Sen. Ron Wyden has succeeded in pushing his O&C lands act through committee. There are lots of points in the act to discuss, but this one is interesting. I haven’t been paying close attention to the bill since last year. This provision for Private Landowner Actions on Federal Land was included in the Dec. 2013 version of the bill, but the amended bill just approved by the committee adds one key change — see Section F below….
‘‘(B) PRIVATE LANDOWNER ACTIONS ON FEDERAL LAND.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL
.—Without a permit from the
Secretary, a person may enter and treat adjacent
Federal land in a Dry or Moist Forestry Emphasis
Area that is located within 100 feet of the residence
of that person if—
‘‘(A) the residence is in existence on the
date of enactment of the Oregon and California
Land Grant Act of 2014;
‘‘(B) the treatment is carried out at the
expense of the person;
‘‘(C) the person notifies the Secretary of
the intent to treat that land; and
‘‘(D) the Secretary has adequate super-
visory, monitoring, and enforcement resources
to ensure that the person carries out the treat-
ment activities in accordance with paragraph (3).
…
‘‘(A) No dead tree, nest tree, legacy tree,
or tree greater than 16 inches in diameter shall
be cut.
‘‘(B) No herbicide or insecticide applica18
tion shall be used.
‘‘(C) Vegetation shall be cut so that—
‘‘(i) less flammable species are favored
for retention; and
‘‘(ii) the adequate height and spacing
between bushes and trees are maintained.
‘‘(D) Any residual trees shall be pruned…
…
‘‘(F) Any material of commercial value
generated by the activity authorized in paragraph (1)
is the property of the United States.
The following article was written by Josh Schlossberg and appears in the current issue of the Boulder Weekly. – mk
Drive along Highway 119 south of Nederland or Highway 9 south of Frisco and you’ll see large swaths of bare soil and scattered slash — including entire hillsides — where once there was forest. These aren’t future subdivisions, but the Arapaho and White River National Forests.
The U.S. Forest Service is undertaking logging with the goal of keeping communities and the forest safe from wildfire. The project is funded by taxpayers to the tune of $1,200 per acre. But some locals, upset about the changes to the forest they know and love, are questioning if logging can really protect their homes and whether wildfire is as much of a threat to the forest as they’re being told.
Some residents of the mountain towns Nederland and Frisco are up in arms about these “fuel reduction” logging projects. Forest Service efforts often include cutting down thousands of acres of public forests that many enjoy as a quiet place to recreate, including the popular West Magnolia Mountain Bike Trail in Nederland and the section of the nationally renowned Colorado Trail outside of Frisco.
The Ophir Mountain Forest Health and Fuels Reduction Project consists of 1,500 acres of clearcuts in the White River National Forest outside of Frisco, with trees chipped and trucked 70 miles to the Eagle Valley Clean Energy biomass facility in Gypsum. The Lump Gulch Fuel Treatment Project will cut 500 acres in the Arapaho National Forest outside of Nederland, with much of the material piled to burn on site, according to Marcia Gilles, public affairs specialist for the Arapaho National Forest. Both areas have recently experienced the native mountain pine beetle, an epidemic that peaked between 2007 and 2009 and has since subsided.
The Forest Service contends that logging these forests, which are in some cases miles from the nearest home, will “protect communities and restore natural processes to forest ecosystems.” Yet some Coloradans point to science demonstrating that logging is often ineffective at stopping large wildfires and can even make them spread more quickly by opening the forest to sunlight and wind.
“We have learned that forest thinning is rarely effective under extreme burning conditions, and the severity of fire in adjacent forests has little to do with whether a home burns,” says Tania Schoennagel research scientist at University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and co-author of a new study titled Learning to Coexist with Wildfire.
While the wisdom of logging to prevent wildfire continues to be debated, the most effective action homeowners can take to prevent their homes from burning is to tend an area 100 feet to 200 feet surrounding the structure, called the home ignition zone, according to the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station. One study showed 95 percent of homes with metal roofs and a maintained area of 30 feet to 60 feet survived fires.
Vivian Long of Nederland, president of the Magnolia Forest Group, says she doesn’t subscribe to the Forest Service “rationale of logging for fire protection to save us from the big fire.” She’s concerned that clearcutting will simply create another “spindly, lodgepole thicket” in the forest, which the agency might want to log again in the future for the same reason. Her group is in discussion with the agency in hopes of amending some of the ongoing logging in the area.
As in Nederland, locals in Frisco are concerned that logging will have a negative impact on recreational resources that are a national draw, including ski areas and the Colorado and Continental Divide trails.
Having spoken to forestry experts and studied the woods as he hikes, Howard Brown of Silverthorne says he would prefer to see the lodgepole pines around trails like the Peaks Trail left alone to eventually become spruce-fir climax forest, rather than turned into a “war zone.” He’s worried about the harm to the local resort community of Breckenridge, as the clearcuts transform from “thickets, to overgrown Christmas tree lots, to dense scrawny lodgepole monoculture.”
“When you live next to the forest, there’s a chance there’s going to be a forest fire,” says Frisco resident Don Cacace, who has opposed the Ophir Mountain project since its inception. “The last thing we want to do is cut down the forest.”
No one denies the inevitability of wildfire in Colorado. Rocky Mountain forests have evolved with fire over the millennia as a natural and essential component of western forest ecosystems. Fire kills off some trees to make room for future growth, returns vital nutrients to the soil and creates wildlife habitat.
Over the past century, attempts have been made to suppress wildfire out of concern for communities and at the behest of the timber industry. The perspective of industry, the Forest Service, and some environmental groups is that fire suppression has resulted in overgrown forests full of dangerous “fuel” — either dense stands of live trees or beetle kill — that is causing more frequent and destructive wildfires. The proposed cure for these sick forests is a logging prescription that will restore the forest and keep people safe, while gleaning some merchantable lumber or biomass energy.
Recent science has challenged these assumptions, demonstrating that wild fires, including large, catastrophic ones, were historically quite common in Colorado and that large fires are more a product of drought, high temperatures and wind than fuel levels. Studies have shown that large wildfires are often just as likely to burn through clearcuts devoid of most fuels, as they are through densely-stocked forests.
While beetle-killed trees in the Rockies have been impossible to ignore, Bill Romme, who teaches forest and fire ecology at Colorado State University, says there is “little or no such relationship between beetle-caused tree mortality and subsequent fire occurrence and severity in lodgepole pine forests,” as quoted in an article written for NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Scott Fitzwilliams, forest supervisor of the White River National Forest, acknowledges the controversy, yet explains the need for projects such as Ophir Mountain and the upcoming Keystone Vegetation Management to give firefighters a “chance to protect homes, property and power lines.” He is also concerned about what’s going to happen over the next few years when beetle-killed trees start falling, risking the safety of recreationists and creating a “tangled mess.”
As more and more people inhabit Colorado’s forests, the chance of a community experiencing wildfire increases. Federal, regional, state and local grants are available for home treatments, while Saws and Slaws is bringing community members around Nederland, Coal Creek Canyon and Sugarloaf together to make homes firewise and feast together afterward, with projects starting up again in the spring.
No matter what happens in the forest, Fitzwilliams says the Forest Service is going to feel the heat. If they cut trees in an attempt to prevent wildfire, they’ll be criticized by those who’d rather see nature take its course. If they do nothing and a wildfire ignites, they’ll be blamed for that, too. Fitzwilliams says there’s science and emotion on all sides of the issue, and adds “we’re going to have to make some choices that are sometimes hard to swallow.”
Madeline Green and Allison Erny practice “buck-sawing” with Cal Logging Sports at the Russell Research Station. Courtesy of Anya Schultz.
Our information network is full of surprises. I found this on Craig Rawlings’ Forest Business Network. Joe McBride, quoted in this article was one of my professors, lo these many years ago.
Here’s a quote:
Cal Logging Sports, a traditional sport for old-time male loggers, is just one part of UC Berkeley’s forestry and natural resources major. The program is one of only a handful in the state and the most female dominated by far.
“They have more resources and coaches and a lot more burly men,” said Gonen of other forestry programs, such as those at Humboldt State and Cal Poly. “But we have spirit, and we have a lot of fun.”
Berkeley’s forestry program has 32 majors that study the art and science of managing forested landscapes. More than two-thirds of the students are female.
“This isn’t a national trend. It’s something unique here at Berkeley,” said professor Kevin O’Hara, the advisor for the forestry club on campus. “Forestry has been a male-dominated field forever.”
Berkeley’s program, which has been around since 1914, reached an equal gender ratio in the 1980s. Only eight women had graduated from the program before 1965. It has since turned mostly female.
Despite the traditional image of a male lumberjack logging in the forest, the women of the program recognize the value of their trade. A quarter of California is forest, and there are more than 6 million acres in the Sierra Nevada alone that need restoration. After graduation, forestry students will likely work for the U.S. Forest Service or private industry, playing a vital role in managing and protecting the state’s increasingly threatened forested landscapes. Forests are the home to beloved national parks and are the heart and soul of many northern California counties whose primary industry is logging.
“If you want to build a house, you need us. If you want paper, you need us,” said Green, a forestry student. “If you want toilet paper, you need us. If you want your kids to see forests, you need us.”
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 reducinghazardous 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 Authorityand 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.
“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.”
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.
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.”
…
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.
This short video shows how soils were affected by the recent King Fire in California. Poor quality video (at least as far as the cameraman’s aiming skills go), but worth a look and would be a great learning tool for folks who don’t understand fire effects. The soil may wash off of the slopes, but there is plenty of black-backed woodpecker habitat….
Curious to know more, I read the press release looking for the 2020 Vision, or at least a link to it. Not there. Nor can Google find it. Nor is it where the news release says I “can learn more” at wilderness.net.
