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: agency exceeded forest restoration goals for 2014

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This USFS press release was entitled “US Forest Service Waives Fees in Honor of Veteran’s Day” — oops! Should have been “U.S. Forest Service Exceeds Yearly Forest Restoration Goals.”

“sustained or restored watershed conditions on 2.9 million acres”

Sustained conditions? What does that mean? They didn’t burn? <tongue in cheek comment>

 
WASHINGTON, November 12, 2014— The U.S. Forest Service today announced that it exceeded its forest restoration goals for Fiscal Year 2014, highlighting the agency’s continued commitment to improving the health of the America’s National Forests, reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfire, and protecting watersheds. 
 
“The Forest Service has made strategic investments across all agency programs to advance our efforts to create resilient forests and sustainable communities,” said U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. “This work reduces the wildland fire threat to communities and firefighters and minimizes the risk of forest pests and climate change, while supporting American jobs and rural economies.”
 
In FY 2014, the Forest Service met or exceeded its restoration goals. Projects lessened the threat to communities by reducing hazardous fuels on 1.7 million acres in the wildland urban interface, sustained or restored watershed conditions on 2.9 million acres and resulted in 2.8 billion board feet of timber volume sold. The agency met its goals in a year where it lost staff time due to the government shutdown and when it continued to confront rising costs of fire-fighting that drain resources from forest restoration and management activities.   
 
The Forest Service was also successful in leveraging partnerships to help meet its ecological restoration goals. Partners, including conservation groups, forest industry, local communities, sportsmen, and others assisted with monitoring of resource conditions and project implementation as a component of adaptive management. The diverse programs, tools and activities used include: the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLR), Stewardship Contracting  Authority , Good Neighbor Authority and other 2014 Farm Bill provisions. The agency will continue to expand use of these authorities in the coming year.
Chief Tidwell said for FY 2015, the Forest Service is positioned to accelerate efforts to restore forest health and reduce wildland fire threats to communities. Current bi-partisan legislation supports the Obama Administration’s call for a change in how wildfire suppression is funded and that would free up more funding to implement projects to improve the resiliency of forests and rangelands. The agency’s 2015 budget request to Congress included more funding for key programs to allow the Forest Service to increase acres treated and timber harvests to 3.1 billion board feet. This adjustment will allow the Forest Service to continue to reduce wildland fire threats to communities while shrinking the agency total budget request for 2015.
The 2014 Farm Bill also included a provision that allowed governors to recommend, with secretarial approval, the designation of 44 million acres where the Forest Service can use insect and disease authority to more quickly address forest health issues.
Nationwide, 23 CFLR projects provide economic support to local communities. In FY 2013, those  projects helped create or maintain over 5,300 part and full-time jobs, bringing total labor income for that year to over $195 million. Collectively, between FY 2010-2013, the  projects generated 838 million board feet of timber sold and nearly 2 million green tons of woody biomass, available for bio-energy production.  The FY 2014 statistics will be available in early December and they are expected to be higher than FY 2013 contributions. The Agency will continue to implement these projects in FY 2015 as a pathway to achieve the 3.1 billion board feet of timber harvest target.  USDA and the Forest Service are also working to support expanding markets for biomass for energy and building materials.
America’s natural resources are integral to the social, ecological, and economic well-being of the nation, and the Forest Service plays a vital role in their care for current and future generations.  The Forest Service’s restorative actions draw on multiple programs and are implemented by prioritizing investments and managing performance to best meet the goals for resilient landscapes.
They improve ecosystems’ ability to absorb, or recover from the effects of disturbances through preservation, restoration, or improvement of its essential structures and functions and redundancy of ecological patterns across the landscape.
 
The mission of the Forest Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world. Public lands the Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone. Those same lands provide 20 percent of the Nation’s clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year. The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the U.S., of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live.
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“How litigation has shaped the Forest Service”

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More on litigation and forest management in the Northern Region:

Law of the land: How litigation has shaped the Forest Service

“The Northern Region has experienced a relatively high level of litigation,” said Forest Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown. “From 2008 through 2013, the region had more than 70 projects litigated. In recent years, litigation has encumbered as much as 40 to 54 percent of the region’s planned timber harvest volume.”

Wash. Gov. Requests Restoration on 720K Acres of Federal Forestland

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Areas selected based on collaboration and public input. That’s good, but its a shame than the USFS can’t “do the right thing” on its own.

Press release from Gov. Jay Inslee:

 

Governor Inslee Requests Forest Health Restoration on 720,000 Acres of Federal Forestland

October 31, 2014

Olympia, WA – Gov. Jay Inslee today asked the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to designate 720,000 acres of federal land in Washington to allow for expedited and prioritized forest health treatments and restoration efforts.

The work would be done on acreage selected by Eastern Washington residents through a joint public engagement process conducted by the governor and Commissioner of Public Lands, Peter Goldmark.

“Our state’s devastating wildfire season has again emphasized the need for broad efforts to restore forest health and resiliency across the eastern Washington landscape,” Inslee wrote to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

The Agricultural Act of 2014, commonly known as the Farm Bill, authorized governors to identify insect and disease treatment areas within national forests in their states that suffer from severe forest health issues and should be prioritized in federal planning of forest health treatments.

Areas of the Okanogan, Wenatchee, Colville, Umatilla, and Gifford Pinchot National Forests are included in the governor’s recommendations. These landscapes are suffering from acute forest health hazards caused by parasitic insects and tree diseases, resulting in heightened mortality risks. Forest conditions in many of these same areas also exhibit an increased susceptibility to wildfires.

If the Secretary of Agriculture approves Inslee’s request, the forestland will receive special authorities for quicker environmental planning. Projects would be done through a collaborative process with multiple local stakeholder groups. The Farm Bill also allows for up to $200 million a year to address forest health in the designated areas. Congress will consider appropriating funds in subsequent appropriations bills.

In June, five stakeholder meetings were held throughout eastern Washington. Participating groups included the North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative, the Tapash Sustainable Forest Collaborative, the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, the South Gifford Pinchot Task Force, and the Umatilla Collaborative. In addition, members of the public and representatives of local, state, federal and tribal governments attended many of these meetings. Members provided input on which high priority areas should receive designation.

“A year’s worth of wood in litigation” in Region 1

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Here are some numbers on the amount of timber under litigation. According to this article:

Timber sales spike in the Bighorns

Timber isn’t a big industry in the Bighorn Mountains, but timber sales in the area have spiked in numbers not seen since the housing market crashed in 2008. Litigation over timber sales in Montana coupled with widespread devastation from the mountain pine beetle have sent Montana logging companies south to the Bighorns.”

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Evidence points to litigation over timber sales in Montana’s federal forests tying up timber companies. While companies like R-Y Timber Inc. estimate that as much as 40 percent of timber sales are under litigation right now in Montana, the U.S. Forest Service claims it’s actually less than 30 percent at any given time.

“We have a year’s worth of wood in litigation right now,” said Tom Martin, supervisor of timber management for the Forest Service for the Northern Region that encompasses Montana.

In Montana, 23 percent of current timber sales in the national forests are under appeal, encumbering contractors from harvesting those trees, said Elizabeth Slown, spokesperson for the Northern Region. Most of the litigation centers around Montana’s grizzly and lynx habitat.

Lawmakers vent to feds, assert forest fire inaction

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The article, “Lawmakers vent to feds, assert forest fire inaction,” might have been titled “Lawmakers vent to feds, assert Congressional inaction.”

“If you are going to be the landowner, the landlord, we look to you to for the responsibility in taking the lead,” said Rep. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville.

I understand that view, but the main problem is that the USFS and BLM are hamstrung by protracted environmental planning and collaboration processes, too-frequent lawsuits or the fear of them, and inadequate funding or misplaced funding priorities.

Equal Access to Justice Act: 200+ Lawsuits filed nationwide by AWR in 25 years

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According to this article, “3 Montana environmental groups file 200 lawsuits against federal agencies,” in the Ravalli Republic, “The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Montana Ecosystems Defense Council and the Native Ecosystems Council are the three conservation groups that have been the most litigious in recent years [since 1989] in the Helena region. The groups have been involved in more than 200 court cases nationwide as plaintiffs or co-plaintiffs against federal agencies like the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

UPDATE NOTE:  I just edited the title of this post because the original title used by Steve Wilent was factually incorrect. Steve’s original title was “Equal Access to Justice Act: 200+ Lawsuits filed in Montana.” That title was clearly factually incorrect because as the article clearly points out (and ironically as Steve’s post lated point out):  “The groups have been involved in more than 200 court cases nationwide as plaintiffs or co-plaintiffs against federal agencies like the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

Garrity: Taxpayer subsidized logging make no sense

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An excerpt from an op-ed by our old friend Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, entitled “Taxpayer subsidized logging make no sense“:

“The Gazette found the Forest Service in Montana generated $5.4 million in revenue 2013, of which $4.1 million came from timber sales. But here’s the rub: that amounts to only about 2.2 percent of the $179 million the Forest Service spent in Montana in 2013 on discretionary projects, timber sale preparation, salaries, and transportation. Maintaining campgrounds and trails and cleaning outhouses represents a small portion of the Forest Service budget in Montana and that was mostly off-set by the $1.3 million in revenue the agency collected from recreation fees in 2013. In other words, the Forest Service in Montana spent $179 million, mostly on timber sales, in Montana but only received $4.1 million in revenue from these sales. They lost millions on logging.”

How much of the “subsidy” is spent on the additional planning to avoid lawsuits by groups like Garrity’s, and defending itself from same?