov. Greg Gianforte celebrated the work Tuesday in a tree nursery at DNRC regional headquarters in Missoula. “This accomplishment would not have been possible without our strong partnerships with local communities, federal agencies and tribal nations,” Gianforte says. Gianforte says that work reduces wildfire risk, improves forest health and is good for business.

OREGON — Significant efforts are underway across coastal privately-owned forestlands due to changes in the Private Forest Accord (PFA) of 2022.  Forest managers bear the responsibility for not only trees, but also roads, bridges, and streams. …Forest engineers start researching and designing harvest plans two years before a scheduled harvest. Foresters traverse the terrain, identify water resources, steep gradients, soil conditions, and habitat characteristics. Collaboration with wildlife biologists, hydrologists, and other specialists is commonplace in formulating these plans. …The Private Forest Accord (PFA) of 2022 announced updates to existing forest practices, including rules that related to the construction and maintenance of forest roads. Although professional foresters and logging crews are accustomed to regulation and meticulous harvest prescriptions, the revisions brought about by the PFA introduce a more intricate framework with set timelines for implementation.

SALEM, Oregon — Timber companies and some county governments are lamenting the defeat of legislation requiring Oregon officials to set and meet logging targets on state forestlands. Supporters say House Bill 4106 would have simply required transparency and accountability in state forest management without weakening environmental protections. …However, environmental groups are warning the proposal would’ve spurred court challenges against state officials for falling short of timber harvest projections, undermining their ability to adjust to shifting on-the-ground circumstances. “This bill creates a new right for the timber industry to sue the state over its timber harvest plans,” said Michael Lang, of the Wild Salmon Center. …The bill’s supporters simply want state forest officials provide an estimate of harvest levels. …Opponents allege that HB 4106 would force state forest officials to justify every conservation-oriented constraint and provide timber companies with a “back door” to challenge the HCP’s implementation.

Xochitl Torres Small & Heather Dawn Thompson

WASHINGTON — The Department of Agriculture Forest Service will distribute $20 million in grant funding to help tribes access private markets for forest resilience and climate mitigation that have emerged in the wake of climate change. Federally recognized tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and Alaska Native villages will be eligible for the resultant competitive grant program. The grants were announced earlier today by Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small during the winter session of the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C. …Grants may support activities such as forest management plan development, reforestation, and biodiversity protection. …“Tribal practices support resilient forests and land management for the benefit of future generations,” Torres Small said. …Carbon sequestration, in particular, has become an increasingly popular method of turning sustainability into profitability for tribes.

EVERETT, Washington — For some in the climate community, any change that occurs in the environment can be blamed on climate change. An example of this is the Feb. 3 commentary in the Weekend Herald, “Fossil fuels throwing gas on wildfires,” by Paul Roberts. Roberts overlooks the major factor, fuel load, concerning the increase in acres burned in recent decades, to focus on a relatively minor factor, a slight increase in temperature due to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The 900-pound gorilla in the room is the dramatic increase in our nation’s wildlands fuel load. …By implementing commercial and non-commercial thinning operations where needed on federal and state lands and by sponsoring and encouraging the reestablishment of a modest forest products industry we could greatly improve the fire resistance of our nations forest. …I suggest we focus on the crux of the wildfire issue, fuel load, which we have the capability to address.

LOS ANGELES — Southern California Edison will pay $80 million to settle claims on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service connected to a massive wildfire that destroyed more than a thousand homes and other structures in 2017, federal prosecutors said Monday. The utility agreed to the settlement on Friday without admitting wrongdoing or fault in connection with the Thomas fire, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. Investigations found utility equipment sparked the fire in two canyon locations on Dec. 4, 2017. The Thomas fire, which burned across 439 square miles (1,137 square kilometers) in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, is the seventh largest blaze in California history, according to state fire officials. The settlement is a “reasonable resolution,” said Gabriela Ornelas, a spokesperson for Southern California Edison. …The utility has also settled claims related to the enormous Woolsey fire in 2018. Edison estimated in 2021 that total expected losses for both blazes would exceed $4.5 billion.

Jim Furnish

Amidst all the bad climate and environmental news is a welcome development: the Biden administration’s announcement of a new national policy aimed at protecting old-growth forests. The proposal advances the cheapest, most effective solution we have – leave them standing. …This leads me to note that, while protecting old-growth is a major step forward, the policy is glaringly silent about mature forests. Old-growth emerges from mature forests, and without additional measures to address this void, I fear the Forest Service is squandering this opportunity to increase old-growth after decades of aggressive logging eliminated most of what existed as recently as 1950. The Forest Service has not fully embraced this “conservation moment.” Even as the old-growth protection policy was being announced, the agency was rolling out its plan to amend the Northwest Forest Plan.

A new forestry practice is confounding hikers deep in the woods of Orland. It’s strange. It’s ugly. But it’s working. I recently stumbled upon it while hiking Great Pond Mountain and Oak Hill in Orland, in a swathe of conserved land known as the Wildlands. And all I could think was: What on Earth happened here? Throughout the forest, trees were sawed off a few feet above the ground, leaving thousands of hip-high stumps. …So I reached out to the landowner, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, and was fascinated by the explanation. High-stumping is a forestry method used to get rid of diseased, canker-filled beech trees. “By cutting up high, the root system thinks there’s still a tree up there and doesn’t root sprout,” said Landon Fake, the land trust’s executive director. “It continues to send nutrients up the trunk.”

Randy Moore

U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore spoke Thursday with loggers and others in forestry about forest fires, logging, and sustainability at the 86th annual Oregon Logging Conference in Eugene. Moore gave the keynote address before taking questions from attendees, many of whom were critical of the Forest Service’s management of federal forests in Oregon. After his speech, the newspaper questioned the USFS Chief and didn’t get much for answers, which Moore is well known for. Asked about an escaped RxFire last summer east of Eugene, and another over in Grant County that resulted in the arrest and arraignment of FS burn boss Ricky Snodgrass, Moore said he’s confident the agency has the ability to managed prescribed burns. …Moore was also asked about the planned update to the Northwest Forest Plan, which was developed by Jack Ward Thomas and a small army of experts back in the early 1990s. 

…Over two years, about one-fifth of all giant sequoias have been killed in extreme wildfires in California. The numbers shocked ecologists, since the enormous trees can live more than 2,000 years and have evolved to live with frequent, low-intensity fires in the Sierra Nevada. …After the 2020 and 2021 fires, scientists watched the sequoia groves to see if the next generation of trees is emerging to replace their lost parents. In some places, seedlings are filling the forest floor. In others, fewer are emerging from the burned soil. …So in a historic step, the National Park Service has begun replanting some severely burned areas. …A handful of conservation groups are suing to halt the effort, arguing that such intervention shouldn’t occur in an area designated as federal wilderness… Land managers face a key question: As humans take an increasing toll on natural landscapes, how far should we go to fix it?

When should a road count as a road? Grizzly bears avoid roads — even ones that aren’t used by motor vehicles. So the Flathead National Forest is supposed to limit road density on forest land for that threatened species – and bull trout benefit, too. But a forest plan’s descriptions of roads — as “decommissioned” or “closed” or “impassable” — were one subject of arguments made this week in U.S. District Court in Missoula before Judge Kathleen DeSoto. In the case, conservation groups allege the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service are again failing to protect grizzly bears and bull trout by skirting a tried and true way to account for roads. A lawyer for the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan said the agencies haven’t properly considered the displacement of bears or impacts to bull trout in a new forest plan with a new category of road.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore talked about forest fires, logging and sustainability practices Thursday at the 86^th annual Oregon Logging Conference at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Moore gave the keynote address at the conference before answering questions from attendees, many of whom were critical of the Forest Service’s management of federal forests in Oregon. The Register-Guard spoke with Moore following his speech about issues impacting Oregon in the age of wildfires. [Moore described using cross laminated timber and biochar technologies to facilitate forest thinning, commented on the challenges of firefighting resources and changes to the Northwest Forest Plan.]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Forests in the coolest, wettest parts of the western Pacific Northwest are likely to see the biggest increases in burn probability, fire size and number of blazes as the climate continues to get warmer and drier, according to new modeling led by an Oregon State University scientist. Understanding how fire regimes may change under future climate scenarios is critical for developing adaptation strategies, said the study’s lead author, Alex Dye. Dye, a faculty research associate in the OSU College of Forestry, and collaborators with the U.S. Forest Service conducted novel, comprehensive wildfire simulations for more than 23 million acres of forest land west of the Cascade Range crest in Oregon and Washington. …Forests in all of the affected areas are linchpins of multiple socio-ecological systems in the Northwest, Dye said, meaning more fire will likely put pressure on everything from drinking water sources and timber resources to biodiversity and carbon stocks.

Democratic lawmakers approached the February short session intending to create sustainable wildfire funding but their options have narrowed as the state nears another wildfire season with inadequate funding. The Oregon Department of Forestry and State Fire Marshal’s Office currently have $87 million for the next two seasons, compared with the $220 million for wildfire the agencies had two years ago. And now, halfway through the session, only two of three Democratic proposals will move on. House Bill 4133, proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland, would cut the per-acre fees that timber and ranch landowners pay to the state while increasing taxes on timber harvest and two other taxes for the first time in 15 years to account for inflation. …Another proposal, from Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland and Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, would refer a ballot measure to Oregonians, to tax timber companies on the value of their harvests to help pay for state wildfire prevention and protection.

WASHINGTON, D.C. & SAN DIEGO, Cal. — A federal government effort to “confront the wildfire crisis” in the Western United States is making the Klamath River Basin the largest of 11 new landscape designations for extra support. Today, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Biden Administration is investing nearly $500,000,000 to expand work on the USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy. Vilsack says funds from the Administration’s Investing in America agenda will support work to reduce risk to communities, critical infrastructure and natural resources from the nation’s ongoing wildfire crisis. Today’s list of projects include the newly designated “landscapes” such as the Klamath River Basin and existing landscapes getting federal government support in western states. … USDA says that acreage spans across the Oregon-California state line where the U.S. Forest Service manages about 55% of that landscape which “generate 80 percent of the mean annual surface water supply to the Klamath River.” 

Additional coverage from the USDA: USDA Announces $500 Million to Confront the Wildfire Crisis as Part of Investing in America Agenda

EUGENE — Getting back to the roots is the focus of the 86th annual Oregon Logging Conference, which will take place Thursday through Saturday in Eugene. “I believe our theme captures the essence of who we are and what we are about,” Oregon Logging Conference President Steve Henson said. …U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore is the keynote speaker of the event titled “Faith, Family, and Forest Management — Getting Back to Our Roots.” Moore will give his speech Thursday morning. He has been with the forest service since 1981. “Our keynote speaker also believes that we need to increase the pace and scale of active management to attack the wildfire crisis that we find ourselves in,” Henson said. “Only together, through partnerships and cooperation will we achieve success.”

Conifers tower across the frigid swaths of land that span North America, northern Europe and Russia in a great ring around the world. Nestled within the photosynthetic tissue of the boreal trees – and within the bountiful cloud-like lichens and mosses that carpet the ground between them – are fungi. These fungi are endophytes, meaning they live within plants, often in a mutually beneficial arrangement. …Older studies have examined the correlation between biodiversity and latitude, which is often used as a proxy for climate. …it’s not that simple when it comes to fungi in the boreal zone. …Betsy Arnold, a professor in the School of Plant Sciences  thinks that the special climate dependence of these fungal endophytes reflects a process of co-evolution with their hosts – or “research and development,” as she put it – as plants find the ideal endophyte partner and flourish despite the distinctive stresses that plants face in these harsh northern landscapes.

Once upon a time, the Navajo, Apache other tribes burned the forest to protect it. The centuries of deliberately set fires helped maintain an open, grassy forest dominated by big trees. …Then came the US Forest Service. And so for the last century, the Forest Service worked to put out every fire it could to save the timber for loggers and the grass for cattle. The result: A forest of tree thickets, mortally vulnerable to giant fires. So it is ironic that the wheel has come full circle. Now the Salt River Project in partnership with the National Forest Foundation has announced a $500,000 plan to thin the tree thickets on some 3,600-acres in Pine Canyon and Deadman Mesa. The Valley utility company will also donate $25,000 per year to Wood for Life, which provides firewood to families on the Navajo and Hopi reservations.

It has been frustrating to read the incomplete media coverage on Sen. Elizabeth Steiner’s wildfire funding bill. While salacious headlines get clicks, the actual story is less scandalous. Here’s the less exciting version: the bill comes from a work group I participated in led by Sen. Steiner. It consisted of six different size and type of landowners… who directly pay taxes to fund the Oregon Department of Forestry’s (ODF) wildfire fighting costs. The goal was to address an affordability crisis related to the growing costs of wildfire. …Sen. Steiner did something no other legislator has done — she invested the time, and pulled in the right experts, to fully understand the system. …We hope Oregonians are willing to look beyond the headlines and listen to the real story, which can be found on the Forestry Smart Policy podcast, where Sen. Steiner explains the origins and process of the work group.

YREKA, California — The U.S. Forest Service says the aftermath of a Northern California wildfire is fueling its own insights into wildfire recovery. It’s providing a side-by-side comparison between natural growth and prescribed burning with mechanical thinning. The USDA U.S. Forest Service says, “Sometimes out of adversity comes wisdom,” citing findings by Pacific Southwest Research Station Ecologist Eric Knapp from the 2021 Antelope Fire. …USFS says because the fire burned for days, they could observe how different fuel treatments performed under various weather conditions as wind and humidity drove fire behavior, which fluctuated between high intensity to moderate. …Data analysis 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. …USFS says this finding, “suggests that fuel treatments will be increasingly important as climate change contributes to more extreme fire weather.