The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire (TNC) announced today that it has been awarded $10 million from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to administer a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to support Climate Resilient Forest Management in New Hampshire and Western Maine. This significant funding, matched by approximately $1 million in partner contributions, will support efforts to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change through innovative forest management practices. The project will build on the successful Climate Resilient Forest Management (CRFM) project that has been led by TNC, the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, and the University of Vermont since 2022… In all, The Nature Conservancy is receiving $102.5 million for conservation projects across six states.

The U.S. Forest Service has issued a nationwide hiring freeze on all non-fire seasonal employees, a decision that could have ripple effects across Colorado mountain communities, where vast swathes of land are national forests… Council member Jay Beckerman described the impact of the Forest Service’s hiring freeze this way — “We’re going to be leaning on our staff, we’re going to be leaning on volunteer organizations to do some of the work that was previously done by seasonal summer staff for the Forest Service.”.. U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced that the federal agency wouldn’t be hiring any seasonal workers, other than seasonal firefighting positions, in fiscal year 2025. “We’re going to do what we can with what we have. We’re not going to try to do everything that is expected of us with less people.”

Debra Lekanoff

…Healthy forests, of which old growth is an important component, provide many benefits to people and nature, including: providing sources of clean drinking water; mitigating the impacts of severe weather events such as wildfire, floods, and drought; sequestering carbon from the atmosphere; providing wildlife habitat; and, generating revenue for local economies through sustainable forestry, tourism, and recreation opportunities. Today, primarily due to a history of aggressive timber harvest, old-growth forests only account for about 17% of forested lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. …While logging is no longer the primary cause of old-growth forest loss, new challenges such as climate change combined with a century of fire suppression are increasingly putting our remaining old growth at risk. Forests in Washington state and beyond need to account for threats such as ongoing and elevated severe wildfires.

CARSON CITY, Nev. – Drivers heading up or down Highway 50 into Carson City will see logs piled to the south. The 40 acres where those logs reside is the location of Tahoe Forest Products, the first new industrial-scale sawmill in the Sierra Nevada in several decades. “The question of why get into the sawmill business,” company chairman Kevin Leary says, “when most of the industry is losing money is a very good one.” …Leary explains after fires like Caldor, Tamarack and others that have burned millions of acres in California, it’s ignited a political and public push to get a handle on the unhealthy and overstocked forests that have lead up to this mega-fire crisis. …Lisa Herron with the USDA Forest Service-Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, explains prior to Tahoe Forest Products, the closest mills were located far enough away from the Tahoe basin to make transporting logs cost prohibitive.

In response to recent proposals for how to manage 250,000 acres in the Madison and Gallatin mountain ranges, the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance introduced its own wildlife-focused legislation Thursday night at the Museum of the Rockies. If their plan succeeds, the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Act would designate all 250,000 roadless acres in the Gallatins as federally protected wilderness, restricting nearly all commercial activities, roads, structures, motor vehicles and mechanical transport. …While no members of Montana’s current congressional delegation have stepped up to spearhead the bill, if passed, it would designate 124,000 acres of new wilderness in the Madison and Gallatin ranges, create the 102,000-acre Gallatin Wilderness Area and add 22,000 acres to the Lee Metcalf Wilderness. The act would prohibit new roads, trails, and motorized or mechanized use in these areas while also legalizing historic non-wilderness uses in parts of the current Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area by removing its status but still allowing for future wilderness consideration.