Region Archives: US West

The smokey haze from wildfires that has been lingering over Western Slope skies for the past two weeks, is a reminder that our own beetle-kill fueled fire season is upon us. More than 834 million trees destroyed by beetle kill are rotting in Colorado forests. Over 22% of standing trees in Colorado forests are dead. The Mountain Pine Beetle has affected 3.4 million acres of Ponderosa and Lodgepole Pine in Colorado. The Spruce Beetle has killed 40% of Colorado’s Engelmann Spruce forests. Beetle kill has ravaged some 5.1 million acres of forest in Colorado. Wood products created by logging store carbon. Beetle-kill harvesters and woodworkers are using beetle-kill lumber for siding, furniture, framing lumber, cabinetry and finish molding. In Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service charges beetle-kill harvesters $20 to remove two cords of wood. Rotting trees increase greenhouse gasses in forest ecosystems by 25%.

Ponderosa pine trees are one of the most ubiquitous conifer species in western North America, extending from southern British Columbia all the way down to northern Mexico. In the American Southwest…the 23-year megadrought may have these semi-arid trees at the end of their rope, according to new research by University of Arizona scientists. “Forests in the Southwest are no strangers to droughts but have largely been able to cope with periods of drought throughout history,” said Brandon Strange, lead author of a new study examining the role of monsoon precipitation in ponderosa pine forests across the Four Corners region. “However, the current megadrought is the most severe since the year 800 CE.” With declining winter snowpack and increasing temperatures, “we are starting to approach a level of drought where Southwestern forests, particularly those lacking regular summer rains, are really unable to cope with the stress,” said Strange.

The U.S. Forest Service scheduled two prescribed burns last week in the southwest part of the state despite a red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service. Ultimately the agency burned the day before, but not the day of the warning.  However, officials also said a new state law banning burning during red flag events does not apply to the federal agency.  Following the largest wildfire in the state’s history last year, New Mexico lawmakers passed, and the governor signed, a bill that prohibits prescribed burns during a red flag warning. The bill was in response to the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, which started as two prescribed burns by the Forest Service that got out of control.  U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Maribeth Pecotte told KUNM that the state law does not apply to the federal agency. 

Ketchikan, Alaska – A public outreach designed to compile as much local input as possible to shape the future of integrated forest management on the Tongass National Forest is proving to be successful and there is still plenty of time to comment. According to the U.S. Forest Service, It’s clear by the 75 comments added to the interactive story map and 55 emails sent to the agency, the public is actively taking part in the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy – Forest Management initiative. The Forest Service is looking forward to seeing even more engagement over the next few weeks. …Since April, the Forest Service has engaged Tribal Nations, Alaska Native corporations, communities, partners, and the public to gather needs, expectations, and project recommendations for future forest management activities.

Attorneys general in Oregon and Washington announced Wednesday that they’re suing 21 manufacturers of firefighting foam. The two lawsuits, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court and King County Superior Court, claim the companies are legally responsible for polluting drinking water, fish and wildlife habitat with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAs. PFAs are chemicals used in firefighting foam. They’re also in some household products, like nonstick pans and food packaging. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that exposure to PFAs can contribute to significant health issues, including decreased fertility, birth defects and cancer. …Both attorneys general called on the courts to find the companies liable for health and environmental damages by paying for investigation, remediation and removal of PFAs contamination from soil and other natural resources. Rosenblum’s legal complaint demands a jury trial.

John Meyer

In 2015, the Bozeman-based Cottonwood Environmental Law Center won a major Endangered Species Act lawsuit in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision required the Forest Service to reanalyze the environmental impacts of implementing several forest plans across Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Depending on who you talk to, the “Cottonwood Decision” is either a four-letter word or a sign of integrity. As a former Forest Service employee that worked for the Flathead National Forest, it is disheartening to watch Sen. Daines lead a campaign against science-based forest management. After Cottonwood won the lawsuit, Sen. Daines started calling Cottonwood members radical environmentalists that file frivolous lawsuits. … In the Cottonwood Decision, the Supreme Court denied the Forest Service’s petition to rehear the decisions from the District Court and 9th Circuit. I have asked Sen. Daines to invite me to testify before Congress about the Cottonwood Decision, but he refuses. …The public deserves better.

DURANGO, Colorado — This month, the federal government announced it is sending $46.7 million, from trillion- and multibillion-dollar packages passed in 2021 and 2022, to Colorado to fund fuel breaks around the state. A $13 million chunk of that funding is landing right back in southwestern Colorado, where the U.S. Forest Service and its local, state, tribal and federal partners in other sectors are primed to use it in high-risk areas. “(The Plumtaw fire) is a very good example of where … strategic fuel breaks in real life have a direct impact on saving a watershed,” said Jason Lawhon, the Forest Service’s shared stewardship program manager for the San Juan National Forest. Work is happening across the state, but treatments are not at the pace and scale needed to match the size and impacts of wildfires today, Lawhon said. …Colorado’s $46.7 million will be split between national forests and grasslands around the state. 

The Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests, collectively known as the Blue Mountains, have been operating under a forest management plan developed over 30 years ago. The most recent effort to revise the plan failed in 2019. Now, the U.S. Forest Service is restarting the process. “The 15 years of investment that went into the prior effort, which was withdrawn, really just kind of doubles down on why it’s so important to get it right this time,” Eric Watrud, the Umatilla National Forest supervisor said. The National Forest Management Act of 1976 requires that the Forest Service develop and revise a Land and Resource Management Plan for every national forest every 15 years. The plans broadly cover everything from grazing, logging, fire management, tribal use and recreation. The Forest Service will begin an assessment process this June and will open that assessment up to public comment before next fall.

Oregon could see a much hotter July and August as the region shifts to an El Nino weather pattern later this year. State researchers predict Oregon could experience a much warmer summer than previous years as the climate shifts to a warmer pattern later this year. But a cooler and wet spring could lead fire season to run longer throughout the year. Oregon State University researchers recently predicted the state could see a much hotter July and August as the shift from La Niña to El Niño weather patterns begin this year. The shift from La Niña, a naturally occurring cooler weather pattern associated with ocean temperatures an the equator, to El Niño, its warmer counterpart, already has shown signs of its emergence. …Over the past decade, Oregon summers have already been warmer and drier due to climate change, according to O’Neill, and those trends are expected to continue. 

BILLINGS, Mont.  — A judge ruled Friday that the U.S. government can keep using chemical retardant to fight wildfires, despite finding that the practice pollutes streams in western states in violation of federal law.  The ruling from U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Montana came after environmentalists sued the U.S. Forest Service dropping the red slurry material into waterways hundreds of times over the past decade.  Government officials say chemical fire retardant is sometimes crucial to slowing the advance of dangerous blazes. Wildfires across North America have grown bigger and more destructive over the past two decades as climate change warms the planet.  Christensen said halting the use of fire retardant would “conceivably result in greater harm from wildfires — including to human life and property and to the environment.”

A land management plan for Sequoia National Forest is officially complete, Forest Supervisor Teresa Benson said on Friday. The plan has been in the works since 2012 and replaces a plan approved in 1988. The Record of Decision for the plan was published in the Federal Register on Friday, and the plan will take effect 30 days after publication. The ROD for the new plan for Sierra National Forest — developed in concert with the Sequoia plan — was also published on Friday. Sequoia National Forest covers 1.1 million acres of Tulare, Kern and Fresno counties and includes the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument created by President Bill  Clinton in 2000. However, the forest plan doesn’t apply to the monument, which the agency manages with a plan approved in 2012. …According to a news release issued Friday by the two national forests, the plans address wildfire risk, forest health, recreation and wildlife habitat. 

Don Harland

Firefighters estimate the temperature on the forest floor was close to 2,000 degrees. It wasn’t the worst Montana wildfire during the summer of 2021, but for those who lived through it the Harris Mountain Fire was devastating. In the two weeks it took to bring it under control the Harris Mountain Fire burned close to 32,000 acres of private, state and federal timberland, much of it prime wildlife habitat. One of the private property owners, Don Harland, lost 12 structures on their Sheep Creek Ranch, including the family lodge and hunting camp. …Don Harland looks with satisfaction at the progress his property has made two years following the Harris Mountain Fire. …The goal is to use every tool available through the ever-expanding understanding of biological processes to develop forests that regenerate faster and are less susceptible to catastrophic fire.

Montana’s congressional delegation is reviving bills to undo the consequences of a 2015 Endangered Species Act lawsuit that’s angered the state’s logging industry. Republican Reps. Matt Rosendale and Ryan Zinke have partnered with Sen. Steve Daines on a bill to reverse the endangered species review requirements affirmed in a 2015 lawsuit known as the “Cottonwood decision.” A ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the U.S. Forest Service must review management plans whenever an area was identified as critical wildlife habitat or significant information about an endangered species became available. …U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, is advancing a bill, on which he previously partnered with Daines. In the House, the Committee on Natural resources advanced a cottonwood bill sponsored by Rosendale. The Forest Information Reform Act, FIR for short, exempts the Forest Service from having to review its management when new endangered species information surfaces.

Wildfire season in most parts of the western United States could be delayed this summer with heavy snow still covering many mountain ranges, national fire forecasters say. Still, the risk of damaging wildfires continues to trend upward as the climate warms, one factor making it more difficult to predict how the season will shake out. Forecasters and fire ecology experts said changes to fire behavior make it challenging to predict conditions in the late summer and the early fall. Fire seasons are growing longer. Hotter temperatures zap fuels of their moisture faster. And more people are living near the wilderness — and potentially, in harm’s way. …The National Interagency Fire Center is predicting above-normal fire activity in parts of the Pacific Northwest, including eastern Oregon and central Washington, in July and August. Elsewhere in the West, forecasters are predicting normal or below-normal fire activity for those months.

The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday afternoon to pass an updated version of a city ordinance regulating trees on private property, which had not been adjusted since 2009. The legislation will fully overhaul the ordinance for the first time since the section of code protecting trees was adopted in 2001, years before the climate and housing crises came to dominate both city discourse and priorities. Seattleites have since become aware of the many benefits trees provide, from cooling to improving people’s health and general well-being. The city is losing trees faster than it is replanting them, and is thousands of housing units short to meet the demand of a growing population. …But the Urban Forestry Commission and tree advocates worry that the legislation so long in the making was rushed through the voting process. 

Additional coverage in the Seattle City Council Blog: Seattle City Council Passes Stronger Tree Protection Ordinance That Protects Ten Times as Many Trees While Increasing Housing Stock

Droughts can be good for trees; certain trees, that is.  Contrary to expectation, sometimes a record-breaking drought can increase tree growth. Why and where this happens is the subject of a new paper in Global Change Biology.  A team of scientists led by Joan Dudney at UC Santa Barbara examined the drought response of endangered whitebark pine over the past century. They found that in cold, harsh environments—often at high altitudes and latitudes—drought can actually benefit the trees by extending the growing season. This research provides insights into where the threats from extreme drought will be greatest, and how different species and ecosystems will respond to climate change. …The authors found a pronounced shift in growth during times of drought when the average maximum temperature was roughly 8.4° Celsius (47.1° Fahrenheit) between October and May. 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After years of massive, destructive wildfires, California and much of the American West may see a shorter and more manageable wildfire season thanks to an extraordinarily wet winter. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the state has only just begun to see a historic snowpack melt into streams and rivers, and the flows could be high for many weeks. The agency’s Southern California coordination center reported in a briefing Monday that most of California has seen below normal temperatures since Oct. 1. These conditions have helped about 68% of the state exit drought conditions within three months — a feat that would have required two or three wet years otherwise. …The wet winter and lingering snowpack may also translate to fewer wildfires. 

Picture an IMAX-style aerial film of a high-elevation wetland complex boasting every shade of green, from lime to emerald to olive, amid its vast landscape. Behind this image is Forest Service hydrologist Kyle Wright, his feet firmly on the ground, operating an unmanned aerial system or “drone” over this portion of Big Marsh in Oregon’s Little Deschutes River Basin. Landscape restoration has a new aerial view thanks to this scientific tool. Drones, which have been used traditionally on fire management projects, are now telling important resource stories to help scientists inform other kinds of projects, from stream restoration to timber management. …Central to the project’s purpose has been focus on one of the smaller marsh creatures—the Oregon spotted frog. The reddish-brown frog with black spots requires wetland habitats with a variety of water depths to support all its life stages. The aquatic frog is rarely found more than 6 feet from water.

IDAHO – Idaho Senator Jim Risch has introduced a wildfire prevention bill aimed at reducing the risk and severity of catastrophic wildfires in the west by empowering land managers with cutting-edge technology to target large scale treatments in the highest risk areas. The Forest Improvements through Research and Emergency Stewardship for Healthy Ecosystem Development and Sustainability (FIRESHEDS) Act also aims to restore forest health and better equip local land managers and strengthen state authority by allowing governors to enter into joint agreements with land management agencies to specifically designate fireshed management areas and expedite management projects. …Organizations and businesses supporting the FIRESHEDS Act include: the Idaho Forest Group; the Associated Logging Contractors of Idaho; the American Forest Resource Council; the American Forest & Paper Association; the American Property Casualty Insurance Groups; the Hardwood Federation; the American Loggers Association; and the National Association of Counties.

Deb Haaland

The U.S. Interior Department will review the environmental impacts of a possible land swap deal that would allow a new road to cut through an Alaska wildlife refuge, it said on Wednesday. The move comes two months after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland withdrew a Trump-era land exchange deal between her agency and the Alaska Native American-led King Cove Corporation, but said she would be open to considering other proposals to replace it. …Interior said it would consider an exchange that would allow for a road corridor for noncommercial use through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and the Izembek Wilderness Area. Supporters say the road would give residents of King Cove village access to nearby airstrip in case of medical or other emergencies. Environmentalists have said a road would destroy valuable habitat for birds along Kinzarof Lagoon, and would set a dangerous precedent for other wildlife refuges.

A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s ruling that had blocked the Hanna Flats logging project in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, which includes several thousand acres of grizzly bear territory. The ruling will allow the U.S. Forest Service to resume its designation of parts of the national forest for commercial logging — a treatment aimed at reducing the risk of wildfires and disease. Environmental group Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service in 2019 after the authorization of the Hanna Flats logging project, which permitted extensive commercial logging and prescribed burning, temporary road construction and maintenance and excavated skid trail construction next to a recovery zone for the protected Selkirk grizzly bear.