Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities

by Tim O’Hara The 2018 Farm Bill offers a reasonable solution to improve young forest habitat on federal lands with provisions for a categorical exclusion for the purpose of creating young forests. Young forests (less than twenty years of age)

By Kent Jacobson: Good Neighbor Coordinator, Superior National Forest The Superior and Chippewa National Forests in Minnesota are collaborating with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Division of Forestry, towards the successful implementation of the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA).

Forest mortality exceeded net growth on America’s national forest timberlands in 2016, based on data publicly available from the U.S. Forest Service. Forest growth was 48 percent of mortality, while timber harvests were just 11 percent of what is dying

by Tim O’Hara: HFHC Great Lakes Director In Federal FY2018 the National Forests in MN, WI and MI are estimating a timber program that has not been reached in more than 20 years. This has been achieved through collaborative efforts

U.S. Forest Service Interim Chief Vicki Christiansen recently told a U.S. Senate panel her agency faces a potential $300 million budget shortfall due to increasing wildfire suppression costs. This means once again the agency could be forced to “borrow” money

By Bruce Ward, President Choose Outdoors; Ellen Roberts, former Chair of Legislative Wildfire Matters Committee and Colorado State Senator; Dan Casey, President Colorado Timber Industry Association; Molly Pitts, Rocky Mountain Regional Director Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Recent spring snows won’t

by Tim O’Hara, HFHC Great Lakes Director US Forest Service Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF), District Ranger Jeff Seefeldt was recognized by the Great Lakes Timber Producers Association as recipient of the Wisconsin Merit Award. Jeff was recognized with the Merit

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, also known as the “omnibus” bill, delivered a number of legislative victories for federal forest management. Notably, the bipartisan forestry package gives federal agencies additional funding and new policy tools to support fuels reduction

Here a top U.S. Forest Service official illustrates the analysis paralysis that commonly prevents the agency from restoring our national forests. Unlike other agencies it can take four years, at a cost of $1 million, to complete paperwork to implement

The following article from HFHC Rocky Mountains Regional Director Molly Pitts was originally published in The Timber Line, a publication of the Colorado-Wyoming Society of American Foresters A recent article in the Denver Post titled “Save our National Forests with