Two leading senators last week called upon the U.S. Forest Service and Department of the Interior to step up their game to improve the condition of the nation’s forests and address wildfire problems. But a spokesperson for the Forest Service thanked them for what he called a “down payment” on a 10-year plan and also described work currently underway to reduce the threat of high intensity wildfire in Giant Sequoia groves within Giant Sequoia National Monument. Chairman Joe Manchin III and Ranking Member John Barrasso are co-sponsors of S. 4904, the “Promoting Effective Forest Management Act of 2022,” which they tout as holding the two public lands management agencies accountable. Their remarks came during a Sept. 29 hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at which not just their bill but S. 4833 — the Senate version of the “Save Our Sequoias Act”— and ten other bills dealing with forest and wildfire issues were the subject.

In a major new study, a team of scientists has published what it calls the first-ever, map-based assessment of existing mature and old-growth forests in the continental United States. Such forests are critical to fighting climate change and data like this is deemed vital to President Biden’s climate action agenda.But the new research also shows how much mature forests on both federal and private lands in the U.S. are seriously at risk — offering a conservation opportunity to the Biden administration. The peer-reviewed study, published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, found that older forests — estimated to be 80 years old or older — make up about 167 million acres, or 36%, of all forests in the contiguous 48 states. …The research noted that even though U.S. national parks are fully protected from logging, just 24% of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management forests are similarly protected, with the rest being at various levels of risk. 

GEORGETOWN, Calif. — This patch of woodland in the northern Sierra Nevada looks idyllic. Dappled sunlight filters through the lush branches of towering pines. Spaces between their slender trunks are thick with saplings.  But forest ecologist Robert York sees danger lurking in this portion of the UC Berkeley research forest. …It is now teeming with young cedars and firs — conifer species that tolerate crowded and shady conditions, but are more vulnerable to fire and drought.  Pockets of dead pines are forming as trees compete for water, weakening their resistance to pathogens and bark beetles.  “We have different metrics for describing why the fire hazard is high here,” York said. “But basically the gist is: There’s a lot of fuel on the ground and there’s a lot of trees here.”  Most of California’s forests — especially the 57% managed by the federal government — look somewhat like this, said Berkeley Forests co-director Scott Stephens.

A federal judge has blocked two sets of timber sales in Southern Oregon over concerns they would damage threatened northern spotted owl habitat and the rare birds’ ability to find new homes in old-growth forests. Friday’s ruling put on hold two Bureau of Land Management logging sales that include the so-called Big Windy timber sales in an area of BLM land between Grants Pass and Glendale. Conservation groups have pegged the Big Windy area near Sexton Mountain as one of the largest and “worst” old-growth sales in the country because of the areas’ old trees and their carbon-sequestering abilities amid climate change, according to the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, one of the plaintiffs in the case. Conservation groups hope Friday’s ruling will steer BLM away from targeting timber cutting on remaining old-growth stands in its charge, especially areas damaged by wildfire or home to rare northern spotted owls.