Region Archives: US West

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.

The California red-legged frog, Rana draytonii has found a favorable foothold in foothill freshwater thanks to efforts by the U.S. Forest Service in the Georgetown Ranger District of the Eldorado National Forest. Development, over-harvesting, climate change, invasive species and pesticides contributed to the species being added to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife threatened species list in 1996. Between 2014 and 2016, crews in the northern zone of the Eldorado National Forest began construction of nine areas that would provide potential breeding grounds for the frogs and western pond turtles in the area around Georgetown. Of those initial nine areas, six are still around (three, built in-stream, were blown out in 2017 during the heavy winter), with three serving as a consistent breeding habitat for the red-legged frogs, according to Forest Service aquatic biologist Maura Santora. The ponds have also seen frequent visits from bats, deer and other local wildlife.

MISSOULA – The University of Montana recently was selected to lead one of the first-ever Regional Innovation Engine awards from the National Science Foundation. UM’s project is designed to advance precision forestry and rangeland technologies. As with the 43 other awardees selected across the country, UM will receive an initial $1 million over two years. This will support and develop a team that will create an implantation proposal, which could lead to as much as $160 million in additional regional economic investment over 10 years. UM has 18 partners on the project all working in forest and rangeland management. They include regional research universities and tribal colleges, national nonprofits, federal and state agencies, industry associations and venture capital firms. …Julia Altemus, director the Montana Wood Products Association, said a plan developed by the Montana Forest Action Advisory Council has identified 3.4 million acres in the wildland urban interface as high priority acres in need of restoration.

The University of California San Diego has launched a new cutting-edge system made up of more than 1,000 cameras positioned across the state designed to prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires and other natural hazards. The system integrates and expands on what was formerly the ALERTWildfire camera network that is now known as ALERTCalifornia. The expanded state-focused program manages more than 1,000 pan-tilt-zoom capable cameras and sensor arrays across the entire state and collects data regularly that can provide real-time, actionable information that serves to inform public safety during natural disasters. …Some of the new installations have more than traditional cameras. Some incorporate infrared systems that allow emergency responders to identify hotspots and flare-ups through thick smoke and provide firefighters with real-time updates on evolving situations on the ground during a wildfire.

MISSOULA, Montana — Neptune Aviation and the National Museum of Forest Service History in Missoula have announced a partnership to provide Tanker 12 a new permanent home. Neptune Aviation retired its Lockheed P2V airtankers in September of 2017, closing the final chapter on the world’s last active fleet of former maritime patrol aircraft, dating back to the Cold War era, which served for years as national aerial firefighting assets. …Before Tanker 12 began its history as an aerial firefighting aircraft, the P2V served the U.S. Navy in anti-submarine warfare missions. From 1993 Neptune operated a fleet of Lockheed Martin P2V aircraft, and its ships put in about 47,000 firefighting missions, dropping a total of 97 million gallons of retardant. …The National Museum of Forest Service History is a nonprofit organization with a mission of sharing the history of America’s conservation legacy. 

MONTANA — One would have to be mighty gullible to believe the Forest Service’s claim that the Knotty Pine Project would benefit the declining population of Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bears because the 5,000 acres of logging with massive new clearcuts would allow more huckleberries to grow. If that sounds too outrageous, that’s because it is. The evidence was so clear and convincing, the Court halted the project. The Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bears are the most imperiled population in the Northern Rockies and are considered crucial to the on-going efforts to recover the species. Yet the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has documented a consistent decline in population numbers. In 2018 the Agency counted 54 grizzlies in its monitoring report. In 2019 only 50, down to 45 in 2020 and the 2021 estimate was only 42 bears. …According to peer-reviewed scientific literature, losing three Cabinet-Yaak female grizzlies in a single year will likely result in a population decline. 

As Northern California see temperatures reach into the 90s this week, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, a transformation is unfolding that is expected to affect the region’s fire season for the next several months. A change in ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific is transforming the weather pattern from El Niño to La Niña…With the change, the weather outlook for May and June is for near normal to above normal rainfall over Northern California and from normal to below normal temperatures, a forecast that is not conducive to large-scale wildfires, according to a report by the Northern California Geographic Coordinating Center’s Predictive Services. The outlook for July and August is for “near to above normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.” …While the wetter winter and spring may delay the outbreak of larger fires, the North State’s hot summers eventually take their toll, leaving the forests dried out by August and September…

MONATANA — Visitors to the Custer Gallatin National Forest west of West Yellowstone have likely seen the dense stands of lodgepole pine that are ripe for insect infestation, disease and wildfire. It is only a matter of time before a wildfire is ignited in this area, potentially endangering the community, other adjacent properties, and possibly the tens of thousands of people that visit the area each year. …To reduce this risk and improve local water quality, public lands managers have developed the South Plateau Project on the Hebgen Lake Ranger District to thin these unnaturally dense stands and restore them back to health. The project will implement a variety of proactive and science-based resiliency treatments, including commercial timber harvest, non-commercial fuels treatments, and associated activities such as pile burning, temporary road construction and rehabilitation of disturbed sites.

A wet winter is likely to delay wildfires, but ongoing drought in eastern Oregon could make for a worse fire season east of the Cascades, Gov. Tina Kotek said. Kotek’s press briefing came just ahead of a forecasted heat wave bringing temperatures in the 90s to the Willamette Valley later this week. Klamath County is expected to see sunny weather in the mid-80s Saturday. …The Oregon Department of Forestry already has 22 firefighters helping combat ongoing wildfires in Alberta, Canada, where nearly 1 million acres have been destroyed and 30,000 people have evacuated, said Mike Shaw, the department’s fire chief. As fires continue throughout the summer, firefighters from western states and several Canadian provinces will help each other. Shaw said rainy conditions this spring and a strong winter snowpack are good signs. The snowpack — snow accumulated on mountains — is at about 140% of its normal level for this time of year.

SEATTLE — Mast Reforestation, the leading vertically integrated reforestation company, announced a $15 million financing agreement with Carbon Streaming Corporation to advance its post-wildfire reforestation projects throughout the American West. This first-of-its-kind project financing will cover the high upfront costs of reforestation projects, accelerating Mast’s forest restoration work and enabling the company to serve more landowners affected by wildfires. Under the stream financing agreement, Carbon Streaming will provide Mast with up to $15 million to advance its pipeline of post-wildfire reforestation projects. In addition to the $15 million project financing agreement, Carbon Streaming has invested $2 million in Mast.

The US Forest Service says thinning forests to protect communities like Payson, Show Low, Pine and Pinetop-Lakeside remains its top priority. But members of Congress from the West are increasingly challenging the Forest Service to do more. Meanwhile, federal firefighters are challenging Congress to do more – especially with a congressionally created budget crisis butting up against the start of what could prove a difficult fire season across the west. This month, western lawmakers grilled Forest Service Chief Randy Moore about the long delays in funding and actually approving forest restoration projects designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires like the Wallow and Rodeo-Chediski – which can consume whole towns and permanently alter forest ecosystems. The decade-long delay in implementing the 4-Forests Restoration Project emerged as a prime example in the congressional hearings at the end of April.

The Lolo and Flathead national forests will receive more than $2 million to create wildfire fuel breaks in areas the federal government has identified as “high-risk firesheds.” …The funding for the two U.S. Forest Service Northern Region forests flows from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, according to an announcement Thursday from the Northern Region, also known as Region 1. …The more than $2 million the Northern Region received will go toward three projects across the Lolo and Flathead national forests, according to spokeswoman Marna Daley: the Frozen Moose and Flathead Area projects on the Flathead, and the Thompson River Project on the Lolo. …U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said, “With climate change fueling the wildfire crisis, we are investing in this work on an even larger scale as one of the many actions we are taking to protect the people and communities we serve.”

In related news: Black Hills National Forest receives $9 million for fuel reduction, by Cody Denis in Black Hills Fox News

California has more than 30 million acres of forests. Many are densely packed with small trees or trees that have been killed by beetles. Removing some of the small and dead trees would make the forests more resilient to drought, pests, and wildfires.  “If these dead trees burn or rot en masse, that’s going to emit a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that from a climate change perspective, we can’t afford,” says Sandra Lupien, director of mass timber at Michigan State University.  She says it’s possible to use this low-value wood to create mass timber products. …Lupien says using small-diameter and dead trees to make mass timber would create a market demand for removing them and lock the carbon they contain into buildings. 

Wildfire is driven by three main factors — weather, terrain and fuels. When fighting wildfires, firefighters work to reduce the fuel feeding the fire, either by removing it with heavy equipment, handlines or by making it hard to burn by soaking the fuel with water or retardant. Fuels reduction projects are a critical step in helping protect homes, businesses, and recreation sites from destructive wildfires. The Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership between the Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service aims to restore landscapes, protect water quality, enhance habitat and reduce wildfire threats to communities and landowners across the country. This work is being done on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, which is also a landscape highlighted in the Wildfire Crisis Strategy to protect communities and improve resilience in America’s forests. …Geographic features such as ridgelines often serve as barriers to wildfire. Treating these areas can reinforce this natural fuel break. 

DURANGO, Colo. – The Biden-Harris Administration is investing $63 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to expand wildfire barriers, known as fuel breaks, to protect communities and firefighters across the West. Fuel breaks slow a fire’s spread, create a safe zone for firefighters to work, and a safer place to conduct hazardous fuel reduction treatments like prescribed burns. This new round of investments will support projects in Colorado, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota and Wyoming to improve firefighter response, protect critical infrastructure and natural resources, ensure clean drinking water, support local timber industries, enhance rural economies and create jobs. …the Forest Service works with local communities to identify fire barriers such as roads, rivers and other landscape features that can prevent wildfires from spreading. …Reinforcing these barriers and constructing adjacent fuel breaks will help reduce the risk of high-severity wildfires in the project areas

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont.— Conservation groups late Monday challenged a U.S. Forest Service plan to clearcut more than 5,500 acres of pine forests just outside Yellowstone National Park, in the Custer Gallatin National Forest. The plan also calls for logging across an additional 9,000 acres and bulldozing up to 56 miles of roads in the area, including through old-growth forests. In their objection to the South Plateau project, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and WildEarth Guardians said the logging project will destroy habitat for grizzly bears, lynx, marten and other wildlife. It will bulldoze through old-growth forest and remove thousands of acres of mature pine trees. The plan is moving forward despite its incongruence with President Biden’s pledge to protect old-growth and mature forests and trees.