May 8, 2026 HFHC News Round Up
Forest Fuel Treatments Reduce Wildfire Spread, Prevent $2.8 Billion in Damage (UC Davis)
Every dollar spent on forest fuel treatments saves about $3.75 in wildfire damages, according to a new study, led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, of nearly 300 fires in the western United States. The study estimated that the treatments, such as forest thinning and prescribed burns, prevented $2.8 billion in losses, reduced wildfire spread and fire severity. The researchers analyzed the nearly 300 wildfires that intersected USDA Forest Service fuel reduction treatments in 11 states between 2017 and 2023. The study is the first to evaluate the economic value of Forest Service fuel treatments across the West at a large-scale using data from wildfires that encountered fuel treatments rather than relying on wildfire simulation models. It was published today in Science.
Beyond Wildfire Suppression: The economic case for fuel treatments on national forests (PERC)
Wildfires have emerged as one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century, with far-reaching economic and ecological consequences. In the United States alone, total annual wildfire-related damages are estimated at $394 to $893 billion, equivalent to 2 to 4 percent of GDP. These costs include property loss, firefighting expenses, health impacts from smoke exposure, and disruptions to local economies and ecosystems. Recent estimates suggest that health damages from wildfire-induced exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) alone may exceed all other climate-related risks in the United States. Looking ahead, wildfire risk is expected to intensify with continued climate change, more development in the wildland-urban interface, and the long-term legacy of fire suppression.
Fast-tracked Forest Service Project Fails Integrity Test in Cooke City (Mountain Journal)
The U.S. Forest Service rescinded its Cooke City Fuels and Forest Health Project in response to litigation by conservation groups, showing that new power the Trump administration granted the agency doesn’t reconcile for lack of proof. A case filed in March by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, former Forest Service ecologist Dr. Jesse Logan, Gallatin Wildlife Association, and Native Ecosystems Council resulted in a victory for plaintiffs on May 5 when the Forest Service withdrew its controversial forest management project slated east of Cooke City. The project is one of three in the Custer Gallatin National Forest that borders the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and was expedited under new jurisdiction granted to the agency for forests in an “emergency situation.”
Three-quarters of USDA researchers tapped to relocate tell union they’re not going (Federal News Network)
The Agriculture Department is embarking on a multi-part plan to relocate employees across its component agencies outside of the Washington, D.C. area. USDA is moving many more jobs across the country than it did under the first Trump administration, but expects fewer employees will turn down relocation offers this time around. However, two unions representing impacted USDA employees say the relocations will cause more disruption than department leaders anticipate. For the second time in seven years, USDA is looking to move D.C.-based employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City.
‘Optimistic’: Oregon’s Freres Wood pushes forward with fresh mass timber projects (KOIN)
Deep in the Santiam Canyon wedged between hillsides covered in Oregon forests, the evolution of the timber industry is on full display one giant panel at a time inside Freres Wood. “This one is about ten feet by 36 feet,” said Tyler Freres, the company’s chief operating officer. Stroll through one of their massive facilities, and it doesn’t take long to deduce this isn’t the timber operation of a bygone era. “We use 100 percent of the tree. We aim to have nothing go to a landfill. Everything leaves our property as a beneficial product,” Tyler added. The family-run operation is one of the industry’s pioneers of mass timber.
Jim Petersen: Read ’em and Weep (Evergreen Magazine)
When Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz was in Coeur d’Alene on April 7 for a public lands collaborative conference, he emphasized the importance of active forest management — timber harvesting and prescribed burning — in western National Forests. In tandem, he emphasized the importance of recruiting new capital investments in logging and wood processing. It may be too late for Montana’s seven National Forests and what is left of the state’s slowly collapsing forest products industry.
Federal Obligations to Tribal Forests Remain Critically Underfunded (Legis1)
A new Congressional Research Service report on tribal forestry lands when the Trump Administration is cutting federal agency budgets and staff, yet the federal government has a legally binding obligation to manage Native forest lands. That obligation is not being met adequately. The report, published May 4, 2026, arrives as Congress weighs competing pressures on wildfire policy, tribal self-determination, and federal downsizing. The collision of those forces on Native American forestry could carry legal and environmental consequences.
Trump administration officials call for federal environmental permitting reform (Manufacturing Drive)
One of the Trump administration’s top priorities is to approve major infrastructure projects faster than ever before, officials from the National Energy Dominance Council, Council on Environmental Quality and Permitting Council said on a panel at the SelectUSA Investment Summit May 5. “For too long, investment has been stalled because of slow bureaucracy,” said John Reiten, deputy executive director of the NEDC. “We want to see projects built cheaper, more efficiently and faster.” Industry representatives have long sought environmental permitting reform for infrastructure projects, arguing that the current process takes too long and unnecessarily stymies economic development. To address these concerns, the Trump administration’s proposed Environmental Protection Agency budget seeks an additional $14 million to “cut through the red tape.”
The Upper Big Wood Vegetation Management Project aims to mitigate wildfire risk and improve forest habitat on Sawtooth National Forest (Eyes on Sun Valley)
The project is designed to improve forest health, reduce hazardous fuels and restore historical forest conditions in the Upper Big Wood River drainage. It would cover about 3,000 acres around Galena Lodge, Baker Creek, Cathedral Pines, Prairie Creek, Senate Creek and Cherry Creek. Treatments will include thinning small trees and some commercial timber harvest. Forest Service officials say lodgepole dwarf mistletoe in the area has caused chronic infestations and Douglas-fir beetle western spruce budworm and tussock moth have the potential to damage thousands of areas of high-value recreation forest. Dense stands near structures pose significant wildfire risk.
Downing Introduces the Accelerating Forest Management Act (Downing Press)
Congressman Troy Downing introduced the Accelerating Forest Management Act, legislation to codify the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) categorical exclusion for timber salvage projects in order to speed up active forest management, reduce wildfire risk, and support rural economies. The legislation would permanently authorize streamlined environmental reviews for routine timber salvage projects up to 5,000 acres on BLM lands, helping federal land managers remove dead and dying timber before it fuels catastrophic wildfire.
USDA Forest Service Names Acting Supervisor for Olympic National Forest (USDA Forest Service)
The USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region today announced that Joyce Hamilla will serve as Acting Forest Supervisor for the Olympic National Forest, effective, May 18th. The announcement follows the upcoming departure of Forest Supervisor Kelly Lawrence, who has accepted a position with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. She served as Forest Supervisor on the Olympic since 2020 and with the agency for 24 years.
State Forests Advisory Committee hosts field tour May 14, meets May 15 in Forest Grove (ODF)
The State Forests Advisory Committee will host a tour in the Tillamook State Forest on May 14 and meet on May 15 in Forest Grove and the meeting will have a virtual option via Teams. The public is welcome at both events. The field tour agenda and meeting agenda are posted on the SFAC webpage.
Why Bulldozers are the Secret Weapon in the Fight Against Wildfires (Unofficial Networks)
When a wildfire breaks out, the response is a coordinated effort involving hand crews, smokejumpers, helicopters, airtankers, and heavy equipment. Among the most critical tools in that arsenal is the bulldozer. Dan Quinn has spent 10 years as a heavy equipment operator on the Plumas National Forest, fighting wildfires across the country four to five months out of the year. He describes the work as essentially the same as a hand crew, just faster and at a larger scale. The National Forest Service operates roughly 160 pieces of heavy equipment nationwide, including bulldozers and tractor plows, with about 200 operators positioned to respond to wildfires. One key advantage dozers have over hand crews is their ability to get significantly closer to active flames. Most are equipped with enclosed, climate-controlled cabs that filter incoming air and shield operators from intense heat.
Vermont’s loggers are struggling. A sales tax exemption could help. (VTdigger)
It has been said that silence can be a loud cry for help, and for Vermont’s logging and forest trucking industry, the silence right now is deafening. This industry asks for relatively little help in exchange for the major benefits it provides. As loggers struggle quietly in the woods of Vermont to survive the most difficult times they have ever faced, the state Legislature has an opportunity to provide relief with a sales tax exemption on repair parts for log trucks and trailers before this legislative session ends. The effort to secure such relief began in 2025 with identical bills in the state House and Senate, H.85 and S.46, to exempt log trucks and trailers from both the purchase and use tax and the sales tax. H.85 never moved forward, and a significantly pared-down version of S.46 moved from the Senate to the House, only to stall for more than a year.
National Forest Foundation, U.S. Forest Service partner to boost seedlings and nurseries (13News)
The National Forest Foundation is teaming up with the U.S. Forest Service to help speed up reforestation, expand seed collection and nursery capacity, and restore damaged landscapes faster. According to a social media post, when Helene hit, the storm damaged more than 190,000 acres of National Forest System land, mainly in the Pisgah National Forest. “One of the biggest bottlenecks in addressing the reforestation backlog is seed collection and nursery capacity to then grow those seeds,” said Marcus Selig, NFF’s Chief Conservation Officer, in a social media post. “The National Forest Foundation is helping support that effort by adding capacity and bringing innovation to nursery management to increase efficiency and scale.”
The Forest Products Industry and Mental Health (FRA Woods to Mill Blog)
Let’s face it, this is not a stress-free industry. Markets are always changing, equipment can break at the least opportune moment, and there’s constant pressure to be 1% more efficient than you were yesterday. While we get to work in the woods and with some great people, it’s an uncontested fact that there are days when it all seems like too much. May is mental health month, and that’s as (if not more) important to people in the forest industry as most other professions. Stress can build over time and can impact not only our mental health, but also our relationships, our mindset, and our physical health.
West Fraser sawmill announces $70M expansion after Escambia grants EDATE (Pensacola News Journal)
The Escambia commission voted to approve a five year, 70% ad valorem tax exemption for West Fraser, a Canada-based lumber company. Shortly after the vote, FloridaWest Economic Development Alliance announced that West Fraser has invested $70,250,000 in capital expenditures to expand its existing sawmill operation in McDavid. The expansion at West Fraser’s McDavid sawmill will create 30 new jobs with competitive wages in a rural area of Escambia County.
Federal court rules against new global tariffs Trump imposed after loss at the Supreme Court (AP)
A federal court ruled Thursday against the new global tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court. A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found the 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued. The court ruled 2-1 that Trump overstepped the tariff power that Congress had allowed the president under the law. The tariffs are “invalid″ and “unauthorized by law,” the majority wrote. The third judge on the panel found the law allows the president more leeway on tariffs. If the administration appeals Thursday’s decision, as expected, it would first turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, and then, potentially, the Supreme Court.
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