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This week, the U.S. Forest Service directed its employees in California to stop prescribed burning “for the foreseeable future,” a directive that officials said is meant to preserve staff and equipment to fight wildfires if needed. The pause comes amid the crucial fall window for planned, controlled burns, which remove fuel and can protect homes from future wildfires — raising concerns that the move will increase long-term fire risks. “There are two times in the year when it’s safe to do prescribed fire: in the fall right before the rains come, and in the spring when things are dry enough to burn but not dry enough to burn it in a dangerous way,” said Michael Wara, energy and climate expert at Stanford University. He worries half of the prescribed fire season on federal lands will be sacrificed because of this decision.

With broad public support and the endorsement of Gov. Greg Gianforte, the Montana Land Board’s 3-2 vote gave conditional approval to a nearly 33,000-acre conservation easement on working forests between Kalispell and Libby. …The tentative approval is on the condition that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and its partners amend the terms of the easement to expressly guarantee a third-party owner’s subsurface mineral rights. As the board considered the project’s first phase, which would protect 32,981 acres in the Salish and Cabinet mountains, proponents described it as the culmination of a years-long effort by FWP, the nonprofit Trust for Public Land and landowner Green Diamond Resource Company. Despite the succession of private ownership, the land has been managed for de facto public access for more than a quarter century, in large part because the timber companies have been invested in long-term forest management.

Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands runs the state Department of Natural Resources. The agency is responsible for managing nearly 6 million acres of public lands. …Nearly half of those acres are trust lands, that by state mandate must produce revenue to support schools and other services in rural counties, primarily through logging. A crowded primary in an open race for the position ended in a recount. Democrat Dave Upthegrove squeaked through with 49 votes and is facing off against Republican Jamie Herrera Beutler. He’s the chair of the King County Council; she’s a former congresswoman from Southwest Washington. Their contest is shaping up to be a clash over forest management styles — and how to best use that resource in the face of climate change. At stake in this race are three main things: the health of Washington’s timber industry, the next generation of its old growth forests, and how much DNR revenue flows to rural communities.