Region Archives: US West

Ecosystems are mosaics with different pieces that grow and change over time. In healthy forests, patches of recent disturbance sit alongside patches of grasses and shrubs, fast-growing trees and centuries-old mature forests. But these ecological patterns require a climate stability that no longer exists. Due to human-caused climate change, California’s forest mosaics are vanishing. According to a study published in AGU Advances last July, the state’s forests lost almost 7%, or just over 1,700 square miles, of tree cover since 1985. In particular, forests in California’s southwestern mountains lost 14% of tree cover. Jon Wang, the study’s lead author and an Earth systems scientist at the University of Utah, said that at the current rate, “in a hundred years, we will have lost almost 20% of our forests. That’s like all of Southern California’s forests being gone, or all of the Southern Sierras being gone.” 

A long-term Pacific Northwest study of landslides, clear-cutting timber and building roads shows that a forest’s management history has a greater impact on how often landslides occur and how severe they are compared to how much water is coursing through a watershed. Findings of the research, led by associate forest engineering associate professor Catalina Segura and graduate student Arianna Goodman of the Oregon State University College of Forestry, were published in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. Probing the factors behind landslide frequency and magnitude is crucial because slides occur in all 50 states, causing an average of more than 25 deaths per year, according to the United States Geological Survey. The USGS puts the total annual average economic damage resulting from landslides at greater than $1 billion.

In a reversal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service issued a final repeal of the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule. The move formally reinstates the 2001 roadless rule in the Tongass National Forest, and effectively prohibits timber harvest and road construction within designated Inventoried Roadless Areas. Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the decision is major loss for Alaskans. “It’s yet another way the Biden administration is singling out Alaska,” he stated on Jan. 25. “Alaskans deserve access to the resources that the Tongass provides – jobs, renewable energy resources, and tourism, not a government plan that treats human beings within a working forest like an invasive species.” …Numerous environmental safeguards currently ensure that economic survival is balanced with conservation practices and resource protection.

JUNEAU, Alaska — A federal agency said Wednesday it is reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging on the country’s largest national forest in southeast Alaska, the latest move in a long-running fight over the Tongass National Forest. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in late 2021 announced that it was beginning the process of repealing a Trump administration-era decision that exempted the Tongass from the so-called roadless rule. The agency said it had finalized that plan. The new rule will take effect once it is published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen Friday, said Larry Moore. …Roadless areas account for about one-third of all U.S. national forest system lands. But Alaska political leaders have long sought an exemption to the roadless rule for the Tongass, seeing the restrictions as burdensome and limiting economic opportunities. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) finalized protections for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest. USDA’s final rule repeals the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule and restores longstanding roadless protections to 9.37 million acres of roadless areas that support the ecological, economic and cultural values of Southeastern Alaska. …At 16.7 million acres, the Tongass National Forest represents the largest intact tract of coastal temperate rainforest on earth and is considered critical for carbon sequestration and carbon storage to help mitigate climate change. …The announcement reflects the Administration’s commitment to strengthening nation-to-nation relationships and incorporating Indigenous knowledge, stewardship, and Tribal priorities into land management decision-making. …Repealing the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule, which exempted the Tongass from roadless protections, will return the inventoried roadless areas of the forest to management under the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvest in inventoried roadless areas, with limited exceptions. 

Tvetene Carlson

Carbon sequestration puts the cart before the horse in addressing climate change. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is proposing a major push to make Alaska a sequestration capital of the world. …However, sequestration doesn’t matter if we are still burning gas, coal and oil while emitting far more carbon than we can hope to capture with existing methods and technology. When you have a leak on the boat, you plug the leak before bailing out the water. Government action promoting renewable energy is what we need to do to plug the leak that is carbon emissions, and this should be prioritized over sequestration. …Natural sequestration — growing trees, kelp and other plants that naturally breath in and build themselves out of the carbon dioxide in the air — is another method of storing carbon. 

Jeff Golden

A revised wildfire risk map in Oregon could be delayed for at least six months.  The original map, championed by State Senator Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, was recalled after intense public outcry last summer.  A draft map — which identifies communities most at risk from wildfires — was supposed to come out in March. But lawmakers will be considering a series of bills that could change or eliminate the map altogether.  “I will not support efforts to eliminate the maps altogether because we need those to focus our limited dollars and get them where they’re needed,” Golden said. “But the maps could play a very different role than the public thought they were playing last summer.”  One bill, sponsored by a group of Republican lawmakers, would remove the requirement that the state Department of Forestry oversee the development of the wildfire risk map.

The coastal temperate rainforests of Oregon are important carbon storage facilities and provide 80% of the state’s drinking water. A recent study is the first to combine data on drinking water sources, biodiversity, carbon storage and forest resilience to determine which forests are the highest priority for conservation. Most high-priority forests are on federal lands, but only 10% are protected at the highest levels, which forbids logging and other extractive activities. Protecting forests is important for carbon storage and water conservation, with the loss of forest cover shown to reduce water supplies by up to 50% compared to maintaining mature forests.

ASHLAND, Montana — In a fire-prone region of southeastern Montana, the Custer Gallatin National Forest is proposing an ambitious tree planting, logging and controlled burn plan over the next eight to 20 years. The project area for the South Otter Landscape Restoration and Resiliency Project stretches across more than 456 square miles, south of the community of Ashland. The entire ranger district covers more than 680 square miles between the Tongue and Powder rivers, just east of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. “This project uses forest management tools, such as prescribed burning and thinning to reduce negative effects of future wildfires, while also enhancing conditions that welcome frequent low-intensity fire events,” said Ron Hecker, Ashland District ranger. The Forest Service released its draft decision notice, finding of no significant impact and environmental assessment for the project.

From “Firmageddon” to western redcedars, drought has been implicated in the death of multiple tree species across the Pacific Northwest. Yet, how exactly drought is stressing and killing the region’s trees has remained something of a scientific mystery. But that is changing. A recent study out of Oregon State University provides new light on drought’s ability to kill trees. …The study examines how Douglas-fir trees responded to two very different elements of drought that are known to slow tree growth and lead to tree death: lack of rainfall and low moisture levels in the air. The study found that atmospheric aridity (dry air) was far more determinantal to the health of Douglas-firs than a lack of rainfall. As vapor pressure deficit goes up it increases the evaporative demand, or how much water is leaving the tree. To slow water loss, many trees will essentially take smaller breaths of air. …this means tree growth slows as well.

High-severity wildfire is increasing in Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascade forests and has been burning at unprecedented rates compared to the years before Euro-American settlement, according to a study from the Safford Lab at the University of California, Davis. Those rates have especially shot up over the past decade. For the study … scientists analyzed fire severity data from the U.S. Forest Service and Google Earth Engine, across seven major forest types. They found that in low- and middle-elevation forest types, the average annual area that burned at low-to-moderate severity has decreased from more than 90 percent before 1850 to 60-70 percent today. At the same time, the area burned annually at high severity has nearly quintupled, rising from less than 10% to 43% today. (High-severity burns are those where more than 95% of aboveground tree biomass is killed by fire.) UC Davis project scientist John N. Williams said this ratio is severely out of balance.

A group of conservative Utah lawmakers are claiming “overgrown” forests are guzzling Utah’s water resources dry, rural members are now calling for a major logging initiative as the best hope for saving the shrinking Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell, despite a lack of scientific evidence that tree removal would make a big difference. Water conservation and efficiency measures are not enough to replenish Utah’s drought-depleted reservoirs and avert the ecological disaster unfolding at the Great Salt Lake, according to presentations Thursday before the Legislature’s “Yellow Cake Caucus,” a group of conservative lawmakers organized by Rep. Phil Lyman. Utah’s 5 million acres of forests are crowded with 100 to 200 trees per acre, about 10 times the densities in the 1800s, said Randy Julander, a retired federal hydrologist. And the trees on about a quarter of this land are standing dead because there isn’t enough water in the ground to sustain them, he added.

Across the West, federal and state land management agencies are strategically logging, thinning and burning forests with the goal of making them more resilient to uncontrolled wildfire, as well as diseases. But conservationists and wildlife advocates worry the work will harm grizzly bears and other federally-protected species that call those habitats home. In Western Montana, three projects from different agencies have drawn criticism and lawsuits from stakeholders that say the work will damage grizzly bear habitat. With me today is Joshua Murdock, the outdoors and natural resources reporter at the Missoulian, to talk about the projects and people’s concerns. [37 min podcast]

The Biden administration will use $3 billion from last year’s infrastructure law to revamp the federal approach to wildfire management, introducing a 10-year plan to deal with the large swaths of the West scientists consider most at risk of destructive blazes. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the new strategy, alongside Forest Service Chief Randy Moore and Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly. The Forest Service will focus on using managed fires to reduce natural fuels — flammable material that can feed fires, including trees, grasses, dead leaves and fallen branches, according to a report the U.S. Forest Service. Vilsack highlighted the infrastructure law’s funding to address wildfires. “It’s fair to say the Forest Service has recognized for some time, the need to dramatically — and I emphasize the word dramatically — increase our ability to treat at a pace and scale that will actually make a difference,” he said.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A long-term Pacific Northwest study of landslides, clear-cutting timber and building roads shows that a forest’s management history has a greater impact on how often landslides occur and how severe they are compared to how much water is coursing through a watershed.  Findings of the research, led by associate forest engineering associate professor Catalina Segura and graduate student Arianna Goodman of the Oregon State University College of Forestry, were published in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms.  Probing the factors behind landside frequency and magnitude is crucial because slides occur in all 50 states, causing an average of more than 25 deaths per year, according to the United States Geological Survey. The USGS puts the total annual average economic damage resulting from landslides at greater than $1 billion.

MISSOULA, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte announced an investment of $3 million to manage and improve forest health in an effort to reduce the risk of wildfires. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will give 11 projects between $60,000 and $500,000. Each project is expected to treat up to 6,000 acres of state, federal and private lands, including projects in Missoula, Flathead, Lincoln and Granite counties. …Funding for the projects comes from the state’s Fire Suppression Fund, which the governor seeks to nearly triple in his Budget for Montana Families. …Projects include fuel reduction in the wildland urban interface, cross-boundary forest health restoration, public education, as well as commercial and non-commercial fuels work.

MISSOULA, Mont. — Montana will be investing $3 million to fund projects for forest health and wildfire risk reduction, according to Gov. Greg Gianforte.  The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation awarded funding to eleven projects out of nearly three dozen applicants, with each receiving between $60,000 and $500,000.  “As we’ve seen time and time again, managed forests mean less severe wildfires, more recreational opportunities, more habitat for wildlife, and more jobs in our communities,” said Gianforte. “We’re proud to invest in Montana communities and locally-driven projects to address the forest health crisis and reduce vulnerability to wildfire.”  ….Projects include fuel reduction in the wildland urban interface, cross-boundary forest health restoration, public education, as well as commercial and non-commercial fuels work.

One of Montana’s most cherished wildlife management areas is on the chopping block. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks FWP) is now a full-on partner in the logging industry’s brutal war against Nature. FWP is proposing to liquidate (machine-log) approximately 1,500 acres of prime wildlife habitat on the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area. You heard that right, logging for wildlife. Logging to serve private capital is closer to the truth. …Logging always sounds and looks better when shrouded in a disingenuous, prepackaged timber-industry narrative that creates confusion and indifference in the hunting community, and a real sense of pride and manliness in the governor’s office. Don’t be fooled again. …The good news is that FWP is accepting public comments, no later than Jan. 19. That doesn’t give hunters and concerned citizens much time, but that is the life-and-death game government is playing in the Blackfoot-Clearwater region.

In that most wonderful time between Christmas and New Year’s, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it halted – for now – a controversial plan to auction off land for logging in the Willamette National Forest. Conservation organizations opposed the “Flat Country” sale, east of Eugene, because it allowed for cutting 1,000 acres of mature and old-growth trees across a 4,300 acre swath of the forest. The Forest Service cited President Biden’s Executive Order 14072, issued on Earth Day 2022, to explain its reversal. …Oregon’s offices of the BLM should immediately review all pending timber sales in light of the president’s call to protect mature and old trees. Clearcutting and thinning old trees helps no one, but a healthy old forest is good for everyone.

SACRAMENTO, California — On a good day, the elms, pines, oaks and hundreds of other tree varieties fill Sacramento’s parks and line streets, fortifying the city’s reputation as the “City of Trees.” But on a bad one, violent winds knock some of the trees down, causing damage to cars, homes and power lines. That’s what happened in recent weeks as the defining feature that’s normally seen as an asset to the city has given way to destruction and disruption as multiple “ atmospheric rivers ” ripped through Northern California. Wind gusts reached more than 60 miles per hour on Sunday, strong enough to rip massive trees straight up from the root. And as climate change continues to fuel the drought in California, trees are left weakened and more likely to uproot. …More than 1,000 trees have fallen in Sacramento since the New Year’s Eve.

MONTANA — There’s no other way to put it, the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population is going downhill fast — which is the opposite of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s legal mandate to recover, not extinguish, endangered species. …Given the precipitous population loss, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council had no choice but to file a lawsuit on Jan. 6 to overturn the Kootenai National Forest’s approval of the massive Black Ram logging and road-building project. Stretching from the Canadian border to the Yaak River, in northwest Montana, the Black Ram decision authorized clearcutting on an estimated 2,442 acres, 1,460 acres of additional commercial logging, 7,034 acres of burning, 3.5 miles of new road construction and reconstruction of 90.3 miles of existing logging roads. …It is long past time for the Forest Service to recover grizzly bears by protecting their habitat as required by law instead of destroying it.

The mighty redwood trees are an iconic part of California. However, after historic storms slammed the Golden State, the condition of the trees remains to be seen. …The excessive amounts of precipitation destabilized the soil in some areas, leading to sinkholes, mudslides and felled trees. …Their condition after the recent storms is currently uncertain as State Parks does not yet have a full assessment of the storm impacts, according to Adeline Yee. Yee noted the vulnerable nature of “old-growth” redwoods, which are the larger, older trees in the parks. The size and weight of their trunks and branches make the old-growth trees more likely to fall. …The California State Parks department has received reports that several park units have experienced downed trees, flooding and power outages. As of Wednesday morning, State Parks had completely closed 54 park units and partially closed 38. 

Douglas-fir trees will likely experience more stress from drier air as the climate changes than they will from less rain, computer modeling by Oregon State University scientists shows. The research is important because Douglas-fir are widespread throughout the Pacific Northwest, an iconic species with ecological, cultural and economic significance, and learning how the trees respond to drought is crucial for understanding forest sensitivity to a shifting climate. Douglas-fir grow in a range that stretches from northern British Columbia to central California, and also includes the Rocky Mountains and northeastern Mexico. In Oregon, Douglas-fir are found in a variety of mixed conifer and hardwood forests, from sea level to 5,000 feet. …The OSU study, published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, simulated the response of a 50-year-old stand of Douglas-fir on the Oregon Cascade Range’s west slope to less rain and higher “vapor pressure deficit,” or VPD—basically the atmosphere’s drying power.

California’s precious trees are receiving a much-needed reprieve from the extreme drought conditions they have been experiencing for several decades. The same atmospheric river storm system that is bringing devastating flooding to communities all over California is providing relief to the state’s forests, according to experts. Data released last week by the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that regions in California and Nevada that were previously in “exceptional drought” status the week before … have been alleviated as a result of the heavy rain walloping the coast. The moisture is likely to stave off a mass die-off of trees in the West, Jim Randerson, a professor at the University of California Irvine said. It is extremely important for the health of forests that water to seep deep into the ground, even into the weathered bedrock, Nate Stephenson, a scientist emeritus at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Ecological Research Center, told ABC News.

Scientists from Cal Poly Humboldt conducted a range-wide analysis of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) to examine growth trends and understand how these trees are responding to recent environmental changes. They found that redwoods have varying sensitivity to drought, and that rising temperatures may affect tree performance in unexpected ways—results that are both concerning and hopeful. The study … was led by Cal Poly Humboldt Forestry Professor Stephen C. Sillett, the Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology. Sillett’s team was supported by the Save the Redwoods League through their ongoing Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative (RCCI). This phase of RCCI was designed to investigate how redwoods across their range are responding to the changing climate, and what these responses mean for long-term carbon sequestration and biodiversity. …”With thick fire-resistant bark and an amazing capacity for clonal reproduction, few tree species are so well equipped to persist in an uncertain future,” the authors write. 

Montana Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines expects a piece of forest management legislation he worked on with California Democrat U.S. Sen. Dianne Fienstein will pass through Congress later this year.  The Root and Stem Authorization Act codifies the authority of the secretaries of the Agriculture and Interior departments to conduct forest restoration projects alongside private landowners and companies – with the goal of facilitating more efficient forest management efforts.  “This act is really going to promote this collaboration effort,” said Tim McEntire, the northwest region representative for the Montana Logging Association, which is based in Kalispell. “That’s how we get good things done – when we’re all after the same goal.” …The idea for the bill stemmed from the success of a lumber company in Washington where they utilized their authority to work with federal agencies to move forestry projects along. The partnership helped accelerate forest projects, a process Daines hopes to replicate across the nation.