NW Forest Plan DEIS Update

The USDA Forest Service will be releasing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for an amendment to the land management plans in the Northwest Forest Plan area. This important document outlines proposals to address challenges like increased wildfires that impact communities and forests, economic sustainability, and a changing climate across 19.4 million acres in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington.  See the press release below announcing the DEIS release.   

 

We invite you to join the Northwest Forest Plan DEIS webinar to learn more.  We’ll share 

  • A brief introduction to the NWFP
  • An overview of the effort to amend land management plans within the NWFP area
  • More about the proposed action and alternatives in the DEIS
  • How to engage in the process and comment during the current 120-day comment period.

 

We are offering two dates and times for you to learn more about the amendment for the Northwest Forest Plan area and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.  

 

The Forest Service welcomes engagement throughout the amendment process.  The webinars provide an opportunity to learn more.  

 

The comment period is your opportunity in the process to offer input, to comment on the analysis, and to suggest alternative ways for the Forest Service accomplish what is proposed. Please visit the project page to comment, view project documents and learn more about the proposed amendment to the Northwest Forest Plan!

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Contact: Kristin Carver

[email protected]

www.fs.usda.gov/r6

Forest Service to release Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Northwest Forest Plan Amendment

PORTLAND, Ore., November 14, 2024 – The USDA Forest Service is seeking public input on a proposed amendment to the land management plans guiding national forests within the Northwest Forest Plan area, which span Northern California, Oregon, and Washington.

The draft Environmental Impact Statement for this amendment will be published tomorrow in the Federal Register, initiating a 120-day comment period. This will provide an opportunity for the public to share input on how these forests will be managed for decades to come.

“Much has changed in society and science since the Northwest Forest Plan was created nearly 30 years ago,” said Jacque Buchanan, regional forester for the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Region. “We’re amending the plan to address today’s challenges in ways that honor the plan’s original goals, while adapting to changing conditions and enhancing wildfire resilience.”

Key Themes of the Proposed Amendment

The draft EIS focuses on balancing economic needs, ecological health, and community safety across the Northwest Forest Plan area. Themes addressed in the proposal include:

Fire Resilience

To address the increasing threat of severe wildfires, the proposed amendment provides guidance on managing forests to reflect the unique fire patterns, or fire regimes, across Northwest forests. This includes the use of hazardous fuel treatments, like mechanical thinning and prescribed fire to reduce dense vegetation to lower wildfire risk and impacts on communities, critical infrastructure, and forests, while maintaining and improving overall forest health across the landscape.

Economic Opportunities

The proposed amendment seeks to support rural economies by promoting a predictable commercial timber supply through sustainable forest restoration and timber production activities. This approach can create local jobs, provide training in forest management, and build economic resilience in communities that depend on forest resources.

Improved Forest Stewardship

The proposed amendment improves on the original Northwest Forest Plan by providing clearer, more specific guidance that distinguishes between moist and dry forest types and between young and old forests.

It also provides direction to use ecological forestry practices that promote landscapes to be more resilient to fire, retain old growth conditions to support at-risk species, and restore non-forest habitats such as meadows and huckleberry patches where they naturally belong.

These efforts would bolster the commercial timber supply in addition to fostering restoration to support species, natural resources, and community safety.

Adaptation to a Changing Climate

The proposed amendment draws on the latest science to help forests and communities adapt to the effects of a changing climate, such as the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including droughts and wildfire. The draft EIS recommends creating connected habitats to support species migration and refugia for vulnerable species, as well as promoting species better adapted to dry conditions in post-fire landscapes. This would help support resilience across the landscape and protect both natural resources and infrastructure.

Tribal Responsibilities

The proposed amendment emphasizes the Forest Service’s commitment to honoring its trust responsibilities to tribal governments and communities by involving them in land management planning and implementing forest management practices. This approach integrates tribal knowledge, values and perspectives into land stewardship.

The public is encouraged to submit comments on the draft plan during the 120-day comment period. “We want to work together to steward our public lands for social, economic and ecological sustainability,” said Jennifer Eberlien, regional forester for the Pacific Southwest Region. “Input from tribes, the public and the Federal Advisory Committee has been invaluable in reaching this stage, and now we need to hear from as many voices as possible during the comment period.”

Comments can be submitted at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=64745. The Forest Service will review and incorporate feedback to develop a final environmental impact statement, anticipated in 2025.

The USDA Forest Service is amending the Northwest Forest Plan to address changed conditions with a focus on five key areas: wildfire resilience, climate change adaptation, tribal inclusion, sustainable communities, and conservation of old growth ecosystems and related biodiversity. The Forest Service is committed to preserving the elements of the plan that are working well while incorporating the latest science to help forests adapt to social, economic, cultural, and ecological changes.

 

The Northwest Forest Plan covers 24.5 million acres of federally managed lands in California, Oregon, and Washington. It was established in 1994 to address threats to threatened and endangered species while also contributing to social and economic sustainability in the region. After nearly 30 years, the Northwest Forest Plan needs to be updated to accommodate changed ecological and social conditions.

 

Additional information about the Northwest Forest Plan is available at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/r6/nwfp.

 

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Golden State Natural Resources DEIR for proposed forest resiliency demonstration project

GSNR’S FOREST RESILIENCY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Involves all national forests in R5.

“GSNR’s proposed project would improve the resiliency of California’s forestlands from catastrophic wildfire by sustainably gathering and processing excess biomass into wood pellets for use in renewable energy generation, often as a replacement for fossil fuels such as coal. The proposed project would include the development of two wood pellet processing facilities, one in the foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada Mountain range, in Tuolumne County, and one in the Modoc Plateau of Northern California, in Lassen County. The finished pellets would then be transported by rail to the Port of Stockton for international shipping.”

FAQ here.

Q9. Is GSNR’s project supported by the U.S. Forest Service?
Yes. GSNR’s forest resiliency project is supported through a 20-year Master Stewardship Agreement signed with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for all eighteen national forests in Region 5 (emphasis added)  (covering much of California) to undertake forest management, restoration treatments, and fuel reduction activities. In this Agreement, USFS expressly acknowledged that this project will have significant benefits including, but not limited to, the following:

• Increase the number of acres of forest land treated substantially over the next twenty years.
• Decrease forest fuels, resulting in enhancing forest resiliency and reducing the risk of uncharacteristic catastrophic wildfires and benefitting air quality in both rural and urban California.
• Restore ecological/watershed functions through forest restoration activities resulting in improved watershed conditions resulting in cleaner and more plentiful water.
• Enhance wildlife habitat.
• Enhance public safety for residents, visitors, communities, and infrastructure.
• Provide an economical solution to the largescale removal of biomass from the state’s forests.
• Enhance carbon sequestration.

The USFS is cutting its seasonal workforce and public lands will suffer

From High Country News.

“The budget cut’s impact on hiring extends beyond seasonal workers. The agency also announced that, with very few exceptions, it won’t be hiring any external candidates for any position within the agency, meaning that any open positions will have to be filled by current employees. And since seasonal work is a common steppingstone to a permanent role, many temporary workers who hoped for a career in public-land management now find themselves at a loss.”

NY Times Op-ed: We Are Running Out of Firefighters at a Perilous Time

From the NY Times today. Excerpt:

Earlier this month, the United States was on the verge of a nightmare scenario. Several Western wildfires were raging at once. In California, San Bernardino County was in a state of emergency; the nearby Bridge Fire had destroyed 54 structures, stretching the state’s resources thin. Smoldering fires were reigniting across Washington and Oregon, and the Davis Fire bore down on ski resorts near Reno, Nev., burning 14 structures. There wasn’t a single elite operations unit available — the kind you call in to manage major wildfires.

Cooler temperatures have brought some relief, but at any moment fire conditions might sweep back in, as they often do in California in September.

NY Times: Rx Fires Can Save Homes. Why Aren’t More Happening?

New York Times today: In California, Controlled Fires Can Save Homes. Why Aren’t More Happening?

Excerpt:

The state’s budget maintains $2.6 billion in funding for tackling wildfires and improving forest health. An additional $200 million per year is designated for healthy forest and fire prevention programs, which include prescribed fire projects.

The money is most likely not enough, especially because it is spread across a number of initiatives, said Mark Schwartz, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, who has studied controlled burns and other wildfire management methods.

In addition to the need for more funds, Mr. Schwartz said, controlled burn programs face a number of other hurdles. Already limited in number, firefighters who would staff a prescribed fire are often called away to battle an active blaze. There are also only so many days in a year that conditions are right for a fire, and access is a challenge in some locations. And local communities may oppose a controlled burn, he said.

“It’s hard to wag a finger too much at agencies,” he said. “Getting prescribed fire on the landscape at the scale we’d like is very difficult.”

Forest Service estimates costs of fighting wildfires in a hotter future

Report produced by the White House Office of Management and Budget: “Over the last decade, suppression has cost the USDA Forest Service and the Department of the Interior an average of $2.9 billion per year.”

And:

“But according to the analysis, a central estimate across the 10 future climate scenarios shows that lands in the National Forest System would experience a near doubling of the area burned by mid-century (2041-2059). In one scenario, the area burned by wildfire would quadruple (estimates range from a 42% to a 306% increase).

“Suppression expenditures also are projected to rise. A middle-of-the-road estimate is a 42% increase in costs by 2050, to $3.9 billion, while some estimates suggest that costs would increase by 84%. In the decades after 2050, costs could rise by 17% to 283%, with a median annual expenditure of $4.9 billion by late century. The team accounted for inflation by converting all future spending to 2022-dollar equivalents.”