Region Archives: US West

MONTANA — It is not unusual to hear people complaining bitterly about road closures on public lands. A certain amount of resentment is natural, when you encounter a gate or barrier blocking motorized access to what looks like a perfectly good road. What gives? Actually, road closures are not the result of a nefarious plot by evil people who want to take away our freedoms. The Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Collaborative (KFSC) wants the public to be aware that there are some solid reasons why not all forest roads are open to motor vehicles. Many years of research confirm that roads can be hard on wildlife, especially on a number of species that tend to avoid areas with open roads. …Although we also hear complaints that more roads are being closed every year, in fact the miles and percentages of open and closed roads has not changed substantially for several decades. 

…Susan Prichard, a research scientist with the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, along with colleagues from the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station — Paul Hessburg, Nicholas Povak and Brion Salter — and consulting fire ecologist Robert Gray, have created a modeling tool that will allow managers and policymakers to imagine and realize a different future: one where large, severe wildfires like Tripod are once again rare events, even under climate change. The tool, known as REBURN, can simulate large forest landscapes and wildfire dynamics over decades or centuries under different wildfire management strategies. The model can simulate the consequences of extinguishing all wildfires regardless of size, which was done for much of the 20th century, or of allowing certain fires to return to uninhabited areas. REBURN can also simulate conditions where more benign forest landscape dynamics have fully recovered in an area.

More than a century ago, vast forests, logging debris and wooden homes fueled the nation’s deadliest wildfires across the Midwest frontier. Until recently, the country had largely tamed that threat with organized firefighting and better building construction.  But within the past five years, two fast-moving blazes have caused unstoppable devastation in a new era of deadly wildfires: The Camp Fire killed 85 people in California in 2018, and now the death toll in the Maui, Hawaii, fires has surpassed 100 and is expected to keep climbing substantially.  …Large wildfires require dry conditions, strong winds and plenty of stuff to burn. The problem is that those hazards are becoming more and more common, said Michael Gollner, an engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley.  “Those conditions could always happen, but they’re happening so much more often because people are there, the weather is worse, and the fuels haven’t been maintained in many places,” Gollner said.

Kelly Norris

Last month, a new Wyoming State Forester was selected by Governor Mark Gordon to fill the vacancy left by longtime state forester Bill Crapser. Wyoming Public Radio’s Hugh Cook spoke with Kelly Norris about the state of Wyoming’s forests, her plans for the agency to focus on, and being the first woman to fill the position. … I am the first woman state forester for the state of Wyoming, also the first assistant district forester, the first female district forester, and the first woman assistant state forester of operations. …Immediately, we have a capacity issue within our agency, we’re hiring as quickly as we can. That’s a real big focus for us. We’re sitting at [a] 20 percent vacancy rate. We right now have quite a bit of turnover with all of the funding and all the interest going into the forestry profession and the firefighting profession.

These “beetles” are tiny insects that burrow under the bark of mature needle-bearing trees (conifers) and munch on the nutrient layers. In time, they suffocate entire forests and create immense debris fields. Those tiny bugs provide much of the dead wood fueling today’s conflagrations. 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 the 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 disease epidemics starting 40 years ago were the worst ever. Beetle-killed trees only waited for the right conditions to ignite.

The U.S. Forest Service approved a project to harvest timber from an area west of West Yellowstone last week. The plan includes the logging of over 12,000 acres as well as nearly 60 miles of temporary roads.  The agency acknowledged that logging activities would cause short-term impacts to nearby soil, water and wildlife but found that there would be no long-term effects on threatened species like grizzly bears.  Rewilding manager for WildEarth Guardians Adam Ressien said the plan directly opposes a recent executive order to protect old-growth forests and puts threatened species at risk.  “We’ll continue to voice opposition, for sure, and we look forward to doing that both in the public realm and in the courtroom,” Ressien said.

Located in the heart of north-central Idaho, the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest is known for its wild character. The area encompasses 4 million acres of federal land, ranging from deep, rugged river canyons to steep, jagged mountains. …But this forest’s survival and its future may not be so certain anymore. All of the country’s national forests are required to have a resource management plan, as dictated by the National Forest Management Act of 1976. Among other things, these plans are designed to protect public lands from excessive or destructive logging.  …The Forest Service described four “action alternatives” in the plan. All four would significantly increase industrial activity in the area from 50-60 million board feet to around 260 million board feet of timber. …As a response, Friends of the Clearwater wrote a grant that funded an independent analysis of climate impacts. 

In what was once an old growth redwood forest that was heavily logged in 1968, a National Park Service forester points to an unruly tangle of spindly trees, 900 to the acre and so jam-packed it is difficult to walk through. Not far away is a section that was thinned 20 years ago, when the number of trees per acre was reduced to fewer than 300. The redwoods in this area are much larger in diameter and far more robust, the understory greener and more diverse. …The thinned forest is part of a project called Redwoods Rising, which is aimed at creating old growth redwood forests for the future. Carried out by Redwood National and State Parks and Save the Redwoods League, crews are using chain saws and logging equipment and planning prescribed fires, to mimic the traits of a young healthy redwood forest and undo the damage from decades of unbridled logging and indiscriminate reseeding. [to access the full story a NY Times subscription is required]

@Reuters

In the middle of Lahaina’s ash and rubble is a sign of hope for people in Maui: a famed, 150-year-old banyan tree that’s heavily charred — but still standing. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said the tree is “still breathing” and is absorbing water and producing sap, just not as much as it usually does. “It’s like a burn victim itself,” Green said. “Traumatized, much like the town.” The Lahaina banyan tree was planted on April 24, 1873… It has 46 “major trunks” aside from the original it was planted with, and is known for being the largest banyan tree in the United States. …Hawaiian Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono said, “after speaking with the arborist working on the tree, I’m optimistic that it will bloom again — serving as a symbol of hope amid so much devastation.” …A local arborist told Gov. Green that the tree will attempt to “generate new growth and buds on branches.” 

Additional coverage in The Hill, by Miranda Nazzaro: Hirono optimistic iconic Lahaina banyan tree will bloom again

The loss of life and property in Lahaina, Hawaii, is shocking even to a fire scientist. I have long assumed the next wildfire disaster was going to be in the super-dry American West, not on the tropical island of Maui. But it is easy to find parallels between the tragedy in Lahaina and the deadly and devastating wildfires that struck the towns of Louisville and Superior in Colorado in 2021, and Paradise in California in 2018. Those two fires resulted in 87 deaths and destroyed thousands of structures.  Wildfire boils down to three ingredients: a warm and dry climate, fuels to burn and a spark….Hawaiian ecosystems are not adapted to fire, which means they are vulnerable to wildfires. Invasive species, particularly flammable grasses, push out native species. …This invasive grass-fire cycle is a national and global phenomenon and a growing problem on the U.S. mainland. 

BILLINGS, Montana — For decades the Forest Service has gotten away with calling hundreds, if not thousands, of roads on national forests “closed” when they’re not. As is well known and documented, illegal use of the roads continues when people drive around the fences, gates, and berms, rip out the gates and barriers, or simply cut a new access to get past the barriers. When added to the many illegal user-created, motorized trails and roads, the result is absolutely false analysis by the Forest Service of the impacts of roads on wildlife — including grizzly bears. …The Court agreed with the Alliance and ordered the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest to accurately determine the effectiveness of road closures. …While the Court’s Order only applies to one national forest, it sets a precedent to halt the impacts to wildlife, fisheries, and streams from illegal road use on all our National Forests.

A salvage logging operation undertaken on the east flank of Bald Mountain last fall by the Idaho Department of Lands left impacts visible from public hiking trails in the area. …Idaho Department of Lands Public Information Officer Sharla Arledge said the timber stand on the Public Schools Endowment-owned parcel, along with trees on adjacent federal and private lands, were infested with Douglas-fir beetles that were killing the larger trees in the stand. “This was not a clear cut,” Arledge said. “The larger Douglas fir trees were removed as they are the preferred host for the beetles. Healthy smaller Douglas fir trees were left to provide both seeds and shelter to encourage a new stand.” The timber cutting operation took place on about 80 acres within a 120-acre stand of trees on state land designated as “endowment timber,” to support public schools. 

@LahainaTown.com

Maui has been burning since Tuesday—engulfed in wildfires, destroying its western region and killing more than 50 people. In the coastal town of Lahaina, home to about 12,000 people, at least 271 buildings have been decimated, and a historic landmark is at risk: a 150-year-old banyan tree. …the tree was badly damaged but still standing. …Based on images of the damage, “it certainly doesn’t look like that tree is going to recover,” James B. Friday, an extension forester with the University of Hawaii, told the New York Times. He adds that the layer of bark protecting the tree may have been too thin to withstand the fires. …Lahaina’s banyan tree is the United States’ largest, standing 60 feet tall and covering an entire city block. …“It’s said that if the roots are healthy, it will likely grow back,” wrote county officials in an update on Wednesday, “but it looks burned.”

Wildlife biologists reported finding a small population of California red-legged frogs within the burn scars of a Northern California wildfire that torched a large area of the Sierra foothills last year. The Mosquito Fire scorched 76,778 acres of wildland east of Foresthill, burning through Tahoe and Eldorado National Forests in Placer and El Dorado counties. “The Mosquito Fire went right through one of the most robust populations of the frog in the Sierra Nevada. It will take time for this area to recover, but the fact that this frog is still here shows the resiliency of wildlife,” said Rick Kuyper, Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office’s Sierra Cascades Division Supervisor. Wildlife biologists visited the area in July where they sighted the survival of the native species known as Rana draytonii taking it as a sign of hope for ecology recovery in the burn areas of California’s largest wildfire in 2022.

Bark beetles are only about the size of a grain of rice. But for such tiny critters, they can take a big bite out of the forest. There are more than 100 species of bark beetles in Idaho, said Gina Davis, entomologist and group leader at the Coeur d’Alene Field Office for the U.S. Forest Service, in a phone interview with the Idaho Statesman.  …In Idaho in 2022, Douglas-fir beetles caused tree mortality on more than 30,000 acres of land; western pine beetles affected 2,400 acres, and mountain pine beetles caused damage on more than 6,000 acres.  …Some landowners and forest caretakers, though, are fighting back with science. Little packets of pheromones, when stapled onto trees, can signal to certain beetle species, tricking them into thinking that the host tree is already occupied. …This signaling is species-specific, small-scale tree protection, but it’s a critical step to combat these devastating infestations, especially in our ongoing era of extreme weather and drought.