June 13, 2025 HFHC News Round Up
Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention And Response (The White House)
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. The devastation of the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires shocked the American people and highlighted the catastrophic consequences when State and local governments are unable to quickly respond to such disasters. In too many cases, including in California, a slow and inadequate response to wildfires is a direct result of reckless mismanagement and lack of preparedness. Wildfires threaten every region, yet many local government entities continue to disregard commonsense preventative measures. Firefighters across the country are forced to rely on outdated technology and face challenges in quickly responding to wildfires because of unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy. The Federal Government can empower State and local leaders by streamlining Federal wildfire capabilities to improve their effectiveness and promoting commonsense, technology-enabled local strategies for land management and wildfire response and mitigation.
Latest federal budget bill would sell Oregon public lands, boost logging (OPB)
The federal government could start selling off thousands of acres of Oregon public lands if provisions added to the Big Beautiful Bill win Congressional approval. A draft of the legislation was released Wednesday by U.S. Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, who since at least 2022 has repeatedly pushed to sell off public lands for housing development.Housing is also part of this latest push to sell Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land. In his role as chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Lee is calling for the heads of the U.S. Interior and Agriculture departments to dispose of between roughly 2.2 million acres and 3.3 million acres of federal BLM and Forest Service land from 11 states – including Oregon. That is less than one percent of all federal land. Separately, the legislation calls for the Forest Service to boost logging by 75% over the next decade. It’s not clear if those logging goals are realistic. The Forest Service has missed its timber targets every year for more than a decade, though it’s possible that tariffs on Canadian lumber could boost demand for logging in the United States, according to industry analysts.
Nick Smith- Director of Healthy Forest and Healthy Communities (KLCK 1400 AM- The Klickitat Voice)
Listen: Klickitat Voice host Delmer Eldred interviews Nick Smith to discuss forest management public lands and wildfires.
KVRI officials discuss retooling forest treatment plan (Bonners Ferry Herald)
U.S. Forest Service officials said restructured contracts in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest will result in a 70% increase in 2026 timber sales for the Bonners Ferry District at Wednesday’s forestry meeting hosted by the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative. The drafted regional forestry plan for 2026 consists of four sales in Bonners Ferry totaling 17 million board feet, a significant increase from the 10 MMBF that was previously said to be expected by Idaho Panhandle National Forest supervisor Tim Gilloon. The June 11 roundtable meeting consisted of officials from USFS, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, Idaho Forest Group, the Boundary County Commission and the Idaho Conservation League.
Trump bid to shrink monuments could prompt big legal battle (Greenwire)
Armed with a new legal directive arguing that presidents have the power to abolish national monuments created by their White House predecessors, President Donald Trump is expected to move to eradicate or shrink sites — and trigger a legal fight that could find its way to the Supreme Court. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) published an opinion Tuesday overturning nearly 90-year-old guidance that said presidents could not revoke national monument status. Lanora Pettit, who serves as deputy assistant attorney general, wrote that the Antiquities Act of 1906 not only allows the president to set aside existing public lands to protect areas of cultural, historical or scientific interest, but also grants the power to rescind existing sites that “either never were or no longer are deserving of the Act’s protections.” That opinion — which serves as legal advice to the executive branch, rather than a binding court ruling — could set the stage for a fresh legal battle over the 119-year-old law. Critics of the Antiquities Act have urged Trump to take the fight to the nation’s highest court and ensure the law is curtailed. The administration has been taking a look at monuments that could be targeted, focused on sites with the potential for mineral extraction. (Subscription Required)
As Trump and Newsom’s feud intensifies, what does that mean for wildfire aid to California? (Mercury-News)
The President Donald Trump versus Gov. Gavin Newsom war of words — or really, social media posts — has only escalated in recent days as demonstrations protesting the federal government’s immigration enforcement operations continue. The name-calling and trading of barbs is a stark contrast to the seemingly reconciliatory tone the two leaders struck in late January when Trump visited a wildfire-ravaged Southern California. Trump, then, set aside his favorite nickname for California’s Democratic governor, “Newscum,” and the two men shook hands. But the “Newscum” moniker is back — along with Newsom accusing Trump of abusing his power and escalating tension in L.A.
Let’s Define “Clearcut” and Reduce Unnecessary Disagreement (The Smokey Wire)
What if.. we agreed on a definition of clearcutting? It seems like originally it meant a practice used in even-aged regeneration of forests used (and still used in the SE) by timber industry. The impression was big openings, removal of all trees, burning broadcast or piles and replanting. During the 80’s I remember an economist from Oregon State on a field trip to Weyco’s Klamath Tree Farm, telling us that we needed to move from “pick and pluck” or Keen classification to clearcutting because it was more efficient. Yes, that was apparently the best available science at the time.
Owl-on-owl smackdown: The ethical and ecological dilemma of killing one species to save another (Durango Herald)
Barred owls are acting like bullies of the forest in the Northwest, driving their smaller cousins, the northern spotted owl, to the brink of extinction. Once barred owls start colonizing old-growth forests, rare spotted owls no longer have a home. The survival of spotted owls meant a lot to me as a young environmental activist. In 1985, I spent days living on a plywood platform perched high in the canopy of an Oregon Douglas fir. The tree was majestic, more than 8 feet wide at the base – just one of many in a stand hundreds of years old. If you’re a certain age, you might recall the banners: “GIVE A HOOT: SAVE THE SPOTTED OWL.” They spawned a bumper sticker in what became a culture war: “SAVE A LOGGER, EAT A SPOTTED OWL.”
‘Tree equity’ on the chopping block in Washington state (KUOW)
Trump’s proposed U.S. Forest Service budget for 2026 eliminates federal funding for urban, tribal, and private forests, as well as all forest and rangeland research. A White House web page on the proposed budget said it saves taxpayers money by eliminating woke and wasteful spending. In January, Trump froze federal grants for forestry and many other federal programs authorized by Congress during the Biden administration. The federal government, historically the biggest funder of community tree planting, is no longer a reliable source of cash as the Trump administration seeks to downsize or eliminate many federal programs. The administration aims to stop funding what’s known as urban or community forestry: the planning, planting, and care of trees in the midst of human developments.
Project Update: GMUG plans 20-year hazardous fuels and ecological resiliency project (USDA Forest Service)
The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests invite the public to participate in the initial public comment period for the South Uncompahgre Hazardous Fuels and Ecological Resiliency (SUHFER) project, a proposed 20-year initiative to increase forest and watershed resilience against drought, insect and disease outbreaks, and wildfire. The 30-day public comment period for this project will begin June 11. Comments must be received by July 10. Only those who submit comments during formal comment periods will be eligible to object to the final decision. This long-term project would focus on three treatment categories: silviculture treatments, hazardous fuels treatment and wildlife habitat improvement. Treatments would be implemented using condition-based management (CBM) approach to ensure appropriate treatments are applied based on the latest conditions, including emerging insect and disease infestations, wildfire, and windthrow events.
KCC, Columbia Forest Products and state agencies work to help displaced Jeld-Wen workers (Herald and News)
News of the shutdown of the Jeld-Wen mill plant south of Chiloquin and the loss of 128 jobs sent economic chills through the Klamath Basin, especially in Klamath Falls where most of the workers are from. However, Klamath Community College, Columbia Forest Products, WorkSource Oregon and Klamath Works are joining forces to keep some of those jobs in the community and retrain other workers for new skills related to their fields. Jeld-Wen announced it will close the door on plant operations as of June 30. It is unlikely it will reopen. Kenny DeCrans is the quality control lead for the mills department at Columbia Forest Products, and is also involved in community outreach and project management. The firm is a mainstay in Klamath Falls, employing more than 300 workers. Columbia has 13 mills, including Klamath’s, across the United States and Canada, and employs about 2,200. “When we found out about the layoffs, we reached out to the plant director to see if we could help,” DeCrans said. “One thing that people might not understand about the mills in this community is that we are all very dependent on one another, there is a lot of cooperation and cross-pollination. We need each other to be successful, to be a thriving community,” he said. “We help each other by allowing others to use our services and equipment.”
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