Region Archives: US West

Special Feature

The next four years: Canada / US relations & forest products trade

By Kelly McCloskey
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 7, 2025
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, US West

The COFI Day 1 luncheon panel on Canada–US relations and forest products trade brought together political veterans and policy thinkers to unpack the next four years of cross-border dynamics and what they mean for British Columbia’s forest sector. Moderated by Corinne Stavness, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Western Forest Products, the discussion featured Glen Clark, Chair of BC Hydro and former Premier of BC; James Moore, Senior Advisor with Edelman and former federal Industry Minister; and Mark Cameron, Fellow at the Public Policy Forum and leader of its Canada–US Relations Strategy. Clark opened with a clear warning about the US election. “We are entering a period of maximum unpredictability.” …James Moore stressed that Canada must shift from reacting to shaping outcomes. …Mark Cameron provided a broader policy context, noting the bipartisan consensus around economic nationalism is unlikely to shift.

Read More

Business & Politics

Oregon’s Wood Product Manufacturing Industry Is Still Important, Especially in Rural Areas

By Brian Rooney
Southern Oregon Business Journal
April 20, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Once Oregon’s largest manufacturing industry, employment in the wood product manufacturing industry has gone through large, well-publicized losses since the early 1990s. Its employment has dropped below that of computer and electronic manufacturing and food manufacturing in recent years, but it remains the third largest manufacturing industry. Despite the losses, wood product manufacturing is still a large industry in Oregon and is especially important to rural areas of the state. Over the long term, between 1990 and 2020, annual average employment in wood product manufacturing dropped 24,100, or 52%. Similar losses were experienced in all its subsectors. Sawmills and wood preservation dropped 5,900 (49%); plywood and engineered wood products dropped 9,500 (53%). …Even with the long-term decline, wood product manufacturing is still a large industry in Oregon. In 2024, there were 22,400 jobs and roughly $1.5 billion in total payroll in the industry. 

Read More

Builders FirstSource continues acquisition streak

DWM Door and Window Market
April 14, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Builders FirstSource has announced an acquisition for the third time in four months. The company announced last week that it is taking on Truckee Tahoe Lumber Company (TTL), a family-owned business that has served the Northern Sierra-Nevada region since 1931. It’s the fourth such announcement in six months, following Rhode Island’s Douglas Lumber in October 2024; Alpine Lumber Company in Englewood, Colorado, just before Christmas; and O.C. Cluss Lumber & Building Supplies from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in February. According to Builders FirstSource, TTL has built “a stellar reputation for providing high-quality lumber, building materials, and expert design services across its seven locations.” The company also says that local leadership will remain in place, ensuring continuity and a seamless transition.

Read More

Vaughn Emmerson Named Vice President of Lumber Operations

Sierra Pacific Industries
April 7, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Vaughn Emmerson

Anderson, CA — Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) has appointed Vaughn Emmerson as Vice President of Lumber Operations, which includes millwork, veneer, biomass energy, fabrication and trucking. …Vaughn brings over 12 years of experience in the wood products industry, including a decade at SPI. He has played a key role in sawmill construction and rebuild projects, workforce training programs, and manufacturing operations. Since 2020, he has led SPI’s Engineering, Technology, and Fabrication division, overseeing three facilities that support operations ranging from equipment repairs to sawmill construction. …Before joining SPI, he worked at Boise Cascade. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UC Merced and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University. He serves on the Softwood Lumber Board. In another leadership change, Todd Payne is stepping down as Sierra Pacific’s President of Lumber. In the interim, he will work alongside Vaughn to ensure a smooth transition.

Read More

Tariffs Will Hurt Wood Products Industry In Vermont

By Ed Barber
Newport Vermont Daily Express
April 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

President Donald Trump is prepared to impose tariffs on many Canadian products that are shipped to the United States. Included on the list of tariffs are the wood products industry, which is facing a 25 percent tariff on products shipped south of the border. In response to the President’s actions, the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture and Forestry took testimony from two employees at the Agency of Natural Resources last week… In the past two years Vermont has lost two sawmills, becoming more reliant on Canada. Vermont imported $52 million in sawmill and wood products from Canada in 2024. Pierson said some of the wood was shipped from Vermont to Canada where it was processed and shipped south.

Read More

Willis’ new wildfire resilience insurance to focus on risk mitigation

By Kassandra Jimenez-Sanchez
Reinsurance News
April 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Willis, a business of WTW, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have launched a new $2.5 million wildfire resilience insurance for the Tahoe Donner Association in Truckee, California. Described as “first-of-its-kind,” this policy directly links insurance costs to proactive wildfire risk mitigation efforts. Developed in partnership with UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, the policy aims to demonstrate how ecological forest management practices can lead to reduced premiums and increased insurance availability. Such techniques include tree thinning to improve the health and growth of the remaining trees and planned fires to clear out flammable vegetation, both proven to reduce wildfire risk and make forests healthier. Tahoe Donner has completed forest management projects over 1,520 acres since 2015. …This new policy, covering 1,345 acres of Tahoe Donner’s land, secures a 39% lower premium and an 89% lower deductible than would have been possible without the nature-based forest management.

Related content:

Read More

Finance & Economics

An Alaska logging site is an early casualty of Trump’s trade war with China

By Avery Ellfeldt
Alaska Public Radio
March 14, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US West

Canadian lumber company Transpac Group confirmed on March 13 that it’s largely shutting down its site on Afognak Island near Kodiak, effective immediately. Representatives of the company say that’s because earlier this month, China halted imports of U.S. logs in response to tariffs President Donald Trump imposed on Chinese goods. Charles Kim is Transpac’s CEO. He says the company is sending most of its staff home because it cannot find new customers despite trying to divert its products to other countries, including India. …The company has a contract for the logging site at Danger Bay on Afognak Island, just north of Kodiak. The site is owned by the Afognak Native Corporation, which could not be reached for comment. Kim says that contract also means it has certain obligations, including road building and maintenance. Transpac also harvests and exports timber from Canada, Oregon and Washington.

Read More

Wood, Paper & Green Building

This industry-leading adventure shirt is cool, comfortable and made from wood

SGB Media
April 16, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

SAN FRANCISCO – Outdoor adventure apparel brand Royal Robbins expands its best-selling Desert Pucker collection for Spring 2025. …Since the first Pucker shirt, Royal Robbins has worked with longtime fiber partner, Tencel Modal, to create an exceptionally soft, breathable and ultra-comfortable fabric. It all starts with responsibly sourced wood-based Tencel Modal fibers and a process that produces 50 percent less carbon emissions and water consumption than generic modal fibers. …The wood used as raw material for all Tencel Modal fibers is sourced from controlled or certified origins meeting the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) standards. …The Desert Pucker helps the brand meet its highest sustainability standard yet, with 83% of styles made from materials that contain 50% or more lower-impact fibers, preferred cotton, recycled polyester, preferred forest materials, hemp, or recycled nylon.

Read More

Green Globes for New Construction certification or Green Globes Journey to Net Zero eligible for reduced cost financing

The Green Building Initiative
April 10, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Portland, Ore.  – The Green Building Initiative (GBI) announces the inclusion of both Green Globes and Green Globes Journey to Net Zero certification systems in PACE Equity’s CIRRUS C-PACE program. Projects achieving Green Globes for New Construction certification or Green Globes Journey to Net Zero Recognized or Certified status for new, major renovations, or addition projects are automatically eligible for reduced cost financing capital that rewards building efficiency and carbon impact.  “GBI is excited to work alongside PACE Equity to help property owners reduce their carbon footprint and increase energy efficiency,” said Vicki Worden, GBI President & CEO. “Green Globes and Green Globes Journey to Net Zero programs demonstrate accountability and can unlock critical lower cost capital to support projects that are focused on improving the sustainability of the built environment.”

Read More

Oregon State Releases Permit Ready Plan For Decks

My Central Oregon
April 4, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Building Codes Division (BCD) has published its first permit-ready plan under the state’s updated Permit-Ready Plans Program. The building plans, available free to the public, are for a code-compliant residential deck. The Permit-Ready Plans Program creates an efficient pathway for the state to develop and make publicly accessible building plans that meet the requirements of the state building code. Plans are published to the BCD website. …The first plan published is a single-level, wood-framed, exterior deck attached to a building regulated by the Oregon Residential Specialty Code. BCD anticipates publishing more permit-ready plans for other residential accessory structures such as pole buildings, detached garages, patio covers, and carports later this year. The division will start developing plans for smaller detached dwelling units by the end of 2025.

Read More

Oregon’s timber industry: Lumbering back?

By Michael Dunne
Oregon on the Record
March 31, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Oregon State University

No industry in Oregon has suffered as much decline over the decades than timber. What was once THE key product in our state is not what it used to be. The fact that our new nicknames of Silicone Forest and Silicone Shire illustrate how tech is seen as our key industry now. Yet, technology may be a key factor in reviving our timber industry. On this edition of the show, you’ll hear from Iain Macdonald of the TallWood Design Institute and Tom DeLuca, Dean of the OSU College of Forestry about how technology in the form of Mass Timber is leading to a resurgence in the timber industry here in Oregon. Aimed to both collaborate and compete with steel and concrete, Mass Timber is a renewable resource that can build structures that are getting taller and more robust than once thought possible.

Read More

Forestry

Colorado’s tree-eating pine beetles are surging back after a prolonged dry spell

By Michael Booth
The Colorado Sun
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…a relatively wet 2023 for much of the state bolstered many trees against the spread of the mountain pine beetle, the separate spruce beetle and the spruce budworm. But a dry 2024 set the pests marching again by sapping forests of the water they need to stay healthy and fight off infestations, said Dan West, entomologist with Colorado State Forest Service. Colorado’s higher-altitude forests need several normal to wet seasons in a row to build up true resiliency, he said. One dry season meant Western spruce budworm affected 217,000 acres of state forests in 2024, up from 202,000 acres in 2023… Mountain pine beetle… grew to 5,600 acres of impact. The Douglas-fir beetle impacted 21,000 acres in 2024, its largest total damage in almost 10 years… Western balsam bark beetle …is still the … most widespread by acreage. The acres affected by the balsam bark beetle held steady at 27,000, but more of those trees die. 

Read More

Logging isn’t all bad, but Trump’s order to boost timber harvest is troubling

By Marek Warszawski
The Fresno Bee
April 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Logging is not necessarily a dirty word in the environmental dictionary. There, I said it. Provided sustainable practices are used, namely the careful choice over what trees get chopped down, logging can have a positive impact on the health of our forests as part of an effective management strategy that includes mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. Selective logging can also mitigate the risk and destructive power of wildfires. …This is my way of saying logging shouldn’t automatically be perceived as an environmental threat – despite what history tells us is the result when chainsaws and bulldozers are employed by the wrong hands. …Environmental groups reacted with outrage to Trump’s order, calling it a thinly veiled attempt to bypass environmental laws in order to justify widespread commercial logging under the false pretense that such actions will reduce wildfire risk.

Read More

‘Opportunity or crisis’: Washington State University professor joins call for caution in logging expansion

By Shawn Vestal
Washington State University Insider
April 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A Washington State University professor is one of a dozen researchers who signed an open letter noting that a proposed expansion of logging on federal lands may have some benefits — but that the firing of forestry experts and cuts in research could undermine that potential. The result, they say in the letter published Thursday at the website of the journal Science, could harm wildlife, increase wildfire risk and eliminate irreplaceable carbon stores in national forests. Austin Himes, an assistant professor in WSU’s School of the Environment, said that the idea of increasing domestic timber production and relying less on imports has promise. But focusing solely on speeding up the pace of logging risks other priorities that “evidence-based” forestry practices seek to balance. …the researchers said increased logging, if focused only on efficiently increasing timber production, could reduce the ability of forests to withstand growing threats from pests and wildfires.

Read More

Future foresters confront uncertainty

By Kelly Winter
The Utah Statesman
April 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Imagine you’re a college senior who just landed your dream job working for the U.S. Forest Service  — a career … fueled by a passion for the natural world and protecting our federal land. Then you receive an email terminating you. …A federal initiative to shrink the workforce affected the whole nation and directly impacted students on Utah State University’s campus. “Just seeing all these jobs go away and science being defunded — I guess I don’t really know what I’m doing with my life at the moment,” said Anna Hansen, sophomore in USU’s forest ecology and management program. …The Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State has several different majors. In years past, there were more forestry jobs than USU students to fill them… With the changes and terminations, the outlook for this year’s graduates could be very different and affect those still in college who are considering pursuing this career.

Read More

Trump’s ag boss declares 113M-acre logging ‘emergency.’ Will it keep Wyoming’s timber industry alive?

County 17 News
April 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

HULETT—Jim Neiman says that the best-case scenario for his family’s timber mill at the base of the Bear Lodge Mountains is that it doesn’t shutter. The Crook County sawmill in 2022 shrunk to one shift to survive hard economic times and a dearth of available timber. Three years later, there are what appear to be major industry tailwinds: a pro-logging presidential order, prospective tariff hikes on Canadian timber and now a U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary’s order declaring an “emergency” to stimulate logging on 112.6 million acres of national forest. The order covers nearly 60% of all national forest lands. Collectively, it stands to help, Neiman said. The timber sale approval process, which is run through the National Environmental Policy Act, is likely to go much faster. “The old process with NEPA could sometimes take a year and a half to five years,” he said. “This will speed that up to a few months.”

Read More

Trump proposed cutting the Northwest’s national forests. So what happens next?

By Lynda V. Mapes
The Seattle Times
April 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The federal government is readying to fire up more chain saws in the Northwest’s national forests. President Donald Trump’s executive order last month laid the groundwork for wholesale changes in national forest management. But just when and where more cutting could happen is up in the air. National forests are among the Northwest’s recreational jewels — the public lands that are available for camping and hiking offer more flexibility than national parks for bringing a dog, a horse, and motorized and mountain bike recreation on some shared-use trails. These forests also are logged for timber — and the administration wants to up the cut. Here at home, that means timber managers are under a directive to help contribute to a 25% increase in logging volume over the next several years.

Read More

California to invest $170 million in wildfire prevention

By Governor Gavin Newsom
Government of California
April 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

SACRAMENTO – Protecting communities ahead of peak fire season, Governor Gavin Newsom today took action to fast-track critical projects to ensure wildfire resiliency statewide. Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 100 (Gabriel), which allocates over $170 million in accelerated funding to conservancies for forest and vegetation management across California. The bill also allocates $10 million to support wildfire response and resiliency. …In addition, Governor Newsom signed an executive order to ensure that the wildfire safety projects funded under Assembly Bill 100 benefit from streamlining under a previous emergency proclamation issued in March. 

Read More

Trump’s order to expand US timber production includes all of California’s national forests

By Hayley Smith
The Los Angeles Times
April 5, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A federal order to increase US timber production by 25% will touch all 18 of the Golden’s State’s national forests, officials said. The USDA said it does not yet have information about how many acres in each forest will be affected. California’s national forests are on the chopping block — literally — in the wake of the Trump administration’s April 5 order to immediately expand timber production. Last week, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued an emergency declaration that ordered the US Forest Service to open up some 112.5 million acres of national forestland to logging. The announcement included a grainy map of affected forests, which did not specify forest names or the amount of impacted acreage in each. However, USDA officials have confirmed that the order will touch all 18 of the Golden State’s national forests, which collectively span more than 20 million acres. [to access the full story a Los Angeles Times subscription is required]

Read More

Judge Halts North Idaho Logging Project to Protect Grizzly Bear Habitat

By Eric Tegethoff
Northern Rockies News Service in The Daily Fly
April 11, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

BONNERS FERRY, ID – A federal district court has stopped a logging project in northern Idaho that would have carved more roads into the area and harmed the Selkirk grizzly population habitat. Only about 50 grizzlies live in the region. Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, which has been in litigation with the U.S. Forest Service over this issue for nearly six years, said the project would have resulted in more roads than is allowed under the agency’s rules. “The Forest Plan, which is their management plan that governs the forest, limits road density in Selkirk grizzly bear habitat,” he said, “because most grizzly bears are killed within a third of a mile of a road, and it’s usually a logging road.” The court decision found the government had been violating road construction limits for years. Court documents show the goal of the Hanna Flats Good Neighbor Authority Project was to reduce wildfire risk.

Read More

Experts dubious Trump logging push will diminish wildfire risk

By Greg Wong
The San Francisco Examiner
April 11, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

CALIFORNIA — State experts said they’re dubious about President Donald Trump’s claims that his directive opening up well over half of the country’s forests to logging will reduce wildfire risk and “save American lives.” Some, such as University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources climate-change scientist Daniel Swain, flatly called the administration’s rhetoric disingenuous and misleading. “It’s BS, frankly,” Swain told The Examiner. “Are we going to try and justify logging forests commercially under the guise of wildfire-risk reduction? …The Trump administration says the benefits of these actions are largely twofold: It will reinvigorate the economy by boosting a stagnant timber industry and significantly mitigate wildfires tearing through the West. …UC Berkeley wildfire researcher Scott Stephens said that logging can be a viable way to mitigate fire risk, as long as it’s done sustainably and arborists are strategic about what trees they’re chopping down.

Read More

Alberta spending $900K to upgrade wildfire monitoring as season begins

By Matthew Scace
The Canadian Press in Global News
April 10, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, US West

As Alberta heads into the heart of wildfire season, the province is committing almost $1 million to upgrade its early-warning systems. Forestry Minister Todd Loewen says $900,000 is being allocated to upgrade and expand its network of 150 weather stations. These stations monitor environmental conditions, like temperature, humidity, wind and moisture, in real time to help fire crews know where they will be needed when the weather gets hot and dry. The monitors will also be able to keep track of snowpack levels, which are strong indicators of Alberta’s fire risk early in the season. Alberta’s wildfire season has been slow off the mark, with 65 wildfires recorded so far compared with the 115 blazes that had started by this time last year. …Loewen said they are preparing as best they can for the inevitable.

Read More

Curtis joins bipartisan bill to reduce wildfire risks in the West after years of devastating blazes

By Alixel Cabrera
Utah News Dispatch
April 11, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Amid a growing number of wildfires, mostly across Western states, a U.S. Senate bill is aiming to protect areas where communities are most vulnerable to fires, using “good neighbor” agreements, cross-boundary collaboration and the expansion of tools to prevent fire hazards. The bill, titled the Fix Our Forests Act, was introduced Thursday by Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Tim Sheehy R-Mont., and Alex Padilla D-Calif. to “combat catastrophic wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient and responsive,” according to a news release. …The U.S. House version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., passed the House in January. The legislation designates the top 20% of the landscape areas where wildfires are likely to spread and impact communities, including tribal areas, as so-called Fireshed Management Areas. The areas would be selected based on factors including risks to communities and to municipal watersheds.

Los Angeles Times by Faith Pinho: California Sen. Padilla hopes Fix Our Forests Act will prevent more L.A. fires

Read More

Man pleads guilty to rig bidding fuel services to U.S. Forest Service wildfire fighters

NBC Montana
April 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A Salmon, Idaho man has pleaded guilty to a seven-count indictment for his role in schemes to rig bids, allocate territories, and commit wire fraud over an eight-year period while providing fuel truck services to the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire fighters. Kris Bird, 62, pleaded guilty at the end of March to all counts two weeks before trial, with no assurances from the government as to what sentence will be recommended when he goes before a judge with another involved executive in June 2025. The men were indicted after a federal wiretap investigation in December 2023… “The defendant illegally profited from American taxpayer money,” said Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed of the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. “The FBI and our partners are committed to rooting out fraud and protecting fair competition in the bidding for government contracts.”

Read More

Oregon wildfire map may be swapped for voluntary incentives

By Mateusz Perkowski
Capital Press
April 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A contentious Oregon wildfire map that imposed new regulations on high-risk landowners may be swapped for incentives meant to promote home hardening and defensible space. The Senate Natural Resources Committee has unanimously voted to scrap the state’s wildfire hazard map, originally approved in 2021, as well as the enhanced building code standards and other requirements it entailed. Repealing the wildfire map involved a “difficult conversation” but it’s proven necessary, not only because the provisions were deeply unpopular but because they were impractical, said Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, the committee’s chair. Senate Bill 83, which is now headed for a vote on the Senate floor, would eliminate the map and instead allow local governments to adopt model building codes intended to increase fire resilience.

Related content:

Read More

What Trump’s “emergency” logging declaration could mean for Colorado’s U.S. Forest land

By Tracy Ross
The Colorado Sun
April 10, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Environmental groups are sounding the alarm after the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared more than 100 million acres of national forest land “an emergency situation” that can only be helped with chain saws, wood chippers and the bigger, more destructive tools of industrial logging.  But an attorney specializing in environmental litigation and a longtime forester and policy analyst both say contrary to how bad the memo from USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins may sound, its contents could be a shot in the arm the U.S. needs to ramp up its response to the growing wildfire crisis and continue much-needed work on forest health and restoration where mill infrastructure exists… Trump’s executive order says the U.S.’ inability to “fully exploit” its timber supply has, among other things, contributed to wildfire disasters.

Related content:

Read More

‘Ill-advised and unwise’: Critics question plan to open California forests to major logging

By Janet Wilson
Palm Springs Desert Sun
April 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Gary Earney

The USDA’s order for the U.S. Forest Service to increase lumber production by 25% is being panned as both unwise and infeasible in Southern California’s sprawling national forests due to a lack of quality wood and nearby sawmills. But those four forests were heavily logged from World War I through the Korean War for soldier barracks and equipment needs, and then to support rapidly growing post-war housing markets, said Gary Earney, who managed timber sales and other multiple use permits for the San Bernardino National Forest from 1978 through 2007, and was a consultant to the forest through 2014. …A public lands advocate said via her action, Rollins is decreeing the agency only needs to propose one action for a given logging project, not the typically legally required range offering less and more environmentally harmful options, and also eliminates the public objection process.

Read More

Bark beetles killing more trees along the front range, according to a Colorado State Forest Services report

By Ashley Michels
KDVR.com
April 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The latest findings about the health of Colorado’s forests are a “mixed bag”, according to forestry experts. On Tuesday, the Colorado State Forest Service released its annual report tracking the damage from forest pests. “Insects are so closely tied to a lot of that temperature and precipitation so in Colorado it’s really been a number of years, actually 31 years, since we’ve been below average temperatures so that makes it really hard to be a tree in Colorado,” CSFS forest entomologist Dr. Dan West said. …According to the report, the front range is experiencing a surge in activity from the mountain pine beetle. In 2021, the insect impacted 1,500 acres statewide. In 2024, that number grew to 5,600 affected acres and included areas in Jefferson County and Castle Rock. …Not only do the dead trees cause forests to be less visually attractive, but they also create more fuel for more damaging wildfires.

Read More

Bill to eliminate controversial Oregon wildfire risk map moves forward

By Zach Urness
Statesman Journal
April 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

An Oregon bill that would eliminate a controversial wildfire hazard map moved one step closer to reality on Tuesday after unanimously passing the Senate Committee on Natural Resources. Senate Bill 83 would repeal a map meant to identify parts of Oregon at high risk of catastrophic wildfires but has become a lightning rod for anger from rural residents who say it places an unfair burden on them. The bill moves to the Senate floor for a vote by the chamber. It would need to pass the House and be signed by the governor before becoming law. Most lawmakers say it’s likely to pass all of those hurdles. …The map was roundly condemned by impacted residents who said it was inaccurate, decreased property values and imposed burdensome regulations. Republicans who made killing the map a priority this session celebrated the progress.

Read More

Forest management company buys 68,000 acres on North Olympic Peninsula

By Emma Maple
Peninsula Daily News
April 5, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Bettina von Hagen

PORT ANGELES — EFM, a forest investment and management firm based in Portland, Ore., has purchased 68,000 acres on the North Olympic Peninsula with plans of managing the forests through climate-smart practices. These coastal temperate rainforest acres were purchased for more than $200 million under the newly established entity Olympic Rainforest LLC, according to a press release. …The land was purchased from Rayonier, Inc, a timberland real estate investment trust which had owned the land for more than 80 years and used it for timber production, according to EFM CEO Bettina von Hagen. With its management strategy, EFM will prioritize sustainable forest management, landscape conservation, enhanced biodiversity, cultural significance and public recreation. …In addition to the management techniques, part of the company’s FSC-certified approach includes using diverse revenue streams from forests such as carbon credits and conservation easements, as well as traditional forest products, according to a press release.

Read More

Timber groups urge revamp of Northwest Forest Plan following Pres. Trump’s push for more logging

By Rigo Aguilera
KCBY News 11
April 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

ROSEBURG, Ore. — Timber organizations are calling for action on the Northwest Forest Plan after President Donald Trump issued an executive order for the immediate expansion of American lumber production. This comes as the U.S. Forest Service considers an amendment to the plan that aims to address fire resilience, economic opportunities, and updated guidance on conserving old growth, with a public comment period that ended in March. Following the executive order from the president, Douglas Timber Operators, a local forest products organization, issued a letter to the U.S. Forest Service calling for a full revision of the Northwest Forest Plan that was initially written in 1994. …According to the U.S. Forest Service, the forest plan covers 24.5 million acres of federally-managed lands found in western Oregon, Washington, and northwestern California. According to DTO’s letter, the plan provided an annual allowable sale quantity of 78 million board feet that has never been met on the Umpqua National Forest…

Read More

A notorious, tree-chewing pest could be making a comeback in Colorado

By Sam Brasch
CPR News
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

An insect known for turning entire mountainsides the color of rust could be making a resurgence in Colorado.  The pest is none other than the mountain pine beetle. After a roughly decade-long period of relatively lower populations, the bugs are rebuilding their numbers along the Front Range and in southwest Colorado, according to an annual forest health report published by the Colorado State Forest Service in late March. “I’m a little concerned moving in this summer because we really haven’t had any precipitation,” said Dan West, the forest entomologist for the Colorado State Forest Service. “I’m worried bark beetles are going to increase their populations in these drought-stricken trees.” Few bugs have had a more visible impact on forests across the western U.S.

Read More

Logging company fined $16K for ‘Yellow Lake Fire’

By MI Jewkes
ABC4
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service has imposed the maximum penalty of $16,000 on the logging company it holds responsible for starting last autumn’s Yellow Lake Fire. The penalty comes after a three-month-long investigation conducted by fire investigators with the U.S. Forest Service. At about 11 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2024, the only person on shift at the Duchesne Ridge Fuelwood Sale Site in the Uinta Mountains left for the day. Just over four hours later, dispatch received the first report of smoke in the area. According to the report, the fire was most likely started by friction from the logging company’s equipment. Despite having officials on the scene early, the fire grew to 150 acres overnight. The fire eventually became Utah’s largest wildfire in 2024, growing to over 33,000 acres.

Read More

Wildfires in California are threatening the world’s oldest trees

By Jeanine Santucci
USA Today
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Firefighters in central California were working Tuesday to contain a wildfire near the Nevada border threatening a forest home to the oldest trees in the world, after making good progress on Monday, officials said. The Silver Fire broke out Sunday near Bishop, California, in Inyo County and has burned ‎1,589 acres. It was 50% contained as of Tuesday morning. “The fire still threatens structures, critical infrastructure, watersheds, endangered species, and cultural resources,” the Cal Fire San Bernardino Unit said in a post to social media on Tuesday. Less than 15 miles from the fire, the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest contains trees that are more than 4,000 years old. The Patriarch Tree is the world’s largest bristlecone pine tree.

Read More

Oregon conservationists celebrate legal victory against BLM’s old-growth logging

Assoicated Press in KPIC
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

EUGENE, Ore. — Conservation groups across Oregon have won a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management’s logging plans. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that the BLM had illegally authorized the logging of old-growth forest lands within protected areas called late successional reserves. Those are reserves specifically created to protect old-growth forest ecosystems. The court pointed out that logging in these reserves would increase fire hazards and harm nearby habitats. The Cascadia Wildlands Group, alongside other conservation groups, add that they’re hoping to get BLM forest managers on board with fire resiliency projects and fire fuel reduction rather than further timber sales.

Read More

Meet the Coloradans Working To Save the West’s Wildfire-Ravaged Forests

By Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan
5280 | The Denver Magazine
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

There are a number of ecological incentives for keeping the West forested. Trees stabilize soil, preventing flooding and landslides. They keep sediment out of rivers and streams, protecting aquatic habitats and drinking water. Forests help preserve mountain snowpack, replenishing groundwater reserves. They provide a home for wildlife, from bugs and birds to elk and black bears. And trees sequester carbon, a crucial tool in the fight against climate change. Beyond science, though, the desire to preserve forests feels deeply personal. “Forests are like Colorado’s DNA,” says Catherine Schloegel, watershed forest manager for the Colorado branch of the national nonprofit the Nature Conservancy. “We love to hike in them, bike in them, ski through the trees. They’re a huge reason why we live here. The legacy of Colorado is our forests.”

Read More

Controversial logging bill makes it through Oregon committee

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
March 31, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Lawmakers have moved forward a controversial logging bill that could open the state up to lawsuits if Oregon doesn’t log enough timber in a given year. Representatives in the House Committee on Natural Resources unanimously advanced House Bill 3103 early Monday. The bill would allow counties and the timber industry to sue the state forester if Oregon logs less than the Department of Forestry forecasts in its once-a-decade estimates. There are exceptions if a large mass of trees are destroyed by wildfires, diseases or storms… Every decade, the Oregon Department of Forestry estimates how much timber it could log from state land for the next 10 years. Timber industry representatives and county officials say the department tends to over-promise and under deliver, making it difficult for them to plan ahead.

Read More

Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

New University of Wyoming Scientist Helps Show That Responsible Logging Can Help Eastern Forests

University of Wyoming
April 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Dr. Sarah Germain

Responsible harvesting and other small disturbances can help make forests in the eastern United States more resilient to climate change, according to research by a new University of Wyoming faculty member… Forests of the eastern United States are important carbon storehouses. They remove carbon emissions from the air, packing them away into leaves, trunks, roots and soils. Eastern forests are responsible for 85 percent of all of the carbon taken up by U.S. forests. And the forests support biodiversity, timber products and other ecosystem services at the same time. But Eastern trees are becoming increasingly stressed by warming temperatures, which can slow their growth and reproduction. “It was comforting to learn that Eastern forests, which hold the most carbon in the U.S., are actually doing OK,” Germain says. “With moderate, status quo levels of disturbance, Eastern forests have the capacity to remain an important carbon sink.”

Read More

Health & Safety

Three burn parameters can make prescribed forest fires burn safer and cleaner

By Farah Aziz Annesha, Stanford University
Phys.Org
April 15, 2025
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

Prescribed burns literally fight fire with more fire. Often referred to as “beneficial fires,” they target areas at risk for wildfires and burn away material that could otherwise fuel a future blaze. However, all fires, whether accidental or planned, produce smoke that can cause health and respiratory issues, especially in nearby communities. Burning fires release harmful chemicals, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), that are carcinogenic—PAHs can cause cancer, lung damage, and lead to weakened immunity in those who inhale smoke. Recently, in a study published in Atmospheric Pollution Research, scientists at Stanford University suggested ways to perform prescribed burns with drastically reduced health implications. They’ve determined that simply tweaking some of the burn conditions can slash PAH emissions by up to 77%. The researchers estimate that this could cut cancer risks from smoke exposure by over 50%.

Read More

Forest History & Archives

Beloved historic landmarks navigate an uncertain future after the Los Angeles fires

By Chloe Veltman
WBHM (Public Radio Alabama)
March 31, 2025
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: United States, US West

The former home of one of the world’s most famous western novelists, Zane Grey, was a Mediterranean Revival house designed with high, wood-beamed ceilings and airy balconies. “It had almost a cathedral vibe when you walked in,” said Nathaniel Grouille on a recent visit to the site.  Grouille is now facing a big question: How to rebuild the site in a way that preserves Grey’s legacy while protecting it from the inevitable future fires and other disasters resulting from the impacts of human-caused climate change? Returning the property to what it was in Zane Grey’s day isn’t on the agenda. “This structure was incredibly unique, using really high quality old-growth wood and products that just don’t exist today,” Grouille said… Conservation experts are familiar with this tension. “How can we ensure that we can adapt the historic materials without losing the power these places have?” said Seri Worden, senior director with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Read More