Steve Wilent

Steve Wilent is a forester, journalist, and educator. All of the opinions he expresses on Smokey Wire are his, not necessarily those of anyone else. Steve previously served as Editor, The Forestry Source, the newspaper of The Society of American Foresters (SAF, www.eforester.org). He's been a member of the SAF since 1982. He also teaches forestry at Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham, Oregon.

USFS hiring Wildland Firefighters into permanent seasonal positions

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This is from Aug 20….

Hold the line! The Forest Service is Hiring Wildland Firefighters in Oregon and Washington

Release Date: 

Jennifer O’Leary Risdal
Fire Communications Officer
(541) 731 – 0390
jennifer.o’[email protected]

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 20, 2024— The Forest Service is hiring Wildland Firefighters into permanent seasonal positions on hand crews, engine crews, hotshot crews, and more. Make a lasting impact on the world around you and unlock opportunities for professional growth and career advancement. Join the Forest Service’s Oregon or Washington fire organization and be a part of the team that is committed to caring for the land and serving people. Our mission is to protect our natural resources for multiple uses for today and future generations.

The Forest Service is holding an in-person recruitment event to fill approximately 200 entry level, GS-3/4 wildland firefighter permanent seasonal positions. Join us on Sept. 12, 2024, from 12 PM to 6 PM PST at any of the following locations:

  • Wenatchee, WA – Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Supervisors Office, 215 Melody Lane, Wenatchee, WA 98801.
  • Redmond, OR – Deschutes County Fairgrounds, OSU Extension Office, 3800 SW Airport Way Bldg. 4, Redmond, OR 97756 *Note, this event takes place from 1:00-6:00 PM PST
  • Mt. Hood National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 16400 Champion Way, Sandy, OR 97055
  • La Grande Ranger District, 3502 Hwy 30, La Grande, OR 97850

Applicants are invited to come and meet regional fire staff, get application help, and learn about the benefits of working for the Forest Service.

Applicants can also apply online. Jobs will be posted on USAJobs.gov from Aug. 23 – Sept. 24 using the direct hire authority. Review the job announcement carefully for deadlines and required information to include in your application. Employment start dates may vary.

For more information visit the National Wildland Firefighting Hiring webpage. Find a detailed list and a map of positions and duty locations on our Regional Fire Hire webpage.

Visit the Forest Service Careers webpage to learn more about career opportunities, benefits, hiring events, and resources to help with the application process.

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NYTimes.com: Lessons From a Burning (Canadian) Forest

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FYI, folks, Canada’s Boreal forests are

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription.

Lessons From a Burning Forest

Canada’s boreal forests are burning faster than they can regrow, but controlled fires may be one of the best ways to protect local communities.

Excerpt:

For centuries, Indigenous Canadians burned their lands during the spring, when the grass was dry and the forest was wet, in what are known as cultural burns. Elders looked for cues that can’t exactly be marked on a calendar, like signs the local snow was almost ready to melt, or when the ducks started to nest, as elders in Alberta explained in a 1979 documentary.

These burns protected their homes from insects, induced lush sprouting that attracted animals they hunted, and, perhaps most crucially, fireproofed their communities. The flames weren’t hot enough to kill the trees, just burn branches and leaves that, if left unattended, could fuel bigger fires during summer.

But near the end of the 19th century, Canada started banning cultural burns and fining anyone who practiced them. Slowly, what were meadows became flammable forests, and blazes grew harder to control, Cardinal Christianson said. “This idea of fire suppression or fire exclusion has got us in this problem,” she told me.

…

Increasing temperatures dry up vegetation and help fuel big wildfires. But if there is too much of this fuel around communities, the damage inflicted by fires can be a lot worse.

“I’m of the opinion that, sure, a lot of it is climatic, but a lot of it is due to past decisions,” said Marc-André Parisien, a senior researcher at the Canadian Forest Service and an author of the Nature study.

While many communities around Canada are still in favor of suppression, some policies are changing. The latest example was the inclusion of cultural burnings in the wildfire strategy Canada issued in 2023. There are examples of this shift in the United States, too. Jim Robbins reported on one program from California recently.

Fire management isn’t a substitute for stopping climate change. There are limits to how much fire humans can actually manage in a landscape as huge as the boreal forests, which stretches through three continents.

Still, when it comes to protecting local residents, controlled fire may be one of the best tools available. But Cardinal Christianson told me a lot of work still needs to be done to make up for decades of fire suppression.

“The knowledge has been there,” she said. “What we really need are opportunities to be able to get together to learn and exchange knowledge.”

NSO vs. Barred Owls: A Dystopian Effort to Pick Ecological Winners and Losers

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This New York Times essay will be of interest to many of us TSW denizens….

A Dystopian Effort Is Underway in the Pacific Northwest to Pick Ecological Winners and Losers

Excerpt:

Very soon, the federal government may authorize the killing of nearly a half-million barred owls in the Pacific Northwest in a desperate bid to save the northern spotted owl. The killing could go on for decades.

As philosophers in Oregon whose work focuses on scientific and ethical issues regarding animals and the environment, we believe that the reasons given for this mass slaughter are deeply problematic. More broadly, this attempt to pick ecological winners and losers in a rapidly changing world shows how ill equipped the Endangered Species Act is to protect rare and important ecosystems.

…

We should strive to care for ecosystems given their current ecological realities. Ecosystems are dynamic and have always changed over time as organisms move around. And now, humans are inescapable drivers of ecological changes. Climate change and wildfire have accelerated the dynamism of ecosystems. Killing barred owls will not restore the forests to the way they were in 1850.

NEPA as a Scapegoat

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Another link from Nick Smith:

Guest Essay – NEPA as a Scapegoat

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Excerpt:

This essay was sent to us by a long-time US Forest Service employee in response to comments I made yesterday on the Lookout Livestream. It addresses some of the structural problems crippling the US Forest Service, and provides their perspective on major changes they experienced across their career on the Lassen National Forest, in Northern California.

While I certainly would agree that NEPA, like probably any government process, can be streamlined, I also believe that NEPA has become a scapegoat to direct attention away from more fundamental issues within the agency.

The reason I feel this way is that I know how productive the Lassen was during the Quincy Library Group (QLG) period. Forest employees were working their asses off trying to meet annual targets that were legislated to meet, but the morale was high and the Forest was productive, much more productive than now.

Stanislaus RoD on SERAL 2 Project

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Nick Smith has a link in his email today about this.

The U.S. Forest Service has released Stanislaus National Forest Supervisor Jason Kuiken’s written decision for management of 110,000 acres of Forest Service lands in the Griswold Creek, Middle Fork Stanislaus, and South Fork Stanislaus watersheds.

Kuiken has approved most of the proposed actions for the project, which the Forest Service calls Social and Ecological Resilience Across the Landscape 2.0 — SERAL 2.0 for short.

The project docs are here. We discussed SERAL earlier this year. At that time, no litigation had been filed. Sharon had a link to this storymap on the project — great photos.

Will be interesting to see if that changes. Some of the project involves thinning in mature and old-growth stands, so some folks may make the usual “logging in old-growth forests!” claim.

 

Guardian: US Forest Service failing to protect old growth trees from logging, critics say

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Our old friends Chad Hanson and Dominick DellaSala are in the news again (or “news,” if you prefer), in an article in the UK’s Guardian. The article also quotes TSW regular Jim Furnish. Main point, aside from suggesting that the USFS isn’t doing enough to protect old-growth, is that they also aren’t protecting “mature” timber.  My opinion, for what it’s worth (not much!) is that this reads like a John Muir Project press release dressed up to seem like a news article.

The first photo in the article — caption, “Felled trees are stacked at the Humbolt Redwood Company sawmill in Scotia, California, in 2020,” are of relatively young coast redwoods, which can grow to that size in 50 years or so.

Subheading:

Biden’s efforts to save mature trees are not getting enough Forest Service support, according to some conservationists

Excerpt:

They are the ancient giants of America – towering trunks of sequoias or beech or ash that started to sprout in some cases before the age of the Roman empire, with the few survivors of a frenzy of settler logging now appreciated as crucial allies in an era of climate and biodiversity crises.

Joe Biden has vowed to protect these “cherished” remnants of old growth forest, as well as the next generation of mature forests, directing his government to draw up new plans to conserve the ecological powerhouses that enable US forests to soak up about 10% of the country’s carbon emissions, as well as provide a vital crucible for clean water and wildlife.

Yet, the US Forest Service has not included mature trees in this new plan, which also includes loopholes conservationists say allow ongoing felling of trees that are hundreds of years old. The Forest Service, responsible for 154 national forests and nearly 25m acres (10m hectares) of old growth trees in the US, has also largely declined to conduct required reviews of multiple logging projects amid a stampede of tree cutting that threatens the oldest, richest trees before any new curtailments are imposed.

“The largest logging projects I’ve ever seen are targeting the last, best remaining old growth trees left in the country,” said Chad Hanson, a forest ecologist and co-founder of the John Muir Project.

Hanson said the Forest Service had failed to properly follow the president’s directive, instead allowing logging that imperils the remaining trove of the US’s long-lived, untouched trees.

“We have a rogue agency in the Forest Service that is trying to benefit the logging industry before reforms take place,” he said. “The situation is rampant as far as I can tell and it risks squandering a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect these incredible forests.”

Effects of Jasper’s Fuels Reduction?

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These CBC articles are worth a look.

Jasper’s wildfire preparedness work put to the test as out-of-control fires threaten townsite
Parks Canada has been conducting prescribed burns since 2003

Excerpt:

For years, Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper have removed trees and branches, logged a firebreak, ignited controlled burns and asked residents to clear yard debris in hopes of protecting the forest-nestled town from a dangerous blaze.

Those mitigations may now be put to the test as out-of-control wildfires bear down on the Jasper townsite, according to wildfire experts.

Thousands of people were forced to flee the Jasper townsite and national park Monday night, as the threat of wildfire grew rapidly. 

“A big part of these treatments is not necessarily to stop the fire cold in its tracks, but to slow the fire and keep the fire on the surface rather than spreading fire in the canopy,” said Jen Beverly, a University of Alberta associate professor of agricultural, life and environmental science who studies wildfires.

It remains to be seen if the fuels treatments had any effect….

And there’s another article today:

Blaze that damaged Jasper, Alta., townsite was too powerful to stop, fire experts say

Mike Flannigan, a wildfire expert and professor at Kamloops’ Thompson Rivers University, says a trifecta of weather, geography and fuels can determine the severity of a wildfire.

Jasper National Park has been in a prolonged drought, scientists said. The forest is dense, and full of dead, dry lodgepole pine trees destroyed by a mountain pine beetle infestation. Flannigan said that strong wind funnelled the fire and its detritus down the valley toward the townsite.

He said the blaze became so large, it created its own thunderstorm — a phenomenon that also drove the Horse River wildfire on its destructive path into Fort McMurray in 2016.

In these conditions, the airborne embers the fire is spewing out can travel a couple of kilometres, Flannigan said. It leaves natural firebreaks like rivers, lakes and roads futile to stop the spread.

“And when the fires are that intense, there’s not much you can do to stop it,” Flannigan said during CBC Radio’s live coverage of the emergency on Thursday morning.

…

The fire should renew a conversation about the work all forested Canadian communities could be doing to prevent nearby blazes from becoming so threatening, he said. Those mitigations include thinning the surrounding forest, removing dead wood, constructing buildings with less flammable materials and considering more controlled burns and traditional Indigenous fire practices.

Federal Advisory Committee completes detailed set of recommendations for amending Northwest Forest Plan

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FYI, a USFS press release this morning….

Federal Advisory Committee completes detailed set of recommendations for amending Northwest Forest Plan
PORTLAND, Ore., July 24, 2024 — A Federal Advisory Committee has completed a comprehensive set of recommendations for amending the Northwest Forest Plan aimed at modernizing forest management practices across the Northwest Forest Plan area.

After developing the recommendations over the last 10 months, the Committee voted unanimously to approve and advance the completed recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture. The recommendations address critical issues such as ensuring tribes are included in land management planning and implementation, conserving mature and old growth forests and the species that rely on them, providing sustainable economic opportunities for rural communities, and supporting fire resiliency for forests and communities.

The recommendations come as part of an effort to update the NWFP, originally implemented in 1994, to better align with current environmental, social, and economic challenges.

“The recommendations from the Federal Advisory Committee represent a significant milestone in our efforts to update the Northwest Forest Plan,” said Jacque Buchanan, Regional Forester for the Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service. “These thoughtful proposals reflect a collaborative approach to addressing the complex challenges facing our forests today, including climate change, wildfire resilience, and the need for sustainable forest management. We are committed to carefully considering these recommendations as we move forward with the plan amendment process.”

The committee developed 192 recommendations targeting key areas that update the current NWFP. These areas include Tribal Inclusion and Rights, Economic Opportunities, Fire Resilience, Climate and Ecosystem Integrity, Carbon Sequestration and Storage, Community Protection, and Adaptive Management. The FAC also made a host of recommendations for how to develop Forest Stewardship- across the diverse NWFP landscape.

The FAC’s work provides a foundation for addressing these complex issues while honoring the plan’s original goals of ecosystem conservation, endangered species habitat protections, and sustainable timber production.

“What the Committee accomplished is historic,” said Northwest Forest Plan Federal Advisory Committee co-chairs Susan Jane Brown and Travis Joseph in a joint statement. “By unanimously approving dozens of meaningful recommendations to modernize the Northwest Forest Plan, this group has demonstrated the power of collaboration, consensus, and working together for a common cause. We all share a deep love and commitment to our national forests and people and communities that steward them.”

The 20-person committee is a diverse group from Tribes, local communities, environmental groups, industry, and academia across Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

“We tackled some of the most challenging and contentious issues that ignited the Northwest Forest Wars,” Brown and Joseph wrote. “While we recognize our work does not address all the issues and injustices of the Northwest Forest Plan, the Committee’s consensus recommendations represent the most significant progress in the last 30 years to achieve our shared values for responsible forest stewardship on national forests in the Pacific Northwest.”

The Forest Service will carefully review the FAC’s recommendations as the agency works toward amending the Northwest Forest Plan. Public engagement opportunities will be announced in the coming months as the plan amendment process moves forward.

The Federal Advisory Committee’s recommendations can be viewed here:

·    NWFP FAC Recommendations  direct link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1188978.pdf

The Northwest Forest Plan is a comprehensive plan for administering parts of federally managed lands in Oregon, Washington and California. The plan was designed to protect old-growth forests and critical habitat for the northern spotted owl, while also providing for forest products, water quality, recreation and other uses.

For more information visit:  

·    Northwest Forest Plan Federal Advisory Committee: https://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/r6/nwfpfac

·    Northwest Forest Plan: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6/reo/  

·    The Pacific Northwest Region: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6

For more news & information about National Forests in the Pacific Northwest, visit our news page at https://www.fs.usda.gov/news/r6/news-events or our home page, at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6.

 

For more information about the USDA Forest Service visit https://www.fs.usda.gov.