Steve Wilent

Excerpt from a Greenwire article today:

Chief Justice John Roberts this week openly urged opponents of sprawling national monuments to continue their legal fight, suggesting the Supreme Court may be eager to take a fresh look at precedent it first set a century ago.

The Supreme Court declined on Monday to weigh in on whether President Obama exceeded his authority under the Antiquities Act when he created a marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean (Greenwire, March 22).

But in a four-page statement, Roberts questioned how presidents have implemented the law and suggested other cases that might be better suited to Supreme Court intervention.

In his statement, Roberts wondered whether presidents have abused the 1906 law by ignoring a provision requiring that monuments be “limited to the smallest area compatible with the care and management of the objects to be protected.”

“Somewhere along the line, however, this restriction has ceased to pose any meaningful restraint,” Roberts wrote. “A statute permitting the President in his sole discretion to designate as monuments ‘land-marks,’ ‘structures,’ AND ‘objects’ — along with the smallest area of land compatible with their management — has been transformed into a power without any discernible limit to set aside vast and amorphous expanses of terrain above and below the sea.”

A look at fuels treatments in the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed, by Earth Economics.

This conservative analysis found that the proposed fuel treatments are estimated to generate between $1.44–$1.67 in benefits for every dollar invested in treatment. The majority of these benefits directly accrue to the Santa Fe community, through avoided air quality impacts, recreational losses, damages to structures, and source water impacts. The remaining benefits accrue to public agencies at the state and national level or to the global community (in the case of avoided carbon emissions).

The authors examination of avoided costs is interesting. For example:

$5 million – $14 million in avoided fire suppression costs
$2 million – $4 million in avoided fire restoration costs
$5.1 million – $11.4 million in voided economic losses of recreation

Also:

Carbon stocks are reduced through treatment, however a reduction in carbon losses due to wildfire is projected to generate a net reduction in carbon losses over the long term. For this analysis, we used the carbon model developed by Krofcheck, et al. This carbon model used a 50-year analysis period, rather than the 10-year study period used in this study. This decision was intentional, because using a 10-year study period would likely produce a negative value owing to the near term biomass reductions through thinning and prescribed burning. A 50-year time period is more appropriate for analysis, because it demonstrates the long-term goal of carbon storage. Krofcheck, et al. found that treatments would result in a net carbon emissions reduction of 150,000–330,000 metric tons of carbon. This reduction is valued using EPA’s social cost of carbon ($42 per ton).

Greenwire had this story on Feb. 26: “Annual wildfires hurt forests’ carbon retention — study.” The study ($), “Decadal changes in fire frequencies shift tree communities and functional traits, is here.

This is what some of us on Smokey Wire and elsewhere have been saying for years.

Excerpt:

Repeated, intense wildfires have damaged forests’ ability to grow fire resistant and store carbon, causing scientists to rethink how to deploy tree-planting efforts after natural disasters.

After 50 years, regions with the most extreme annual fires suffered from a 63% smaller wooded area with almost three-quarters of the individual trees than in regions that never burned, according to the study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Even in regions with tree species that are well-equipped to withstand frequent burnings, fires over the past couple of decades have often decimated fire-resistant adult trees, while younger saplings haven’t been able to reach maturity.

“After a fire, a small tree has to regrow the biomass that it lost during the fire, which takes time,” said Adam Pellegrini, a co-author of the study and professor at the University of Cambridge. “The more frequent a fire is, the lower probability that the trees can grow fast enough to become resistant.”

FYI, this cam in today…. Steve

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On behalf of the Forest Service Southwestern Region and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, you are cordially invited to attend the virtual Mexican Spotted Owl Leaders Forum Webinar.

Where: You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Wednesday, March 3, 2021, 9:00 AM  – 12:00 PM Mountain Time
Topic: Regional MSO Management Strategy Overview

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81321242215?pwd=SzdFZUJBNWNTaDJQRExmUVJUaFFXQT09
Passcode: 377717

Telephone:
US: +16699006833,,81321242215#,,,,*377717#  or +12532158782,,81321242215#,,,,*377717#

Webinar ID: 813 2124 2215
Passcode: 377717

The Forest Service Southwestern Region and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have developed a Mexican spotted owl management strategy.  We are confident that by following this strategy and working closely with our partners that appropriate steps can be taken to improve habitat to benefit the Mexican spotted owl.  On March 3^rd from 9-12 the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will host a webinar to present the six points of the Mexican spotted owl management strategy and answer questions.

Moving forward, the Forest Service recognizes that transparency with our audience is an important part of communicating and keeping track of the Mexican spotted owl’s progress. This webinar, along with some of the tools showcased and explained within the webinar, should create a broader understanding of what is being done to benefit Mexican spotted owl and its habitat.

Feel free to respond to this email with any questions or concerns, and if you are a member of the media, please RSVP.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you there.

Folks, as some of you know, I’m editor of The Forestry Source, the newspaper of the Society of American Foresters. I’m thinking about writing an in-depth article with a title similar to the subject line of this post: “Anatomy of a Timber Sale Lawsuit.” I’d look at one specific project from inception on, and get input from a variety of sources and perspectives. I’d strive to be evenhanded, thinking that a look a sale that was litigated and why, and the lessons learned, would be enlightening not only to Forestry Source readers, but to the denizens of The Smokey Wire.

Two questions, for now:

1. Is this a crazy idea?
2. What project would make for a good case study?

FWIW, my time with the Society of American Foresters is short. I recently learned that SAF will not renew my contract as editor — after 14+ years. The June edition will be my last. The official reasoning is that SAF wants to “shift to a more financially sustainable model.” I’ll need to shift to a more financially sustainable model, too. Anyhow, I’d like to pursue this story idea while I can.

Or would some other outlet be better?

— Steve

FYI, Smokey Wire wilderness watchers….

The Forest History Society presents the “Unprecedented Seasons” virtual lecture series

ISOLATION AND WILDERNESS:
The Surprising Ways American Wilderness Intersects with the COVID-19 Pandemic

with DJ Lee

Acclaimed author and historian DJ Lee will deliver a virtual talk on January 29, 2021. The talk is FREE but registration for this Zoom event is required.

DJ Lee spent significant portions of the last 15 years in the secluded mountains of Idaho and Montana conducting the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project. Drawing on that and other wilderness experiences and research and wilderness-themed art work, Lee will discuss the ways American wilderness, as a concept and a physical place, intersects with some of the causes and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information about this event and to register, visit our website.

January 29, 2021
2:00 – 2:45 p.m. EDT
FREE

New report from the Rocky Mountain Research Station: “Through the Smoke: Spotted Owls, Wildfire, and Forest Restoration”. Lots of focus on Mexican spotted owls, but also their cousins.

KEY FINDINGS

• Wildfires are likely to increase in extent or severity, or both, throughout most of the range of the spotted owl, indicating a potential for large-scale habitat loss in the future.
• Within the range of the Mexican spotted owl, a 13-fold increase in area burned is expected by the 2080s.
• High-severity fire can decrease habitat suitability considerably for nesting Mexican spotted owls. For example, mean habitat suitability decreased by 21.9 percent 3 years after the Wallow Fire in Arizona.
• Mexican spotted owl occupancy decreased by more than 50 percent 14 years after the Rodeo-Chediski fire in Arizona in 2002.
• Areas with suitable nesting habitat may be more prone to high-severity fire.
• Some types of fire can result in improved habitat for prey and food resources for the Mexican spotted owl, but that improvement may not compensate for the loss and degradation of nesting habitat.

Quote from Joe Ganey, research wildlife biologist at the Rocky Mountain Research Station:

“There’s a high potential for rapid loss of the highest quality owl habitat due to increasing wildfire extent and severity,” Ganey says. “That’s kind of the crux of the issue. Everything that we know from 40 years of research on spotted owls across their entire range suggest that this could be the case.”

MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

• Protecting remnant patches of mixed conifer and pine-oak forest with large trees and high canopy cover is important to conserve Mexican spotted owl nesting sites.
• Long-term monitoring is essential to understanding spotted owl population trends and response to fire.
• Integrating the beneficial roles of fire and restoration thinning into spotted owl conservation in the West may be critical for maintaining habitat, especially with a changing climate.

From Greenwire today:

BLM finalizes streamlined timber rule that cuts protest time

Excerpt:

The Trump administration continues to revise rules governing the management of forestlands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management in the name of reducing wildfire risks.

The latest is a finalized rule that will eliminate a 15-day protest period after decisions have been rendered for timber harvests, sales and other forest management projects.

“This discretionary protest process was largely duplicative of other opportunities for public involvement,” including opportunities for public comment mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, according to an advance notice published in today’s Federal Register.

Appeals of BLM forest management decisions can still be filed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a Federal Register notice that it will not elevate the status of the northern spotted owl to Endangered from Threatened:

“After a thorough review of the best available scientific and commercial information, we find that reclassification of the northern spotted owl from a threatened species to an endangered species is warranted but precluded by higher priority actions to amend the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. We will develop a proposed rule to reclassify the northern spotted owl as our priorities allow.”

This part isn’t news, bur the statement states that:

“Based on our review of the best available scientific and commercial information pertaining to the factors affecting the northern spotted owl, we find that the stressors acting on the subspecies and its habitat, particularly rangewide competition from the nonnative barred owl and high-severity wildfire, are of such imminence, intensity, and magnitude to indicate that the northern spotted owl is now in danger of extinction throughout all of its range.” [emphasis added]

Smokey Wire folks, I’m interested in what you think of the Forest-Climate Working Group’s policy platform for the 117th Congress, especially the legislative proposals. The group doesn’t mention an amount for boosting FIA, but they’re working on a recommended amount.

Background:

The Forest-Climate Working Group (FCWG), formed in 2007, has 58 members, including forest products companies Weyerhaeuser, Hancock Natural Resource Group and others), associations (such as the Society of American Foresters and the National Association of State Foresters), conservation organizations (the Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy), forest carbon project managers (Finite Carbon, the Climate Trust), and other organizations. Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), the outdoor gear and clothing retailer, is a member.

The FCWG is guided by four key principles:

• Climate change is real, and forests must be part of our nation’s response.
• Keeping forests as forests is the foundation to all forest-climate solutions.
• Forests can do even more to slow climate change if we provide the right science and financial incentives to help private forest owners and public land managers plant and re-plant forests, and manage with an eye to carbon.
• Protecting forests from climate change is equally as important as trapping more carbon in forests. Many forest resources could be lost to the stresses of climate change, and cutting edge-science has showed that US forests will lose their capacity to store carbon, and release lots of carbon already stored, if we don’t help forests adapt.

The policy platform outlines four main goals:

1. Maintain and expand forest cover
2. Improve forest practices for carbon, adaptation, and resilience
3. Advance markets for forest carbon, forest products, and skilled labor
4. Enhance climate data and applied science

The platform also proposes five legislative actions to help accomplish the goals:

1. Create a new Forest Conservation Easement Program (FCEP) with mandatory funding at $100 million annually that is in addition to funds for existing agriculture and forest easement programs.
2. Pass the REPLANT Act, which would eliminate the cap on the Reforestation Trust Fund (RTF), currently $30 million per year, and require the US Forest Service to address the 1.3-million acre reforestation backlog within 10 years while ensuring the use of best forestry practices.
3. Establish a transferrable tax credit to incentivize carbon sequestration in privately-owned forests, with credits provided for increased carbon sequestration.
4. Create a new construction tax credit for building with materials with lower carbon footprint, with safeguards to ensure positive outcomes for forests and the climate.
5. Strengthen the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program by accelerating data collection on the base grid to a 5-year remeasurement cycle nationwide, fully funded with federal appropriations, and adding additional statistical research capacity