ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — The Orange County Fire Authority and U.S. Forest Service are battling over accusations that USFS policies grounded an elite aerial unit during major fires and left the Cleveland National Forest susceptible to the recent Airport blaze that torched 23,526 acres. Southern California congressional members want answers from Forest Service officials. One point of contention involves the Southern California-based Quick Reaction Force, a squad of night-flying, converted military helicopters that can drop 3,000 gallons of water and fire retardant. The force’s operators, led by Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy, allege the USFS at times grounded the team during one of the busiest fire seasons in recent history. …The crux of the issue: for the last four years, U.S. Forest Service policy has required that all aerial supervisors …must be government employees … they must work for a government agency. This policy applies only to fires in national wildlands or using USFS resources.

Fire has always played a significant role in Pacific Northwest forests. Fire in the Cascades, historically sparked by lightning strikes, led to a natural succession that cleared debris on the forest floor, eliminated old and weaker individual trees, provided room for new plant growth, and, in the case of ponderosa pines, induced germination. …Yet today, due to several factors, the historical “fire season” has been replaced with the “fire year.” “Climate change has had a dramatic impact on the forest,” says George Geissler, deputy supervisor over Fire Management at the Department of Natural Resources. …As Washington state’s forester, Geissler is charged with maintaining healthy forests across the state. He says the region’s diverse environments require specific management techniques, noting that the dry eastern foothills of the Cascades are significantly different from the “almost tropical” forests of the Olympic Peninsula.

DARRINGTON, Washington – Locals are being tapped to collect pine cones in an effort to store seeds to re-grow forests before wildfires destroy natural seed banks in the Pacific Northwest. This fall, cone collectors hit mountainous locations in search of fresh pine cones around Darrington. …Collecting cones for cash is hardly new, though, there is more attention on the work than ever before as concerns grow with larger, more destructive wildfires along the West Coast. In Darrington, a non-profit called Glacier Peak Institute acts as the middleman between Mast Reforestation and Silvaseed, the end-users of the seeds being collected today. …Kea Woodruff, Silvaseed’s general manager, “Under whatever future scenarios happen in the landscape, we had the seed we’re collecting that captures all that range of diversity so we can put trees back into the landscape in the future.”

In March 1989, environmental activists from Earth First! chained themselves to trees and buried themselves under rocks, unsuccessfully preventing the North Roaring Devil timber sale in Breintenbush Hot Springs, Oregon. Dubbed the “Easter Massacre,” it ignited the Timber Wars, a years-long slew of protests, academic disputes and legal battles fixated on protecting mature, old-growth forests and the endangered northern spotted owl, ultimately culminating in the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Passed in 1994, the NWFP is a land management strategy that governs more than 24 million acres of federal forests across Oregon, Washington and Northern California — balancing conservation and ecological resilience with a logging economy that many small, rural communities depend on. Now, it’s getting amended, and much has changed over the past three decades. …The USFS intends to release its draft plan on Nov. 6. While the agency isn’t required to adopt any of the FAC’s recommendations, incorporating just some may reshape how the Northwest’s forests are managed.