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HFHC News Round Up

November 7, 2024 HFHC News Round Up

Gordon wants David Bernhardt, Sonny Perdue back in Trump’s cabinet (Jackson Hole News & Guide)
In the first hours after the Associated Press declared Donald Trump the victor of the U.S. presidential election, Gov. Mark Gordon has already laid out his picks for who he’d like to see oversee the nation’s federal lands: Familiar faces from the first Trump administration. In a press conference with reporters Wednesday morning, Gordon expressed interest in seeing attorney David Bernhardt return as Secretary of the Interior, a role held in the Biden administration by former New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland. He also threw his support behind Sonny Perdue as a pick for Secretary of Agriculture, a role currently held by Tom Vilsack. Perdue, the former governor of Georgia, was Trump’s agriculture secretary during his first administration. Vilsack was formerly the governor of Iowa.

Ex-Trump officials take a victory lap (E&E News)
Bernhardt now chairs the Center for American Freedom at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank established after the 2020 presidential election that’s expected to be influential in setting up a second Trump administration. Bernhardt is seen by many energy and environment insiders as a likely candidate for a senior post in the next Trump administration. When he assumes the presidency in January, the president-elect will have nearly 4,000 political appointments to make across the executive branch, including Cabinet officials and senior White House jobs. His transition team has emphasized that they’ll prioritize loyalty in their hires after Trump’s first term saw significant turnover and infighting. (Subscription Required)

Rodeo Chedeski fire has long-term effects on the forest (Payson Roundup)
The vast ponderosa pine forest destroyed by the 468,000-acre Rodeo-Chedeski Fire more than 20 years ago hasn’t come back, and in some areas, it never might. This conclusion has emerged from a decade of study on the recovery of the centuries-old forest dominated by ponderosa pines that burned in the fire. The Rodeo-Chedeski Fire was one of the first in a succession of fires that have plagued the Southwest since. The forest has changed dramatically across the burn scar, according to ongoing studies by Northern Arizona’s Ecological Restoration Institute and others. Some areas are covered in pine seedlings. But another intense fire in the next century or so will prevent any of those seedlings from growing into fire-resistant, old-growth ponderosas. In the pre-settlement forest, those old-growth trees resisted the frequent ground fires, thanks to thick bark. Moreover, their first branches grew high above the ground, which prevented the fires from spreading into the taller trees and creating a crown fire.

Baker City Watershed Fuels Management Project objection period now open (Elkhorn)
The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is announcing the commencement of the objection period for the Baker City Watershed Fuels Management Project, which started on October 30 and will last for 45 days. This project is a crucial step towards enhancing the safety and health of the Baker City community and its watershed. The Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for this project was released on March 9, and the public was initially invited to comment during a 30-day period that concluded on April 9. Now, as the project moves forward, interested parties are encouraged to review the project details and submit any objections they may have.

Timber Talk: The impending bourbon crisis and need for white oak management (OJC)
A crisis is imminent, and the average bourbon drinker is unaware. The bourbon industry depends on Ohio’s supply of white oak trees for their favorite beverage. Bourbon distilleries and other contributors in the supply chain have been concerned for several years about the impending crisis and are becoming involved in initiatives to regenerate white oak.

UO prototype home features green, innovative construction using Oregon-made mass plywood panels (KTVZ)
A University of Oregon research and design team has completed construction on a prototype house that showcases a sustainable, energy-efficient alternative to traditional home construction. Researchers with the TallWood Design Institute, a collaboration of the UO and Oregon State University, spent two years designing and building the 760-square-foot house made from mass plywood panels manufactured in Oregon by Freres Engineered Wood. The institute will welcome visitors to an open house Nov. 7 showcasing the project.

Downed trees from Hurricane Helene are now a fire risk for NC mountains, foresters say (Charlotte Observer)
Helene’s winds damaged 822,000 acres of woodlands in Western North Carolina, leaving behind what could now become fuel for major wildfires, state and federal foresters say. The N.C. Forest Service conducted an aerial assessment of the region affected by the storm and said last week that in the 18 counties most affected, Helene caused about $214 million in timber damage.

Why slash and pile burning is so important to curb future wildfire risks (Central Oregon Daily)
Just days after Oregon’s largest fire season in terms of acreage ended, firefighters began lighting 3,000 acres of pile burns on the Ochoco National Forest east of Prineville. If conditions remain favorable — with enough rain and snow to dampen the soil and stop the spread of fire, but not so much as to saturate the piles and make them difficult to ignite — pile burning will continue until Thanksgiving. What happens to the burn piles? How are they monitored? “We light these. We pay attention to the weather a lot. Tonight, they are expecting rain and snow up here and more tomorrow. We’ll check these before we leave tonight and check them again tomorrow,” said Sam Pearcy, Ochoco National Forest Assistant Fire Management Officer.

What will Trump’s win mean for Utah public lands? (The Salt Lake Tribune)
President Barack Obama created Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, declaring it would ensure future generations can enjoy its scenic and historic landscape. President Donald Trump slashed its size the next year, “to reverse federal overreach.” Then President Joe Biden restored its original boundaries — a move the state of Utah is suing over. With Trump’s win, Utah Republican Rep. John Curtis predicted Tuesday night, the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Escalante National Monument — which Trump also dramatically reduced — will shrink again. Trump’s reelection will empower him to reshape the nation’s energy and environmental policies — and few states feel the impact of national public land decisions as much as Utah, where the federal government owns about 69% percent of state. Those roughly 37.4 million acres are held in monuments, parks, forests and in “unappropriated” swaths managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which the state is demanding it relinquish in a Supreme Court filing.

While policy falls short, California farmers brace themselves against wildfire (AgriPulse)
Many California producers are unaware how federal programs could benefit them as wildfires continue to ravage agricultural land, according to a new policy brief from the University of California Cooperative Extension. The brief includes 2023 survey results from 116 ranchers across 49 counties, inquiring how they were affected by wildfires between 2017 to 2022 and made policy recommendations based on the 2018 farm bill. “We wanted to ask folks themselves, the producers, the folks on the ground, to get their local perspectives on what the impacts were and the things that they were doing — to not just respond to — but to prepare for for wildfire,” said Leslie Roche, UC Davis professor of cooperative extension in rangeland management.

Bohn at Odds with Other Humboldt Supervisors over Support of Biomass Project (Redheaded Blackbelt)
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Chair Rex Bohn’s support of a controversial Northern California biomass project is being challenged as other supervisors are against it. The division was readily apparent at the close of an Oct. 29 hearing on a wood pellet manufacturing and export project slated for Tuolume and Lassen counties. The project’s environmental review is led by the Golden State Finance Authority, which is affiliated with the Rural Counties Representatives of California (RCRC). Bohn is the board’s RCRC representative and is also a board member of Golden State Natural Resources, which was formed by RCRC and is the biomass project’s manager. Before the Board of Supervisors was a proposed letter requesting an extension of the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report public comment period.

DeFazio: A legacy-making moment to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands (The Oregonian)
The current chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR), has expressed opposition to any wilderness designation legislation that would limit energy and mineral development. Eastern Oregon’s Congressman, Cliff Bentz, has recently announced his own bill that would provide some protection for the Owyhee after several meetings with Wyden, but his proposal, as it stands, is a far cry from the finely balanced proposal that community stakeholders crafted with Wyden. As such, it is unlikely to garner the broad and diverse support that is behind the Wyden bill. You also can expect some suspicion about the 11th hour nature of Bentz’s involvement given that his previous energies have been focused principally on blocking a monument designation, and he has characterized the Owyhee Canyonlands as nothing special. Oregonians, especially his constituents who worked with Wyden to craft S.1890, disagree. Even if Wyden and Bentz come to a complete agreement along the lines of the carefully negotiated Wyden bill, Chairman Westerman and House Speaker Mike Johnson will be formidable obstacles to House consideration and passage.

The voluntary carbon market is oversupplied — but high-quality removals remain scarce, report finds (Trellis)
Carbon projects have issued twice as many credits as have been retired over the last four years, resulting in a heavily oversupplied market. But this belies the scarcity of credits from high-quality carbon removal projects. Only 4 percent of credits on the voluntary carbon market today come from projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere. Of these, the overwhelming majority — some 98 percent — are from nature-based projects, like ecosystem restoration and improved forest management.

CAL FIRE: This Unit Is Always Fired Up and Ready (Flying)
Forest fires have become an ever-increasing part of the news cycle. Whether ignited by man or nature, they often rage out of control, sometimes overwhelming or outpacing the resources necessary to get them under control. Forest fires are part of the natural cycle of forest management, but when fires threaten life and property on a grand scale, human intervention is needed. I first became aware of the existence of the aviation division of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) several years ago while attending a warbird flying clinic in Porterville, California. CAL FIRE had three aircraft on display, an OV-10A (a former forward air control and observation aircraft) and a pair of S-2T tankers (converted from Navy anti-submarine missions). While there, these CAL FIRE aircraft were scrambled multiple times.

When Did the U.S. Adopt the Policy of Stopping All Forest Fires? (HNN)
The methods currently used to protect us from wildfire were significantly shaped during the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1910, the year of the Great Fires, millions of acres of forest in the United Sates went up in flames. This conflagration is the subject of a recently published book by historian Stephen J. Pyne entitled, Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. In 1910, the national forests of the Northern Rockies alone lost more than 2,500,000 acres. Officials estimated that across the country 40 to 50 million acres of U.S. forestland burned. William Greeley, a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and eventual chief of the Forest Service in the 1920s, placed the total loss at around one billion dollars. The ecological damage, to rivers, wildlife, and soil was inestimable.

Americans view carbon capture favorably — study (Energywire)
Americans have “moderately positive” views about capturing carbon dioxide and using it to create products, according to a new study. But researchers found that people were less supportive of building a carbon capture facility in their communities. The study, based on a survey of 1,200 Americans, comes as the Biden administration pours billions of dollars into technologies that capture the greenhouse gas from smokestacks or suck it out of the air in a bid to curb global warming. “We know that public perceptions can influence what types of climate measures are pursued and prioritized or abandoned,” said Kim Wolske, an author of the study and a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago. “So, it’s helpful to understand, is this a technology that the public is receptive to?”

Spokane Valley sawmill facing thousands of dollars in fines for health, safety violations (KREM)
A Spokane Valley sawmill is on the hot seat, facing thousands of dollars in fines for health and safety violations. Since opening its location in Spokane Valley in January, Fox Lumber Sales has seen two fires at the location. One fire started when a spark flipped into a wall, and the other happened when staff were repairing a piece of equipment.The report said sawdust was found up to five inches deep across the facility, saying the amount near space heaters presents a fire hazard…The Washington Department of Labor and Industries said the allowable amount of sawdust accumulation is 1/8 inch.

Stimson Lumber tree arrival (Here is Oregon)
Celebrate the kick-off of the holiday season in Downtown as Portland’s 75-foot-tall Douglas-fir is welcomed into Portland’s Living Room! Come say hello to Santa and join in the fun of this annual tradition. Date: November 13 Time:12:30 pm – 1:30 pm