Region Archives: US West

When it came to wildfires, 2021 was an increasingly common kind of year in Montana: Flames consumed 747,000 acres, an area nearly the size of Long Island. About 2,700 of those acres were on Don Harland’s Sheep Creek Ranch, where ever-drier summers have turned lodgepole pines into matchsticks ready to ignite. …A former timber industry executive, Mr. Harland knew the forest wouldn’t grow back on its own. The land is high and dry, the ground rocky and inhospitable — not like the rainy coastal Northwest, where trees grow thick and fast. Nor did he have the money to carry out a replanting operation, since growing for timber wouldn’t pay for itself. …Then a local forester suggested he get in touch with a new company out of Seattle, called Mast… who proposed to replant the whole acreage, free. Mast, in turn, was to earn money from companies that wanted to offset their carbon emissions. 

A federal judge has finalized the return of national forest protections for large trees growing east of the Cascades. The order brings back protections that had long prohibited logging trees larger than 21 inches in diameter from six national forests in eastern Oregon and Washington. …During the final days of the Trump Administration, the U.S. Forest Service amended its guidelines known as Eastside Screens. …The Forest Service claimed this sudden change was needed to thin forests and prevent major wildfires. …The following year, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman recommended the Forest Service restore the large tree protections, calling the agency’s decisions “arbitrary and capricious.” …On Friday, District Judge Ann Aiken issued an order agreeing with Hallman. Aiken concluded the Forest Service violated several federal laws and “failed to take a hard look at the amendment’s change and its impact on aquatic species.”

DENVER – Governor Jared Polis announced awards for the 2023-2024 Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation (FRWRM) grant program grant cycle. In total, the Colorado State Forest Service will award $7.2 million to 31 projects in 17 counties across Colorado. …Wildfire risk remains in Colorado, even after a cooler, wetter 2023. The milder conditions last year resulted in more flammable vegetation near our homes and communities, and some parts of the state still experience drought conditions. The State of Colorado provides funding to assist communities and groups across Colorado to reduce their wildfire risk and promote forest health through the Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation grant program, administered by the Colorado State Forest Service.

Washington state can’t auction an East King County forest for logging without first analyzing the local project’s climate change impacts, a judge ruled last week, blocking the controversial timber sale and putting officials under pressure to change how they evaluate public lands for harvesting. The agency responsible for such auctions is reviewing Thursday’s decision, while advocates who challenged the project in court are calling the ruling a significant win. The Wishbone sale was scheduled for last July with a $1.62 million minimum bid, then paused when opponents sued the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Metropolitan King County Council members and the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe had also raised concerns. “This is a major victory for carbon rich, biodiverse forests and the laws that protect them,” John Talberth, president at the Center for Sustainable Economy, said in a statement about the judge’s decision.

Fire plays a complex role in the development of forest structure and wildlife habitat in moist forests of the Pacific Northwest. Despite the perception that abundant precipitation and relatively infrequent lightning limited historical fire activity to large, high-severity fires during drought, recently developed fire histories document relatively frequent non-stand-replacing fires that shaped successional dynamics, forest conditions, and wildlife habitat in many moist forest landscapes. Non-stand-replacing fires facilitated the development of large complex tree crowns, multi-aged and multistoried canopies, mixed species composition, and the recruitment of snags and logs. …Cumulatively, contemporary fires have reduced late-successional and old-growth forest habitat, while also contributing to the complexity of future old-growth forests and creating structurally diverse early seral habitats that were rare until recently. [a webinar series by NCASI and the Washington Chapter of The Wildlife Society – Thursday, April 4 at 11:30am]

A conservation group says it’s going to sue the U.S. Forest Service for failing to protect a rare and endangered species in Oregon. There are fewer than 400 coastal martens in the wild, according to estimates from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The small, weasel-like animal was federally recognized as a threatened species in 2020. Coastal martens have been found in isolated populations across Oregon and California, including around 70 estimated individuals in the Oregon Dunes between Florence and Coos Bay. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity says the rising popularity of off-road vehicles in the Dunes is threatening that population, by tearing through habitats and creating disruptive noise. Meanwhile, the center accuses federal officials in charge of the area of putting few protections in place to stop the devastation.

Endangered Species Act rules protecting whitebark pine trees may not prevent people from cutting them down. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed whitebark in 2023, saying the iconic western conifer was existentially “threatened” by a fungus known as white pine blister rust, tree-eating beetles, altered fire regimes and climate change. Human development is not included in the government’s list of threats. Still, federal agencies permitting development on federal land are required to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether that activity will “jeopardize” the species’ “continued existence.” For whitebark, federal land managers and conservation advocates say that’s a high bar. The tree’s range stretches from Canada to California’s Sierra Nevadas and east to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. …Conservationists worry the regulations appear to be written in a way that doesn’t consider the cumulative impact of smaller human developments — and downed whitebarks — that could add up over time.

UNIVERSITY of MONTANA — With the Missoula Composites mill and the Seeley Lake mill closing, 250 jobs will be lost, according to reporting by Montana Free Press. It’ll likely impact future job prospects for students enrolled in the University’s forestry and trade school programs. …According to the job search service Handshake, Roseburg has employed around 82 University of Montana students, with three currently working for the company. Three current UM students also work for Pyramid Mountain Lumber. With the mills’ closures, the prospects for employment post-graduation in forestry-related fields diminish, impacting not only the education and training of future professionals, but also the Missoula economy’s reliance on having enough skilled, trained workers interested in pursuing these industries. …The closure of the local mills presents a significant setback for students pursuing degrees at UM’s College of Forestry, which has 10 degree programs and currently enrolls 760 undergraduate and 128 graduate students.

A new study using NASA satellite data reveals how drought affects the recovery of western ecosystems from fire, a result that could provide meaningful information for conservation efforts. The West has been witnessing a trend of increasing number and intensity of wildland fires. Historically a natural part of the region’s ecology, fires have been exacerbated by climate change—including more frequent and intense droughts—and past efforts to suppress fires, which can lead to the accumulation of combustible material like fallen branches and leaves. But quantifying how fire and drought jointly affect ecosystems has proven difficult. In the new study, researchers analyzed over 1,500 fires from 2014 to 2020 across the West, and also gathered data on drought conditions dating back to 1984. They found that forests, if not burned too badly, rebound better than grasslands and shrublands because some forest roots can tap into water deeper in the ground. 

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources is set to start prescribed burns across 2,580 acres of state trust lands starting next week, a move to bolster forest health and mitigate wildfire risks. The burns, announced Monday and spreading through central and eastern Washington, are a strategic push to revitalize aged trees, support wildlife, and provide safer conditions for firefighters battling future blazes. While these controlled fires are pegged to ignite during spring and could stretch into early summer, each is tethered to a slew of safety checks, influenced by weather patterns and the availability of resources, some may get pushed to later dates if conditions aren’t just right, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Prescribed burns have long been in the arsenal of land managers and private stakeholders alike, serving as a shield against catastrophic wildfire events.

In recent years, wildfires have burned millions of acres in Washington State, inducing a wide range of effects across environmental gradients and forest types. In 2017, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) launched the 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan to accelerate landscape-scale wildfire risk reduction, ecosystem restoration, and climate adaptation across all lands in eastern Washington. To better understand the widespread impacts of the 2021 fire season, we piloted a rapid assessment to evaluate the work of wildfire – i.e., the degree to which fire effects were consistent with the landscape resilience and wildfire risk reduction objectives of the 20-Year Plan. Here, we present lessons from the 2021 and 2022 fires across eastern and western Washington. We highlight how wildfires have both positive and negative effects, depending on location, forest type, and landowner objectives. [Zoom webinar series by NCASI and the Washington Chapter of the Wildlife Society]

Crews have been ramping up wildfire resilience projects to thin out brush and dead wood in California’s giant sequoia groves, clearing twice as many acres in 2023 compared with 2022. The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition is trying to avoid a repeat of the disastrous mega-fires of 2020 and 2021 – which killed about 20% of large mature trees in their native Sierra Nevada range. Joanna Nelson, Ph.D. is the director of science and conservation planning with the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League. “We remove fuel,” said Nelson, “we get to a safe place to do prescribed burning and to do cultural burning – which is always led by indigenous people, which is another practice of taking care of the forest and reducing wildfire risk.” Sequoia National Park is just one part of California’s giant sequoia groves, which stretch over 26,000 acres. A new report shows that in 2023, the program treated nearly 9,900 acres in 28 groves – and more than 14,000 since 2021.

ASHLAND, Oregon — The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, a remote expanse of wilderness along the California-Oregon border, will not lose any of its acreage after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up two challenges to its expansion. Logging interests and several counties in Oregon had asked the high court to strike down a 2017 addition to the monument. Their lawsuit claimed President Barack Obama improperly made the designation because Congress had previously set aside the land for timber harvests. By gaining monument status, the area won special protections, including a prohibition on logging. The challenges to the expansion raised the additional, and broader, question of whether the president’s authority to create national monuments unilaterally under the Antiquities Act should be restricted, the Chronicle said. …The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was created in 2000 to protect what is considered an ecologically valuable juncture of the ancient Siskiyou Mountains and the younger volcanic Cascades. 

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 heart of 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, filed in Clatsop County Circuit Court, 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. …Under the plan, the volume of wood permitted for harvest from state forests in Clatsop County will drop 35% and, in turn, cut 35% of the funding to the district, according to John DiLorenzo, a lawyer with the Portland-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which filed the suit.

MEDFORD, Ore. – On April 2, three organizations are taking the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to federal court in Medford. The three conservation organizations — Klamath Siskiyou Wild, Cascadia Wild and Oregon Wild — are fighting to prevent BLM from what they consider excessive logging in a forest in Josephine County. They are specifically fighting BLM’s Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) in Josephine County, about two miles northwest of Williams. According to BLM’s website, the purpose of IVM is to “promote and develop: safe and effective wildfire response opportunities that reduce wildland fire risk to Highly-Valued Resources and Assets; Fire- and disturbance-resilient lands and fire-resistant stands; and habitat for Special Status Species and unique native plant communities.” 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.