Note: Frank Carroll contributed the following article to Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities. Forest Service supervisors in Utah are enforcing a moratorium on “managed wildfires” in 2020, this terrible year of the pandemic “wildfire” that so affects all aspects of our lives. The thinking is that Covid19 is putting enough pressure on hard working firefighters without…
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service to undertake an assessment of the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions. Though some use the NEPA process to stall or stop projects they don’t like, the process offers important opportunities for citizens to get involved,…
Targeted investments in forest management can help promote economic recovery, improve the health and accessibility of federal lands, while providing tangible and lasting returns for American taxpayers. For more, check out our oped in The Hill. The prospects for additional measures in response to COVID-19 are unclear. But that has not stopped members of Congress…
**Download the Mega Drought Southern Oregon 2020 presentation by clicking here. Rachel Lee Hall- a citizen advocate for Forest Under Stress (FUS) during the month of April took a series Mega Drought Southern Oregon 2020 of photos of various mountain lakes and reservoirs in surrounding communities within the borders of Jackson County, Oregon, located in the Rogue River-Siskiyou…
COVID-19 is challenging our society in many ways. Today we appreciate the men and women who are serving on the front lines of this epidemic and making personal sacrifices to provide care to those in need. Judging by shortages of medical supplies and many household items, the epidemic should give us an appreciation for the basic…
The following opinion by Bryan Lorengo originally appeared in the Montana Standard Despite growing momentum for more active management on Montana’s national forests, litigation from a small number of fringe groups continues to hurt rural communities and the ability of federal agencies to manage public lands. The indefinite suspension of Townsend’s sawmill is just the latest example why Congress…
As the only professional forester in the U.S. Congress, Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) loves trees and understands the importance of good management for healthy forests. Recently he introduced the Trillion Trees Act, legislation that would plant 1 trillion trees globally by 2050 and incentivize the use of wood products as carbon sequestration devices. The Trillion Trees…
The 2019 Decker Fire ignited in the early afternoon of Sunday, September 8 in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness, just two miles south of Salida, Colorado. Prior to the incident, it’s estimated the wilderness had an 80 percent tree mortality rate due to spruce beetle impacts and blowdown. The fire was initially small, so the…
Those of us in the forest sector already know wood is the most sustainable building material available. We all understand the importance of marketing wood products to environmentally-conscious consumers. But this doesn’t mean we’re immune to the turbulent politics of carbon policy. You can’t afford not to participate in the climate debate. Fortunately we have…
In 1990 the Northern Spotted Owl was listed as a “threatened” species under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), resulting in the steep decline in federal timber harvests and the economic collapse of many rural communities across the nation. In the Pacific Northwest over 9.5 million acres of federal land have been set aside as…