OREGON — Significant efforts are underway across coastal privately-owned forestlands due to changes in the Private Forest Accord (PFA) of 2022.  Forest managers bear the responsibility for not only trees, but also roads, bridges, and streams. …Forest engineers start researching and designing harvest plans two years before a scheduled harvest. Foresters traverse the terrain, identify water resources, steep gradients, soil conditions, and habitat characteristics. Collaboration with wildlife biologists, hydrologists, and other specialists is commonplace in formulating these plans. …The Private Forest Accord (PFA) of 2022 announced updates to existing forest practices, including rules that related to the construction and maintenance of forest roads. Although professional foresters and logging crews are accustomed to regulation and meticulous harvest prescriptions, the revisions brought about by the PFA introduce a more intricate framework with set timelines for implementation.

Montana met its forest management goals for the third consecutive year. State officials say they increased the amount of thinning, timber harvests, prescribed burns and restoration projects on forests by 16% over 2022 levels. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation last year placed over 36,000 acres under active forest management. Gov. Greg Gianforte celebrated the work Tuesday in a tree nursery at DNRC regional headquarters in Missoula. “This accomplishment would not have been possible without our strong partnerships with local communities, federal agencies and tribal nations,” Gianforte says. Gianforte says that work reduces wildfire risk, improves forest health and is good for business.

WALNUT CREEK, California — At the one-year anniversary of CSAA Insurance Group’s announcement of a $25M investment in the California Wildfire Innovation Fund, several notable initiatives supported by the fund are underway to realize the stated goals of climate resilience and economic growth: Heartwood Biomass: The new facility in Tuolumne County will convert forest restoration byproducts, a potential wildfire fuel, into firewood bundles, wood chips and agricultural posts – reducing dependence on nonrenewable resources and stimulating the local economy through sustainable forestry practices AND Tahoe Forest Products: TFP supports regional hazardous fuels reduction goals by providing a sustainable outlet for timber sourced from local restoration projects as well as salvaged from wildfire-affected areas. As the first significant sawmill in the Sierra Nevada in several decades, it will provide employment opportunities for dozens of local citizens and Tribal members.

More than $8 million will be used to plant trees in communities across Washington as the Washington State Department of Natural Resources announced the 45 recipients of the agency’s largest Urban and Community Forestry Grant Program ever. The record-shattering dollar amount is 14 times bigger than the previous single-year record of $550,000 and is nearly three times the total grants awarded by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for urban and community forestry projects since 2008. “Access to clean air, shade, and green spaces should be a basic human right, but the fact is that throughout our state, lower-income communities and communities of color more often live in neighborhoods with more concrete and asphalt, and too few trees,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz. “We need to bring the same urgency we brought to our wildfire crisis to our efforts to ensure everyone lives in neighborhoods with adequate tree canopy.”