Steve Wilent

From the Univ. of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Link to the research is in the article.

SEFS-led study shows how California’s largest wildfires have complex effects on forests – and present an opportunity for forest management

From the research paper:

Exceptionally large fires (i.e., the top 1% by size) were responsible for 58% and 42% of the cumulative area burned at high and low-moderate severities, respectively, across the study period. With their larger patch sizes, our results suggest that exceptionally large fires coarsen the landscape pattern of California’s forests, reducing their fine-scale heterogeneity which supports much of their biodiversity as well as wildfire and climate resilience. Thus far, most modern post-fire management has focused on restoring forest cover and minimizing ecotype conversion in large, high-severity patches. These large fires, however, have also provided extensive areas of low-moderate severity burns where managers could leverage the wildfire’s initial “treatment” with follow-up fuel reduction treatments to help restore finer-scale forest heterogeneity and fire resilience.

Summary and links here.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (“Ninth Circuit”) addressed in a November 25th Memorandum a judicial challenge to the United States Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) North Landscape Project (“North Project”)in the State of Oregon. See Kalamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, et al., v. Bureau of Land Management, 2022 WL 17222416.

The judicial challenge alleged National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) and Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) violations.

The North Project is described as BLM’s site-specific management approach for conducting annual timber sales in the Klamath Falls Resource Area in accordance with the 2016 Southwestern Oregon Resource Management Plan and Oregon & California Revested Lands Act.

Received this press release this morning….

Forest Service News Release
Contact: Catherine Caruso

[email protected]

Forest Service Recruiting for New
Federal Advisory Committee

Call for help to modernize Northwest Forest Plan

PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 5, 2022 — Nominations are being accepted through mid January for members to a Federal Advisory Committee for national forests in the Northwest Forest Plan area of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington.

The Committee will provide input on modernizing landscape management to promote sustainability, climate change adaptation, and wildfire resilience while addressing the increased demands on Northwest Forest Plan lands.

The 20-member committee will meet about four times annually for a two-year term. They will represent the diversity across the three states covered by the plan and include experts in the science community, organizations with an interest in these forests, plus government, tribal and public groups.

The Committee will offer advice on these topics, plus additional requests from the Secretary of Agriculture or the Chief of the Forest Service:

• • Planning options to complement the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, to assist the Forest Service in proactive wildfire risk reduction and obstacles in vegetation management.
  • Ways to address dynamic ecosystems with adaptive management, monitoring, and future uncertainty.
  • Integrating indigenous traditional ecological knowledge, perspectives, and values into federal forest planning and management.
  • Feedback on how to protect and promote conservation of mature, old-growth forest while ensuring national forests are resilient to high-severity wildfire, insects, disease, and other disturbances worsened by the climate crisis.
  • Preliminary recommendations in line with Forest Service NWFP planning timelines.

Review instructions on the Federal Register Notice. Submit packets by Jan. 17, 2023 – including cover letter, resume, references and form AD-755 – to [email protected]. Put “FACA Nomination” in the subject line. If mailing, send to: Regional Forester Glenn Casamassa, c/o NWFP FACA Team, 1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97204.

For more information, visit the Forest Service’s Northwest Forest Plan page or the committee page.

For questions, contact Mark Brown at (971) 712-4369, Nick Goldstein at (503) 347-1765, or email [email protected]. Individuals using devices for the deaf may call (800) 877-8339, 5 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Friday.

###

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

PR from the The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities….

Here’s a twist. “A group that gathered to protest a planned project for the Upper Cheat River Project Area Monday at the Monongahela National Forest Headquarters on Sycamore Street were met by a group of counter-protesters.”

USFS press release (thanks to Nick SMith for the link). Click on “INITIAL LANDSCAPE INVESTMENTS” to get to the map. Scroll down for data.

Biden-Harris Administration Launches Interactive Map Showcasing Wildfire Reduction Projects

New map shows the impact of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law on Forest Service, partner efforts to reduce hazardous fuels in western states

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2022 – The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service has launched a new interactive map showing the progress the agency and its partners have made in addressing the wildfire crisis in eight western states as part of the Forest Service’s 10-year wildfire crisis strategy. This easy-to-use “story map” gives users the opportunity to see the impact of the historic investments from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law across 10 initial landscapes (PDF, 9 MB) in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

Thoughtful essay. Excerpt: “[Sen.] Wyden’s support of pre-fire management is certainly a step in the right direction. But without equal attention given to post-fire management, Oregon’s legacy of beautiful, forest landscapes will evolve into forestland deserts covered by brush and dead, gray-ghost trees.”

From the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. A natural thinning — natural and due to climate change.

In 2022, preliminary results from the U.S. Forest Service’s Aerial Detection Survey, and field observations, suggest the emergence of a new tree mortality event disproportionately impacting higher-elevation fir forests in the northern and central parts of the state.

For some Californians, it has evoked a not-so-distant memory of the devastating southern Sierra tree mortality outbreak on the heels of the 2012–2016 drought, and the dangerous and unprecedented behavior of the 2020 Creek Fire that burned through the heavily impacted areas. For others, particularly in the central and northern part of our state that was largely unaffected by that event, it raises new concerns about forest ecosystem health and mounting wildfire risk.

What happens next will depend on future weather patterns, and whether land managers can catch up on long-needed, forest-restoration efforts.

Drivers of tree mortality

Large-scale tree mortality is mainly driven by abnormally high temperatures and prolonged drought, as scarcity of water strains otherwise healthy trees. The lack of water supply is exacerbated by increased competition among trees located in dense forests.

Unfortunately, many forests throughout the Sierra Nevada are two to five times denser than historical levels, largely due to removal of fire from the landscape. The dense stands of weakened water-stressed trees are more susceptible to diseases and insect infestations.

Two articles listed in Nick Smith’s HFHC email today, with radically different views:

First, a biased article, IMHO — more of an op-ed — from The Hill. DellaSala get a lot of ink. :”Government failing to protect US forests most critical to fighting climate change, activists say.”

Excerpt:

“It’s the large trees — the oldest trees in the forest — that are our best carbon reservoirs,” forest scientist Dominick DellaSala of advocacy group Wild Heritage told reporters on Tuesday.

About 35 percent of U.S. forestland is composed of these forests, principally on federal land, according to a study DellaSala co-authored in September, published in Frontiers.

Yet only a quarter of those most valuable forests are under explicit protection, the authors found — and if logged over the next decade, would result in a significant uptick in U.S. emissions.

Logging of these old stands is unlikely. However, Michelle Connolly, of forestry nonprofit Conservation North, says: “Left alone, forests will largely balance themselves, she argued. “Emissions released from insects and fire are largely out of our control, whereas forestry emissions are under our direct control,” she said.”

Next, from The Daily Californian, a UC Berkeley newspaper. “UC Berkeley researchers study damages to forests, wildlife.” Researchers get the ink.

Excerpt:

“The more dense a forest is, the more vulnerable it is to disturbance,” said Zack Steel, a research scientist with the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Compact forests, Steel added, make it easier for fires and [the impacts of] droughts to spread, consequently endangering the animals inhabiting them.

Considering the effects of the disturbances during the past decade, the UC Berkeley study noted that management efforts are necessary for forest preservation. For example, prescribed burnings aim to rid forest floors of potential wildfire fuel, such as pine needles and fallen trees. Furthermore, in drought season, fewer trees means less competition for water within the forest.

Brandon Collins, a researcher for the study and associate adjunct professor in campus’s Rausser College of Natural Resources, noted a relevant dilemma in conservation and preservation efforts: Tension exists between temporarily placing stress on natural environments versus simply leaving an already struggling forest alone.

“We need to figure out a way to minimize the risks of actively managing these forests, while also being able to do the work we need to increase resilience in the landscape,” Steel said.

To Collins, the long-term benefits of preservation outweigh the short-term losses caused by preservation strategies such as prescribed burnings. While forests and wildlife may be temporarily affected by these tactics, they also ensure that people will be able to enjoy these landscapes for many years to come.”

Article from the Yakima Herald-Republic. Includes maps.

“Scientists reviewing the impact of forest health treatments within the footprint of the Schneider Springs Fire have found that areas treated with both forest thinning and prescribed burns in the decades leading up to the blaze fared better than untreated areas, helping firefighters during the response.”

The article mentions an assessment by Washington DNR forest health scientists — intersting reading. Excerpt:

“The 2021 wildfires included many examples where prior treatments burned at low severity (<25% tree mortality) and gave fire managers more options to directly engage and safely manage fires. However, exceptionally hot and dry weather, high winds, and other factors led to moderate and high severity in other treatments. Based on limited field observations, treatments that included prescribed fire or piling and burning to reduce surface fuels were more likely to be effective, whereas mechanical only treatments often experienced higher tree mortality.”

Mechanical thinning, but not fuels removal.