Region Archives: US West

Martin Heinrich

All five members of New Mexico’s all-Democratic Congressional delegation have signed on to a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that requests the state be excluded from the Trump administration’s proposed repeal of the so-called Roadless Rule. The 24-year-old Roadless Area Conservation Rule … includes about 1.6 million acres of land in New Mexico, which impacts all five of the state’s national forests. However, the Gila National Forest has the most protected acreage. Rollins … contends the rule change will give state and local experts the freedom to make decisions about forest management and allow the logging industry to grow. New Mexico’s Congressional delegation sent a letter to Rollins on Sept. 19, after three weeks of public comment ended. The delegation asked the secretary to exclude New Mexico from the rollback, citing negative impacts to the state’s vulnerability to wildfires, public safety and the outdoor recreation economy.

Casey KC

After a year-long search, Gov. Tina Kotek has chosen Nevada’s state forester to take the helm of the Oregon Department of Forestry. Kacey KC would be the first woman to permanently hold the director’s position in the 115-year-old agency’s history. The Oregon State Senate would need to confirm her appointment during the upcoming legislative session before she could take office on March 1. KC, from Nevada, most recently spent eight years as Nevada’s State Forester Firewarden and three years as president of the National Association of State Foresters. …The Oregon state forester reports to the governor and the forestry board, and oversees the management and protection of 745,000 acres of forestland owned by the state of Oregon, as well as wildfire protection for 16 million acres of forestland in the state. All of this requires negotiating the desires of environmentalists, logging companies, tribes and private property owners.

Additional coverage in Oregon Public Broadcasting: Gov. Tina Kotek taps Oregon’s next forest boss

EUGENE, Oregon — A trio of conservation groups is accusing the US Bureau of Land Management in federal court of failing to adhere to its own management plans in a new lawsuit aimed at blocking a massive logging project slated for old-growth forests in Oregon. Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and Umpqua Watersheds claim in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the agency violated multiple federal environmental laws through the authorization of the 42 Divide Forest Management Plan. The 42 Divide plan is a multi-decade series of logging projects set for nearly 7,000 acres of public lands in Camas Valley. The project area spans forests and waterways that are home to the federally protected northern spotted owl, Oregon Coast coho salmon, marbled murrelet and western pond turtles. …”[Bureau of Land Management] continues to wrap large logging projects targeting mature and old-growth forests in a veneer of ‘restoration’ and ‘resilience,” Brenna Bell at Crag Law Center, said.

Governor Gordon (R-WY) and U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz have signed an updated Shared Stewardship Agreement, strengthening the long-standing partnership between Wyoming and the USDA Forest Service. “This is about more than trees. It’s about managing entire landscapes, across boundaries and jurisdictions, to ensure healthier forests, safer communities, and more resources for future generations,” Governor Gordon said. Wyoming and the USDA-FS have operated under a Shared Stewardship Agreement since 2020. Rather than replacing the current framework, the updated agreement formally recognizes the substantial progress already achieved and sets a clear path for future collaborative planning and implementation. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Forest Service has made unprecedented investments in forest health, reducing wildfire risk, expanding active management, and maintaining access to national forests and grasslands — and shared stewardship is a cornerstone of that policy,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said. 

PORTLAND, Oregon — For decades, we have been inundated with propaganda from the timber industry and its allies that logging or what they euphemistically call “fuel reductions” would reduce wildfires and improve forest health. The solution was to ramp up logging by using Categorical Exclusions (CEs). A recent court decision has challenged the expanded use of CEs for massive logging projects. Oregon Wild, WildEarth Guardians, and GO Alliance sued the Forest Service in 2022, accusing it of failing to determine whether applying categorical exclusion 6 to approve large-scale logging projects was effective and had little environmental impact as required by law. The judge reasoned that leaving the CEs in place would allow the Forest Service to approve commercial thinning based on a policy that was “illegally promulgated.” …While the judge’s decision affects future Forest Service project approvals, the order doesn’t affect existing timber contracts.

A federal judge vacated approvals for three major logging projects in Oregon and ruled that the U.S. Forest Service could not use a so-called “logging loophole” to approve large-scale timber projects in a decision filed Jan. 13. U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane said the Forest Service unlawfully used what’s known as a categorical exclusion to approve three timber projects totaling 29,000 acres in Fremont-Winema National Forest. …Conservation groups have increasingly said the Forest Service was using CE-6, under the guise of wildfire prevention, to avoid more detailed study of logging projects that would normally require going through a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. …He vacated the approval of the Baby Bear, Bear Wallow and South Warner projects. …Timber groups said they were disappointed by the ruling, noting that the projects were previously upheld in local and appeals court and that their primary focus was reducing the risk of wildfire.

MONTANA — A proposal to use thinning and prescribed burning to remove vegetation across portions of the Flathead National Forest bordering the Middle Fork Flathead River has gained wide attention for its inclusion of sensitive management areas in the project’s 67,536-acre footprint, which provides wildlife with critical habitat and is one of the region’s most popular havens of outdoor recreation. But even as conservation groups push for additional layers of environmental review, proponents of the project, including industry leaders, recreation advocates and residents, say it’s needed to reduce the risk of wildfire in a corridor brimming with untreated fuels that threaten infrastructure and communities on US Highway 2, as well as to support local timber mills and improve forest health. If approved, portions of the project would occur in recommended wilderness areas, although the scope of that work would be confined to whitebark pine restoration and tree planting with hand tools. 

Could money from sales of skis, snowboards and other sporting goods be used to help protect Colorado communities from increasingly devastating wildfires? It’s an idea proposed by several conservation groups that could go before voters later this year. Colorado law requires that most state tax revenue in Colorado be refunded when the state runs a surplus. But a new proposal calls for the state to keep the surplus money collected from outdoor gear sales, and to use it to fund wildfire prevention and watershed conservation efforts. Supporters say as wildfire seasons in Colorado grow longer and more destructive, it’s crucial to find new money for prevention – especially when federal funding hinges on shifting priorities in Washington.

PUEBLO, Colo. — The Pike-San Isabel National Forests & Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands began a 10-year partnership and $7.3 million investment to implement forest health treatments as part of the War Department’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program. The partners will use $3 million in REPI funds, along with $4.3 million in partner contributions, to treat 2,000 acres of National Forest System land and nonfederal lands near the U.S. Air Force Academy and Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station. The REPI program preserves military missions by avoiding land use conflicts near military installations, addressing environmental restrictions that limit military activities and increasing military installation resilience. 

…Instead of celebrating our good fortune to have a small part of our state still wild and undeveloped, our political leaders want to develop the last of wild Montana when they should be working to protect it, which is what most Montanans favor. ….In the common vernacular, especially among those who favor commercial uses of public lands, “multiple use” means development instead of protection. What they really mean when then say is “logging use” or “commercial use” or “motorized recreation use” or in some cases, “single use.” …The words, “multiple use” have been marginalized into a political catch phrase. Instead of saying they favor “multiple use” instead of Wilderness, politicos should be honest and say they want commercial use of public lands and stop trying to fool us by supporting “multiple use” because it sounds like support for the majority while hiding the true intent.

SEATTLE — Twenty-five years ago, I stood in a snowy National Arboretum in Washington, DC, shaking hands with President Bill Clinton at the signing ceremony for the most important forest conservation mandate in our country’s history.  But now that landmark law, which went into effect on Jan. 12, 2001, is hanging by a thread, marked for repeal by the Trump administration — even though 99% of citizen input opposes the idea. The “Roadless Rule” was adopted to curtail harmful logging and industrial roadbuilding across 58 million undeveloped acres of our national forests. More than 2 million acres of those wild lands are in Washington, helping keep this the Evergreen State. …Trump officials claim that opening these areas to bulldozers and chain saws will protect communities from wildfire. But that’s a story that just doesn’t wash.  [to access the full story a Seattle Times subscription is required]

VALLEJO, Calif. — The USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region and CAL FIRE have renewed their commitment to battling wildfires across California. This renewal extends the California Fire Master Agreement for another five years. The agreement, signed by Pacific Southwest interim Regional Forester Jacque Buchanan and CAL FIRE Chief Joe Tyler on Dec. 12, allows for a cooperative approach to wildfire response. According to the USDA Forest Service, this collaboration enables firefighters to share resources and respond across jurisdictional lines during emergencies. “This complex operating environment within California and the challenges we face year-round require this collaborative approach,” Jaime Gamboa, fire director for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region, said. The agreement emphasizes a united front in wildfire emergencies, prioritizing the closest available resources to protect lives and property. It also covers hazardous fuels reduction and streamlines training and equipment sharing.

Spencer Cox & Tom Schultz

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah and the US Forest Service have reached a consent on a new 20-year cooperative agreement, which state leaders believe will better give them a seat at the table in forest management decisions. The deal, which Gov. Spencer Cox and Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz signed on Thursday, expands on an existing partnership tied to wildfire management to include additional forest decisions. The agreement establishes the framework for greater collaboration on decisions tied to outdoor recreation, wildlife management, grazing, timber sales, watersheds or other issues across more than 8 million acres of Forest Service land in Utah. …On top of expanding timber production, which could reduce its reliance on the Canadian lumber that accounts for about 20% of US consumption, Schultz said it should “accelerate” landscape restoration. …Multiple conservation groups weren’t as enthused, arguing that it will cut public oversight and weaken environmental reviews.

OREGON– The Bureau of Land Management’s state office in Oregon increased its timber sales in 2025, leading to one of its largest years for sales by board-feet and dollars in decades. The increase coincides with a provision of the tax and spending bill approved by Congress in July, that requires BLM to increase the timber it makes available for harvest by 20 million board-feet each year through 2034. BLM data show that the timber sales through the office totalled 290.6 million board-feet this year, an increase of 66.8 million from the previous year. …2025 was the third-highest year for BLM timber sales through the Oregon office by both board-feet and sale price, topped only by 2019 and 2021. Sales this year brought in $63.7 million.

Carla Keene

ROSEBURG, Oregon – The European Union has overreached again. In its pursuit of “deforestation-free” products, it is using its global influence to exert control over foreign lands and to project its values, assumptions and expectations on the rest of the world. Under the EU’s Deforestation-free Regulation, which went into effect in 2023 but has yet to be enforced, those who sell certain goods in the EU—wood and furniture, for instance—must prove that the products don’t originate from recently deforested land and haven’t contributed to “forest degradation,” which is loosely defined. This policy evokes painful memories for my people, a tribal sovereign nation in Oregon. It’s a new spin on colonialism—a regulation based on the flawed premise that Europeans know what’s best for the rest of us. …If the EU truly wants to advance global forest stewardship, it should start by respecting our indigenous sovereignty and knowledge about forest management. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

CALIFORNIA — The Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Earthjustice, reports it recently sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to finalize Endangered Species Act protections for California spotted owls. “The survival of the California spotted owl hangs by a thread and they desperately need protections,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species co-director at the Center for Biological Diversity. …In February 2023 the agency proposed protecting spotted owls in southern California as endangered and those in the Sierra Nevada — including in Plumas County — as threatened, starting the clock on a one-year deadline to finalize protections. Those decisions are now more than two years overdue. The center and partners first petitioned to protect the owls 25 years ago. …“The Fish and Wildlife Service’s long delay in granting the owl protections under the Endangered Species Act continues to hinder the California spotted owl’s fight for survival.”

DENVER — Vast swaths of the ponderosa pine forests that blanket Colorado’s Front Range mountains could turn rust-colored and die over the next five years as pine beetles begin to spread aggressively, new federal forecasts show. Aerial surveys conducted by the U.S. Forest Service over the last year found evidence of rapidly spreading beetle infestations along the mountains and foothills that stretch from southern Larimer County to southern El Paso County, including the western flank of metro Denver. Already, pockets of dead trees are visible from Interstate 70 and U.S. 285. The rapid uptick in beetle-killed trees near the state’s largest cities and major highways prompted state leaders to form a task force this month to grapple with the outbreak. Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order Dec. 15 and created the Mountain Pine Beetle Ponderosa Outbreak Task Force to address the growing wildfire threat and the beetles’ potential impact to watersheds, recreation and infrastructure.