Region Archives: US West

OREGON — By the numbers, the 2023 wildfire season in Oregon was a quiet one — with the smallest number of acres burned since 2019 and well below average for the past decade. A total of 190,500 acres were blackened in Oregon this season compared to 1.1 million acres burned in 2020, 800,000 in 2021 and 400,000 in 2022. Yet for firefighters and residents in Oregon communities, this year certainly didn’t feel quiet. Evacuations were common, even in urban areas like south Salem. Forty-nine homes and 78 structures burned around the state. …Air quality was poor in Central Oregon, and fire crews spent $484 million fighting fires in one of the most expensive seasons in modern history. …It might have been a smaller season for acres burned, but it wasn’t a small year for the cost of fighting wildfires. So far, state and federal agencies have spent $484 million on the 2023 wildfires. It’s the third-most expensive season since 2015.

Thought-experiment time: You’re the U.S. Forest Service and you desperately need to revive the Arizona logging industry to save businesses, stimulate green energy production and help protect forested towns and endangered watersheds from megafires. However, the industry is hanging on by its fingernails for lack of wood, thanks to the slow Forest Service processing time and the cost of getting rid of the low-value biomass. What do you do? How about offering a big logging company a huge subsidy to cut just the big tree … and haul them to Wyoming. “That’s crazy,” said Eastern Arizona Counties Association Executive Director Pascal Berlioux at last week’s meeting of the Natural Resources Working Group. “This feels deeply ironic,” said Novo BioPower president Brad Worsley, who has been struggling to find enough wood to keep the state’s only wood-burning power plant in operation.

According to University of British Columbia researchers, the mountain pine beetle damaged 45 million acres of pine forests across western Canada and the northwest United States in the last 40 years. Jeffrey Hicke, a University of Idaho scientist, calculated by the time the enormity of beetle outbreak came to the forefront in 2012, the creepy-crawler outbreaks affected 30 million acres and killed 6 billion trees. Throughout North America, forests are experiencing some of the worst wildfires in recent history. Correspondingly, insect and diseases epidemics starting 40 years ago were the worst ever. Beetle-killed trees only waited for the right conditions to ignite. Beetles pack the forests by the billions. Hicke quipped: “I’d rather be a beetle than a tree.”

As the nation looks for heat mitigation strategies, governments have increasingly turned to expanding tree coverage because of its cooling effects. …But as tree planting efforts get underway with support from historic funding opportunities like the urban and community forestry grants, forestry managers are working to ensure trees are resilient to the same climate risks they’re meant to protect community residents against, said Alyssa O’Brien, urban and community forestry program manager at New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, or EMNRD. …In a bid to build tree resilience, EMNRD recently launched the Climate Ready Trees Program in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The program aims to help officials identify which tree types will most likely withstand New Mexico’s changing climate so they can be incorporated into future urban landscapes. …The program used climate modeling to determine current and future climate conditions based on the USDA’s plant hardiness zones. 

DENVER, Colorado — Firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service Sulphur Ranger District plan on burning slash piles this fall, winter and spring, as weather and conditions allow. The burns are part of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests fuel reduction program and operations include hand and mechanical tree cutting. Using these methods allows for the Forest Service to remove larger logs that can be taken to market, while smaller limbs, saplings and brush are dried for burning. …When weather and conditions permit, firefighters will burn piles that have been left to cure for thinning projets, according to a recent news release from the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. “Piles are only ignited under certain conditions, including favorable smoke dispersal and adequate snow cover,” the release stated. “These conditions direct firefighters on where within project areas burning can occur.”

Strong winds blew after a record-setting warm, dry summer. Small fires began to blow up into huge conflagrations. Towns in crisis scrambled to escape as fires bore down. This could describe any number of recent events, in places as disparate as Colorado, California, Canada and Hawaii. But this fire disaster happened in 1910 in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana. The “Big Burn” still holds the record for the largest fire season in the Northern Rockies. Hundreds of fires burned over 3 million acres, most in just two days. The fires destroyed towns, killed 86 people and galvanized public policies committed to putting out every fire. …when fire activity begins to surpass anything experienced in thousands of years – as research suggests is happening in the Southern Rockies – what will happen to the forests? As paleoecologists, we study how and why ecosystems changed in the past.

Research shows that over 4,800 years in the Northern Rockies during wet periods and dry periods, subalpine forests consistently recovered from wildfires, growing back vegetation and leaving evidence of their resilience in lake sediment cores. Kyra Clark-Wolf, a CU Boulder postdoc with the North Central Climate Adaptation Center, led the study. “I thought we might see different ecosystem responses to past fires between wet and dry periods,” said Clark-Wolf. “But what we found was that there wasn’t really a clear difference based on climate, but just a lot of variability within the record, which is something that hasn’t been shown before.” …Results from a new analysis of lake sediment cores from a Montana subalpine lake, published today in the Journal of Ecology, were surprising. The results detail the remarkable resilience of Northern Rockies subalpine forests to fire in the past.

By August, residents of coastal Newport were put on mandatory water curtailment due to low stream flows. That same month, the city of Yamhill enforced water use restrictions…  The blow of late summer drought could have been lessened and perhaps avoided if the forests around those watersheds that provide drinking water had been kept intact, according to Casey Kulla, a state forests policy coordinator at the nonprofit group Oregon Wild. State forestry leaders say Oregon law is focused more on regulating logging to protect drinking water quality, rather than quantity. …Mike Wilson, state forests division chief at the state forestry department, said most Oregon timber laws are focused on protecting water quality, not quantity because there isn’t a large body of established science on logging impacts to hydrology and the flow of water in various types of watersheds.

Susan Sanders

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON — The city of Vancouver’s Urban Forestry Commission recently presented longtime Vancouver volunteer Susan Sanders with the Silva Bolds-Whitfield Award. The Silva Bolds-Whitfield Memorial Plaza recognizes those who have contributed to the development and protection of Vancouver’s urban forest. …The Silva Bolds-Whitfield Award is given by the Urban Forestry Commission on a meritorious basis to honor community members who have gone to extraordinary lengths to inspire and enrich the quality of life in Vancouver with the benefits of trees. The names of award recipients are permanently etched in stone as part of the unique fountain, situated along Main Street, where many trees were planted by Silva Bolds-Whitfield in 1965.

When a new wildfire starts in the forest, wildland fire dispatchers are the people in charge of getting resources where they need to go. Their early decisions can help to keep a small fire from getting huge. But a 2022 survey of wildland fire dispatchers in Oregon and Washington by the U.S. Forest Service found that “dispatch is experiencing problems that compromise their own health and safety” as well as “the health and safety of other firefighters,” according to a new article in High Country News. Kylie Mohr, a correspondent for High Country News who wrote that story, joins us to talk about it. [Streaming Radio]

Michael Hoyt

MONTANA — Tom Partin, the Montana American Forest Resource Council representative, attempted to resurrect that old claim that environmentalists get rich by taking the Forest Service to court [October 7th Missoulian]. …He conveniently neglects to reveal that what he calls a “payday” is the recovery of legal fees expended by the environmentalists during litigation. Those fees are only recoverable if the Forest Service has been found to have acted illegally. When the Forest Service has performed as directed by laws and regulations, no fees are recoverable. Interestingly, when environmentalists take the Agency to court, the Forest Service wins about 20% of the time. To increase that percentage, the obvious solution is for the Agency to follow the law. …If there is a plague in our forests, as Partin suggests, it is not environmentalists. It is the Forest Service attempting to satisfy the timber-industry.

A federal judge has thrown out an environmental lawsuit that claimed a 40,000-acre forest project in Eastern Oregon unlawfully authorized the harvest of large trees. In 2020, the U.S. Forest Service approved amendments to the Malheur National Forest’s management plan, allowing trees larger than 21 inches in diameter to be logged as part of the Camp Lick project. Harvest of such large trees was otherwise banned at the time under the “Eastside Screens” rule that applied to six national forests. Though the prohibition was replaced by more flexible guidelines in 2021, a federal magistrate judge recently determined that decision was unlawful. …U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut has now agreed with a federal magistrate judge’s recommendation to reject those arguments and dismiss the case because the forest plan was properly amended.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Urban and Community Forestry Program awarded a $300,000 grant to the City of Vancouver to increase tree planting capacity through a new workforce development project that provides paid job training for young adults. The grant-funded project will help improve the health of Vancouver’s urban natural systems, create green job opportunities, address climate change impacts and environmental justice, and enhance community health, safety and quality of life. Studies show that trees in communities are associated with improved physical and mental health, lower average temperatures during extreme heat, increased food security, and new economic opportunities. Over the next five years, the grant will fund the creation of seasonal urban forestry crews who are trained to plant and maintain new trees and native plants along streets, in parks and natural areas in underserved neighborhoods of Vancouver. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are once again seeking comments on a repeatedly stalled and revived draft plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to the Northern Cascades Ecosystem in Washington. In response to a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity, the agencies resurrected the plan last fall. Late last month, they released a draft environmental impact statement for transplanting grizzlies to the ecosystem. The plan seeks to build a population of 200 bears over 60–100 years, starting with a base of 25 bears in the first five to 10 years. …The species, which has been protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, was extirpated from the area in the 1900s through a combination of habitat destruction and killing by humans. As many as six bears from neighboring British Columbia may occasionally venture into the Cascades, but none are known to permanently reside in the ecosystem.

Washington state-owned forests are managed under the strictest environmental laws and regulations in the world. …Science-based management of these forests helps reduce the risk of severe wildfires while maximizing their ability to sequester and store more carbon to combat climate change. The benefits of these forests, known as state trust lands, are all worth celebrating. State trust lands are working forests because state and federal laws require that they are managed to support defined beneficiaries, including public schools and community-service providers like fire districts, hospitals and libraries. Last year, the Washington State Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Conservation Northwest v. Franz …that timber harvests are aligned with the fiduciary obligation to generate much-needed revenue for services that support our kids and keep our communities safe and healthy.

In Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest, we are offered a provocative biography of our corner of the world’s greatest assets, our life-affirming forests. We are also served up a gut-wrenching chronicle of how recklessly we have laid waste to the richest forest ecosystem on Earth. Written by Oregon-based journalists Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate, Canopy of Titans makes a powerful case in defence of our forests. …It’s a fascinating and important read at a time when the role of forests as more than sources of timber for humans to burn or mill or pulp for paper has gotten a lot of attention, not all of it good.  …“We know the best time to plant a tree was 1,000 years ago,” they write. Meanwhile, the best time to stop cutting down 1,000-year-old trees, even 200-year-old trees, is now.

Tom Partin

Our national forests in Montana and North Idaho have seen their share of disaster and devastation over the last few decades. Catastrophic wildfires have converted millions of acres of once-healthy green forests into moonscapes, leaving behind the charred remains of black snags. …The new plague that is now present on every national forest in Region 1 is anti-forestry litigation that attacks proactive efforts to restore forest health and resiliency. This plague doesn’t feed on unhealthy or overgrown forests, like wildfire and insects and disease. Rather, it is fed by a small minority who file lawsuits trying to stop good forest health projects and get a payday every time they win in court.  The federal Equal Access to Justice Act provides these fringe litigants with a windfall every time they win an argument in court and the judge sides with them. 

Spotted owl & Barred owl

Barred owls are an invasive bird which is expanding its range into the northern San Francisco Bay Area from the Pacific Northwest, threatening the nation’s richest population of native endangered northern spotted owls. Wildlife officials have shot 11 barred owls in Marin County over the past three years, helping to control the species’ spread. Yet the arrivals continue. To expand efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is proposing a new management strategy, easing the onerous permit process that’s currently required to kill the birds, which are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The plan, which is likely to be controversial, will open for public comment within the next several months. “Without some sort of management intervention, spotted owl populations are going to go extinct,” said Bill Merkle, wildlife ecologist. Studies show that barred owls out-compete spotted owls for food and nesting sites he said.

Kodama Systems, a company that received financing from Bill Gates, is not set to mow down millions of acres of U.S. forests, contrary to an article widely shared on social media. Rather, it is developing a project that handles throwaway biomass from forest thinning for the U.S. Forest Service. …The article, entitled “Bill Gates Pushes Plan to Chop Down 70 Million Acres of Trees to ‘Fight Global Warming,’” was published on a website called Slay on Aug. 31.  …The article refers to financing granted to Kodama Systems in 2022 by a climate and technology fund founded by billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates called Breakthrough Energy Ventures and one other venture capital company.  …Scott Owen, national press officer for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS)said these strategies, which include thinning, are aimed at “overstocked,” or very dense, forests to lower the threat of fire to wildlife and communities and make it safer to conduct prescribed fires.

OREGON — As wildfire season ends and rains return, firefighters are using fire as a tool in hopes of preventing future tragedy. A multiagency team of firefighters gathered this week two miles southeast of Sisters to conduct a prescribed burn that may eventually include up to 400 acres. If conditions remain favorable, firefighters may continue to set fires adjacent to Highway 20 through Saturday. “We in Central Oregon live in a fire dependent ecosystem,” said Jamie Olle, with the Deschutes National Forest. “Prescribed burns are a critical part of the work that we do out here, to reduce wildfire risk to our communities while also restoring the health of our forests,” she said. …There is a downside, of course. The Forest Service suggested nearby residents “keep doors and windows closed to minimize smoke impacts,” the agency said in a statement.

George Wuerthner

One of the most significant factors in wildfire home losses is unrestricted development outside of communities. …Inappropriate development in the hinterlands, in turn, drives federal logging programs. Traditional fire risk reduction almost invariably relies upon fire suppression and hazardous fuel reduction (euphemism for logging) as the primary mechanisms for safeguarding communities. …Nevertheless, Congress has embraced the logging juggernaut. …We cannot log out way out of this situation. Climate warming, particularly vapor deficit, rapidly dries vegetation, enhancing fire spread. In essence, the Forest Service logging juggernaut is misguided at best and corrupt at worst. The best way to safeguard communities isn’t spending billions on logging. Instead, our best strategy is to emphasize land use planning, limit development in the Wildlands Urban Interface, and invest in home hardening of communities.

Officials in Tahoe National Forest are trying to get ahead of wildfire risk with a prescribed burn over a significant piece of forestland just north of Lake Tahoe this week. The plan is to burn 406 acres at Sagehen Summit off Highway 89 and Forest Service Road 878, a few miles north of Truckee. The burn began Thursday and is expected to last about 10 days, according to U.S. Forest Service personnel. “The burn is really two-fold,” said Jonathan Cook-Fisher, a district ranger for the forest’s Truckee Ranger District. “One is to decrease the existing fire hazard to so that we can help prevent catastrophic wildfire within our large landscapes. The second is to actually provide a level of restoration because fire is a natural part of the Sierra Nevada forest.” Smoke is expected but is not expected to be as harmful to the air quality in the surrounding areas as a normal wildfire. 

HELENA, Mont. – Governor Greg Gianforte and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) today announced the State of Montana reached its annual sustainable timber yield target for Montana’s State Trust Land, reinforcing the state’s timber industry and forest management goals. “Creating healthier, more resilient Montana forests through active management is one of our top priorities, and DNRC continues to deliver results for the people of Montana,” Gov. Gianforte said. “Reaching our timber production goals means reduced wildfire risk, improved forest health, and greater predictability and certainty for the wood products industry.” During the state fiscal year 2023, DNRC successfully sold 52 million board feet of timber, generating over $8 million in revenue for Montana schools and other endowed institutions.

CALIFORNIA — The U.S. Forest Service started a 1000-acre prescribed burn on Thursday north of Truckee as part of the Sagehen Underburn project. This is all managed out of the Sagehen Ranger Station with the goal of reducing fuels and promoting forest health. “The Sierra Nevada forest really evolved with fire and so what we’re trying to do is reintroduce low intensity small fires where we’ve already done restoration activities to really replicate those natural processes,” explained Truckee District Ranger Tahoe National Forest Jonathan Cook-Fisher. Over the next 10 days, the Forest Service plans to burn 100 acres a day. If weather conditions permit, the Forest Service’s goal is to burn 1000 acres. The team in charge consists of 40 personnel, including hot shots, engines, and prescribed burn specialists. They’re a highly experienced group who have battled wildfires in Canada and Australia as well as in the US.

Sean V. O’Brien

In an effort to bring transparency and accountability surrounding actions taken by land management agencies like the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation requiring agencies to accurately report the amount of hazardous fuels removed on public lands and the effectiveness of such measures in preventing catastrophic wildfires. Passed nearly unanimously (406-4), the Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions (ACRES) Act mandates the secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior to detail the acreage where hazardous fuel reduction activities took place, the effectiveness in its reduction of wildfire risk, what methods were used and the cost per acre to do so, and — importantly — to distinguish treatments that are near communities most at-risk to the threat of wildfires. The legislation requires the reports be made public and instructs the agencies to implement standardized procedures for tracking such data.

New research suggests preventing larger, hotter wildfires could help slow the release of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and that there are forests in Arizona and the West where the work should begin now.  In a new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, scientists identified “opportunity hot spots” in the western United States for using proactive forest management to prevent carbon loss. These practices include forest thinning, prescribed fire and cultural burning.  “It’s not if we get fire, it’s when we get fire,” said the study’s co-author, Travis Woolley, forest ecologist for The Nature Conservancy in Arizona. “Given that wildfire and climate are so intertwined we thought carbon would be a good next step to prioritize work.”  …Factors like fuel loads, fire history, aridity and the number of younger trees were all used to estimate the likelihood.

To save a threatened pine species, researchers are hoping they can mimic the seed-spreading success of birds. The National Park Service has signed a five-year agreement with American Forests to help restore whitebark pine throughout the western U.S., giving particular emphasis to work in three national parks in the northern Rocky Mountains. For eons, whitebark pine stands have survived in harsh alpine environments where the elements kept most herbivores at bay. But in summer, when the days were warm, birds – specifically Clark’s nutcrackers – ventured to the high country to scrounge protein-rich whitebark pine seeds, not just for an immediate snack but also to squirrel away in seed caches for the future. But in recent decades, bugs and fungus enabled by climate change have reduced many green groves to needle-less gray ghosts. …Since 2000, Glacier National Park has planted about 26,000 blister-rust resistant seedlings, hoping to restore the whitebark population. 

Rachel Baker

The Washington Department of Natural Resources is still not stewarding our state-owned public lands in the best interest of all of us.  Last July, in a lawsuit filed by Washington Conservation Action, Conservation Northwest, Olympic Forest Coalition and eight individuals, the state Supreme Court’s unanimous decision confirmed that DNR has authority to manage public lands for many benefits, not just maximizing timber revenue.  This CNW v. Franz ruling invites the department to innovate forest management on our public state lands — modernizing a system developed when Washington was granted statehood 133 years ago.   That has not happened.  The current administration at DNR has allowed timber revenue to be a political wedge that worsens outcomes for Washingtonians.  …However, in the face of diverse voices, DNR often accommodates the interests of large mill and industrial timberland owners.