The constantly changing forest and trade policies happening right now in the United States are causing much expense and frustration for the B.C. forest sector. Consequently, a sudden infusion of common sense from south of the border raises eyebrows. And possibilities for here at home. The U.S. Forest Service and the state of Montana have set the groundwork for a long term agreement to allow timber harvested within three sustained yield units in the central state to remain there for processing into wood products. …What the Montana foresters are talking about is returning the magic word of “stability” to the B.C. forest industry’s lexicon. Stability and predictability tied to the anchor of a renewable … would invite sorely needed investment potential into B.C.’s forest sector. …Little is more infuriating for local loggers and sawmill operators [than to see] harvested logs leave for distant mills for processing.

EASTERN OREGON – The American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) and Associated Oregon Loggers (AOL) are urging the U.S. Forest Service to adopt a Blue Mountain Forest Plan that will improve and increase active management across the 4.9 million acres that comprise the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, and Malheur national forests. In separate comments submitted for the plan’s draft environmental impact statement, both groups said the plans should improve active management using local professional land managers and giving them the flexibility needed to respond to unhealthy forest conditions that increase the risks of severe wildfire. “Eastern Oregon is losing too many forested acres to severe wildfire, insects and disease, and we need forest plans that allow the forest service to mitigate those threats,” AFRC Director of Forest Policy and Monitoring Andy Geissler stated. 

Washington Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove is dialing back his goal to protect 77,000 acres of older state forests from timber harvest even as he asks lawmakers to give him more tools to do so. On Sept. 24, the first-term commissioner dropped the figure to 55,000 acres, blaming the reduction in part on mapping errors. While those forests are now exempt from logging through 2030, Upthegrove is banking on the state Legislature granting his Department of Natural Resources broader authority in how it generates revenue from its management of state lands so that those acres do not eventually end up in a timber sale. …Land management is only one concern of Upthegrove’s. Another is the agency’s internal budget problems. A key account that funds forestry work was on track to go negative by midsummer. The agency deferred work on some lands to keep the account positive, according to agency officials.

©Mael Glon/USFWS

The push to kill one kind of owl to save another has reached Oregon’s Elliott State Research Forest. Beginning Thursday, contractors will begin shooting invasive barred owls inside the 83,000-acre state-owned territory, in an effort to protect northern spotted owl populations. The state hired them to kill up to 350 barred owls over the next year as part of a bigger effort led by the federal government, according to Amy Price, research biologist at the Elliott state forest. “We are using the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s management strategy,” she said. “We could have come up with our own strategy, but we chose to follow them, because the science has already been done.” That federal agency has authorized the killing of almost half a million invasive barred owls across Oregon, Washington and California — and has an unlikely array of allies and opponents. 

Related coverage in The Northcoast Environmental Center: Future of a New Resident: Barred Owls