The AP has an article out today, “A giant sequoia tree in California is still smoldering 9 months after it caught fire.”

Excerpt:

A giant sequoia tree in Sequoia National Park is still smoldering nine months after it caught fire during last summer’s wildfires.

National park scientists were surveying the damage caused by last year’s Castle Fire  when they discovered the burning giant sequoia in the remote Board Camp Grove earlier this week. They said the discovery shows just how dry conditions in the central Sierra have been this year.

“The fact areas are still smoldering and smoking from the 2020 Castle Fire demonstrates how dry the park is,” said Leif Mathiesen, assistant fire management officer for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, in a statement. 

“With the low amount of snowfall and rain this year, there may be additional discoveries as spring transitions into summer,” he added.

I hesitate to disagree with an AFMO who is on the scene, but it is not at all unusual for small hot spots to survive a winter, even a heavy winter. It happened in 2018 after the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge, an area that gets 60 to 80 inches of rain a year. I say this is not to downplay the drought in Calif., but to offer some perspective. Holdover and “sleeper” fires are not unusual.

E&E News reported today that a 2,000-acre solar farm in SE California got the OK. It will provide to power about 87,500 homes. See also here. And BLM Nepa docs here.

A colleague who works in the Northeast wonders why many folks there object to any sort of commercial timber harvesting, but say little about solar farms, such as a proposed 200-acre solar farm in a forested area of Mass.

From E&E News:

The Biden administration today announced approval of a major solar farm in Southern California, the final green light for a renewable energy project first proposed more than a decade ago.

The Bureau of Land Management record of decision authorizes Sonoran West Solar Holdings LLC to build Crimson Solar, a 350-megawatt power and energy storage project. The project will cover roughly 2,000 acres of BLM land in the Chuckwalla Valley, near the Arizona border.

The project, which can generate enough electricity  is expected to connect to the regional electrical grid at a nearby substation operated by Southern California Edison.

…

Some environmentalists have criticized the project, saying it has the potential to harm archaeological sites, migratory birds and other wildlife, including the desert tortoise and the Mojave fringe-toed lizard.

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities has announced an “Innovative Finance for National Forests (IFNF) grant program supports the development and implementation of innovative finance models that leverage private and public capital other than US Forest Service (USFS) appropriations to support the resilience of the National Forest System (NFS). ”

IFNF grants could, but are not limited to, support of innovative finance models that:

• Enable debt or equity financing from public or private sources to pay for the upfront costs of a project that will be paid back over time by project beneficiaries (payors);
• Access new or existing markets for environmental goods or services;
• Access user-based fees or contributions;
• Increase pace and scale of implementation by blending multiple sources of funding;
• Employ any combination of the approaches listed above.

The IFNF grant program is funded by the USDA Forest Service (USFS) National Partnership Office (NPO) and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment). Additional administrative and technical support is provided by the National Forest Foundation (NFF).

Excerpts from an op-ed essay in the Sunday, April 18 edition of The Oregonian, by Ben Elkind (subscription), entitled “More Fires, Less Staffing, and Low Pay Taking Steep Toll on Wildland Firefighters.”

“I would almost do it for free. The feeling of complete focus and calm after jumping out of the airplane is hard to find elsewhere these days. But the chaos from life and the fire below are making me rethink my career, and that’s a big problem for Oregonians.

“I’ve been a smokejumper for the U.S. Forest Service for eight years and worked on the Mt. Hood Hotshot Fire Crew before that. I grew up in Oregon and can’t stand to see the wildfires ravaging our public lands and communities, while the smoke threatens our public health.”

…

“As the cost of living and home prices rise in the west, the Forest Service can no longer retain its employees when starting pay is $13.45 an hour. At the Lincoln City McDonald’s, just west of Otis, another community nearly erased from the map by wildfires, a sign in the window advertised starting pay is $15 an hour. My wife joked that I should apply there for more job security. She’s right. A career with McDonald’s is currently more promising than federal wildland firefighting.

“I’m an incident commander with advanced qualifications, supervising dozens of resources and fire crews on fires, yet I’ve never earned more than $20 an hour in my 14 years as a professional wildland firefighter. I make decisions that can cost millions of dollars with lives hanging in the balance, yet I am paid more like a teenager working a summer job than a highly experienced professional.”

Elkind makes some good points, but overtime and hazard pay can make for a big boost in pay.

Maybe this will give us material for continuing the discussions of salvage logging….

Salvage Science Webinar Series

View the recorded webinars on YouTube. Click here to register for a panel discussion with presenters on May 6 from 1:00 – 2:30pm MDT.

• Incorporating Woodpecker Habitat into Design of Post-Fire Salvage Logging. — Vicki Saab, Research Biologist, Rocky Mountain Research Station & Jonathan Dudley, Ecologist, Rocky Mountain Research Station

• Post-Fire Salvage Logging Effects on Soils, Runoff, and Sediment Production in Western Watersheds. — Joe Wagenbrenner, Research Hydrologist, Pacific Southwest Research Station

• Is that Tree Dead? Predicting Tree Death After Fire for Salvage Decisions. — Sharon Hood, Research Ecologist, Rocky Mountain Research Station

• Understanding Post Wildfire Management Effects on Stand Structure and Woody Fuel Loadings. — Morris Johnson, Research Fire Ecologist, Pacific Northwest Research Station/FERA

Saw an ad for Rambo Electric Bikes and had to check it out. This is their top of the line, The Venom.

Doesn’t report a top speed, but says it has a range of 40 miles.

“The Venom is the best of the best! Delivering it all in one solid bike featuring a new Rohloff internal 14 gear speed rear hub, 48v 17AH battery and a 1000w Ultra Drive motor – no terrain is going to stop you! Paired with Maxxis Minion 26×4.8” tires and 4 Piston Hydraulic brakes, you have the recipe of a perfect hunting bike. From the mountains to the flat prairie, The Venom is you’re all-in-one ebike!”

Is this more of a motorcycle than a bicycle? I think so.

Salem Statesman-Journal today:

Environmental groups file lawsuit to stop post-fire logging in Santiam State Forest

The state wants to salvage 3,000 acres of the 16,000 acres burned. a few excerpts:

The suit aims to stop the Oregon Department of Forestry from current logging and stop it from moving forward with timber sales and hazard tree removal across 3,000 acres of state forest burned by the Labor Day Fires around the Santiam Canyon. 

The groups cited concerns over recreation, drinking water and forest health in asking a Multnomah Circuit Court judge to issue an injunction at a hearing scheduled for April 30. If successful, all logging would be halted until the case was decided. 

…

“Salvage logging the Santiam State Forest will do great damage to spotted owls, struggling salmon populations, water quality and forest recovery,” Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release. 

Some locals disagreed. 

“The plan that was put forward is very responsible and only accounts for a very small percentage of what was burned,” Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron said. “It’s good stewardship to go in and use some of those salvaged logs and put them to use while supporting our community rebuilding efforts.” 

…

Within the 3,000 acres, there are two different types of logging proposed. Around 1,100 acres is proposed for “partial cut harvest,” meaning foresters would focus on cutting dead trees and leaving alive ones intact. The other 1,900 acres is “regeneration harvest,” which is essentially clear-cutting standing dead trees and then re-planting.

This article has Arborists in the title, but the main story is about opposition by conservation groups:

Arborists say ODOT post-fires tree cutting is excessive, rushed

More than 20 conservation groups sent a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack opposing the post-fire roadside logging proposed or actively being carried out by federal agencies.

The roadside salvage (and cutting along power lines) I’ve seen in the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fire areas is indeed extensive, but not unusual compared to hazard tree removal in other areas.

Also, one can imagine the lawsuits should one tree that wasn’t cut falls on a car and injures or kill someone. As happened recently in California. This wasn’t a fire-killed tree, but some folks have pointed to the state and feds for failing to identify the hazard and remove the tree.

Excellent post by Judith Curry on her Climate, Etc. blog.

The objective of scientific research is to find out what is really true, not just verify our biases. If a community of scientists has a diversity of perspectives and different biases, then the checks and balances in the scientific process including peer review will eventually counter the biases of individuals. Sometimes this is true—but often this does not happen quickly or smoothly. Not only can poor data and wrong ideas survive, but good ideas can be suppressed.

However, when biases caused by motivated reasoning and career pressures become entrenched in the institutions that support science – the professional societies, scientific journals, universities and funding agencies – then that subfield of science may be led astray for decades.

From The Atlantic:

Received this intro via email today….

By David Treuer

The national parks—sometimes called “America’s best idea”—were intended to be natural cathedrals, places of worship where visitors could seek spiritual refuge. But the story of their creation is far darker and bloodier than their serene vistas might suggest. The parks were founded on land that once belonged to Native Americans like me, and many were created only after we were forcibly removed by invading armies, or by treaties signed under duress.

Reparations for the losses that Native Americans have endured for centuries must take the shape of land. In my cover story for The Atlantic, I argue that the national parks should be returned to America’s original peoples—that all 85 million acres of federally protected land should be entrusted to a consortium of tribes.

Doing so would be a noble act. Despite America’s many sins, it still has the chance to make amends. Placing the national parks under collective Native control could be part of this reconciliation process, one that would benefit us all. This transfer isn’t just an opportunity for Native people to return to their ancestral lands. It is an opportunity for America to live up to its highest ideals—of dignity, honor, compassion—and to become a more perfect union.