May 9, 2024 HFHC News Round Up
Community project finds bird populations resilient amid forest thinning and prescribed fire (KUNM)
Across the West, forest managers are trying to combat the increased risk of forest fire, with overgrown forests and a warming climate. Some conservationists object to thinning and prescribed fire because of the impact on bird species, but a recent community monitoring project found some evidence that bird populations can be resilient. For five years, community volunteers from an Audubon Society chapter in Pagosa Springs, southern Colorado, monitored bird communities in a number of sites in forests dominated by ponderosa pine. During a webinar presenting the results on May 7, Keith Bruno, a community naturalist, said prescribed fire and thinning initially had a big impact on birds. “Immediately we saw lower numbers in any of those ground brush foraging species,” he said. “And any of the species that were nesting close to the ground, certainly. So we have seen deleterious effects right off the bat.” However, as some trees regrew, like Gambel oaks that are home to insects, bird populations started to bounce back.
Producing opportunity: New sawmill opens in the Sierra Nevadas (USDA Forest Service)
A sawmill — filled with rotating disks of jagged, cutting knives — may seem at odds with forest health. But those familiar with land management will tell you it’s part of the solution. A newly opened sawmill in Carson City, Nevada, will soon provide the means to support healthy forests, post-fire recovery efforts, and the local economy. “The truth is, the forest, it needs our help,” said Serrell Smokey, Tribal chairman for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California, at the Tahoe Forest Products sawmill opening Dec. 18, 2023, “Our people have intervened in these areas since the beginning of time, because otherwise, if we don’t take care of it, it will take care of itself.”
Four questions for three community members six days before Pyramid’s buyer deadline (Seeley Pathfinder)
The announced closure of Pyramid Mountain Lumber on March 14 sent shock waves through Seeley Lake that extended throughout the state and various levels of government. Concern for forest health, Montana’s timber industry and Seeley Lake’s economy and longevity were top of mind. Statements came out from Montana representatives at the federal level to local county commissioners, and solutions — from worker-owned cooperatives to private buyers to a tool launched by the state Department of Labor and Industry to help match laid-off timber workers to jobs with similar skills — began to percolate. Pyramid’s current owners have put a deadline of May 15 as the last call for buyers. The Pathfinder reached out to a few folks in the Seeley Lake community to check in and pose the same four questions to each person — what’s been surprising since the closure was announced, what defines Seeley Lake, how would the community change without the mill and what would their magic wand bring to town — about a week before that deadline.
ACWA Presents Leadership Award to Placer County Water Agency General Manager Andy Fecko (Street Insider)
The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented its 2024 Excellence in Water Leadership Award to Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) General Manager Andy Fecko for his leadership and commitment to water resource issues, especially in reducing fuel load in our National Forest system lands. At PCWA, Fecko manages several billion dollars of infrastructure that must be operational at all times, including during and after wildfires that have become more common and destructive in the past decade. In response to the devastating Kings Fire in 2014, Fecko led the region’s creation of the French Meadows Forest Restoration Project – a public/private forest health partnership. The project consists of 30,000 acres of ecological thinning within the Tahoe National Forest. This is a first-of-its-kind project that established the formula for success in California forest management, which is based on collaboration.
Too many trees in northern Arizona have created a higher fire risk (AZ Family)
Wildfires in Coconino County have cost local communities homes, hundreds of millions of dollars, and an entire mountainside worth of forest. Now, teams are trying to reduce fire risk by restoring the forests to a healthy level. Jay Smith, Coconino County forest restoration director, said while the forest looks lush and green, that’s not exactly what they want. “It looks very green,” Smith said. “We’re not very healthy right now. We have too many trees. We talked about a tree epidemic.” Coconino County is home to the largest ponderosa pine forest in the world. However, Smith said the trees that make up these forests are also what’s choking it out. “The photographs and the evidence that there was anywhere from 20 to 50 trees per acre out here and were now sitting at 2,000 trees per acre,” he said.
Critics of U.S. Forest Service plan join forces (Lewiston Tribune)
Environmental and other groups and interested individuals who have filed objections or comments about the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests Land Management Plan began meeting virtually this week with agency officials to air their concerns. The U.S. Forest Service plan guides land management decisions on the combined forests and is aimed at providing for social and economic needs while sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of the 4 million-acre forests for future generations, Forest Supervisor Cheryl Probert has said. The plan is more than a decade in the making and updates the management direction adopted 36 years ago.
Golden, Collins introduce bipartisan legislation to support loggers harmed by natural disasters (Collins Press)
Congressman Jared Golden and Senator Susan Collins today introduced the bicameral, bipartisan Loggers Economic Assistance and Relief Act, which would establish a new U.S. Department of Agriculture program to support loggers who have lost income due to natural disasters. Congressman Pete Stauber (MN-08) is the lead co-sponsor in the House. Senator Angus King (I-ME) and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01) are cosponsors of the legislation. Current law excludes loggers from the kinds of disaster relief and assistance available to other industries, including fishermen and farmers, when natural disasters strike. Under the Loggers Economic Assistance and Relief Act, a disaster declaration from the president or respective governor would unlock federal assistance eligibility for logging businesses with at least a 10 percent loss in revenue or volume compared to the prior year. Covered damage would include high winds, fire, flooding, insect infestation and drought.
Forest Service to change firefighting protocol following Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire (KOB)
The U.S. Forest Service is changing some of its protocol when it comes to prescribed burns. It comes after the largest and most destructive fire in New Mexico history: Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak. “We can utilize drones, we can utilize really platforms, so fixed wing our aircraft from a much higher elevation. But also we can use the Palm IR where we may have an individual out on a prescribed burn where they’re utilizing a phone, the technology from a phone or a specific Palm Pilot from the infrared capabilities to detect the heat,” said Jacob Nuttall, a regional fire director with the U.S. Forest Service.
How to Recover Endangered Species – Or Not (Greg Walcher)
It is impossible to overstate – or even understand – how hard it is for USFWS to wrap its mind around the concept of reintroducing endangered species. For 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has been the most powerful tool in the federal arsenal for controlling land and water in America. That’s why 2,368 species have been put on the endangered list, and only about 26 recovered. The idea of recovering species and removing them from the endangered list is foreign to the process, history, and culture of the USFWS. That is despite many private and state examples of successful reintroductions. Colorado raised hundreds of thousands of Colorado River endangered fish, for example, and even the USFWS now says 2 of the 4 listed fish are “no longer in danger of extinction” (they are still listed nevertheless, because de-listing is as foreign a concept as recovery). For years the agency adamantly opposed raising endangered fish in hatcheries, even threatening legal action to stop Colorado from doing so, but success is hard to argue. Even students and teachers at Palisade High School know it can be done. They have their own hatchery and have restored nearly 1,000 razorback suckers to the river in three years.
Conservation groups file third lawsuit in recent months against U.S. Forest Service (WUNC)
Conservation groups argue flaws in the 2023 Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan will put endangered forest bats at risk, according to a recent lawsuit filed against the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests in western North Carolina provide habitat for four critically endangered bats: the northern long-eared bat, the Indiana bat, the Virginia big-eared bat, and the gray bat. The lawsuit argues that the Forest Service consulted with Fish and Wildlife Services because these bats were likely to be impacted by the Forest Plan. But that consultation was flawed and in violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to the suit. “The Endangered Species Act required the Forest Service to supply [USFWS] with the best scientific data available to inform the consultation. Instead, the Forest Service gave [USFWS] information it knew was inaccurate and incomplete,” “according to the lawsuit.
House Republicans demand ’30 by 30′ spending docs (E&E News)
House Republicans are pressing the White House for spending and budget information associated with President Joe Biden’s sweeping “America the Beautiful” initiative. Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who chairs the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, want detailed information on a grants program associated with the initiative, which aims to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. In a letter sent Tuesday to Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory, the lawmakers target the “America the Beautiful Challenge,” which is managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The program consolidates funding for “large-scale” conservation and restoration projects “from multiple federal agencies and the private sector,” according to the foundation’s website. (Subscription Required)
The US Forest Service Rolls Ford F-150 Lightnings into the Fleet (AOL)
The United States Forest Service has a long history of rolling with technological punches. From patrolling and protecting forests on horseback to adopting the Ford Model T, the US Forest Service is jumping into the future of mobility with an electric vehicle pilot program. Starting with three Ford F-150 Lightning pickups, this small pilot program is part of a push to the 2027 goal for all light-duty vehicles to be zero-emission vehicles. This three-vehicle test is a drop in the bucket in the overall scope of the Forest Service’s 18,000-vehicle fleet. It’s worth noting that the fleet is spread across 700 sites, and these vehicles are responsible for helping the folks at the US Forest Services maintain over 193 million acres of land that fall under the national forest system. The Forest Service is looking at this EV adoption as a study to see how these battery-electric vehicles will manage the rigors of remote forest work.
Governor Gianforte Calls for Collaboration on Forest Management Ahead of Fire Season (Gianforte Press)
Governor Greg Gianforte today joined local, state, tribal, and federal agency administrators, and fire management officers for the 2024 Fire Season Briefing and called for greater collaboration from the federal government on active forest management. “We know it takes all hands on deck to suppress fires and minimize their impact on families, homes, and property,” Gov. Gianforte said. “Together, we can continue to build healthier, more resilient forests but we need better cooperation in order to get the job done. That’s why I’m calling on everyone here to join us and get more private, state, tribal, and federal acres actively managed.”
State Forests Advisory Committee hosts tour May 16, meets May 17 in Forest Grove (ODF)
An Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) state forests advisory group will host a tour of forestland in portions of the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests on May 16 and meet on May 17 in Forest Grove, and the meeting will have a virtual option via Zoom. The public is welcome at both events, hosted by the State Forests Advisory Committee (SFAC). The meeting agenda will be posted on the SFAC webpage.
Sierra Club delays budget vote amid layoff fears (Greenwire)
The Sierra Club’s management is delaying a vote on its next budget as employees worry another round of layoffs will soon hit the green group. The group is delaying until May 18 a budget vote that was planned for May 9, the group’s executive director, Ben Jealous, and Board of Directors President Allison Chin told staff in an email Wednesday. Employees at the organization fear that layoffs will be announced after the budget is approved, although the Sierra Club has said it is premature to speculate about layoffs until a budget is finalized. The group laid off staff last year, citing budget shortfalls. (Subscription Required)
Weyerhaeuser Partners With Fay Jones School for Research Fellows Program (UA)
Weyerhaeuser Company has partnered with the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the U of A for a new research fellows program that supports the development of innovative wood products and sustainable wood-based construction. The newly formed Weyerhaeuser Research Fellows Program includes two simultaneous applied research and design projects at the U of A — one focused on prototyping a 3D-printed, wood-composite house, the other on engineering mass timber to support three common housing typologies important to rural communities.
