The Smokey Wire : National Forest News and Views

This just in from an anonymous source (“regular contributor”):

By The Associated Press Follow on Twitter
on April 01, 2013 at 6:35 PM, updated April 02, 2013 at 10:11 AM

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected a proposal by the federal government that would have dropped nearly 4 million acres of designated “critical habitat” for the marbled murrelet.

The consent decree proposed last summer would have partially settled a lawsuit brought by the American Forest Resource Council, southwestern Oregon’s Douglas County and the Carpenters Industrial Council against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The groups argued the agency inappropriately set aside habitat for the bird in 1996.

The threatened seabird nests in coastal forests in Oregon, Washington and California.

Conservation groups opposed the proposal, saying the birds are in decline and it was important to keep habitat protections in place.

Judge John H. Bates denied the consent decree last week but also suggested that a modified proposal could be acceptable.

A Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman said Monday the agency is reviewing the ruling.

— The Associated Press

Here’s how Oregon Public Broadcasting saw it: http://www.opb.org/news/article/environmental-group-fights-delay-in-marbled-murrelet-habitat-protections/

Here’s how the Kansas City “infoZine” saw it: http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/55497/

Ruidoso, NM (April 2, 2013) – Today, U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce released a report he requested last summer on recent fires in New Mexico.

“Today’s report is a step toward the transparent, locally-driven approach to forest management that New Mexico needs,” said Pearce.  “New Mexicans have expressed anger and frustration over the handling of recent fires, which needlessly cost hundreds of millions of dollars, destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat, and killed countless plants and animals.  By understanding thoroughly what has gone wrong with fire management in past summers, we can work to improve our fire prevention and forestry policies, starting now.”

The report was sponsored by the National Institute for the Elimination of Catastrophic Wildfire, and authored by Bill Derr, who retired as special agent in charge of the California Region for the US Forest Service.  The report, which was completed at no cost to taxpayers, details what went wrong with the suppression efforts of the Whitewater-Baldy Complex and Little Bear Fires last summer.  It recommends that the Forest Service manage our nation’s forests in accordance with the Organic Act of 1897, review the National Fire Policy, calculate the total cost of wildfires beyond suppression, and that Congress should reform the Equal Access to Justice Act to prevent special interest groups from dictating forestry policy in an unscientific manner at taxpayer expense.

The full text of the report is here: http://pearce.house.gov/firereport

 Story here:  http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-29/business/38123010_1_counties-pilt-taxes-program

The U.S. Forest Service’s demands that rural timber counties pay back millions of dollars in federal subsidies under automatic budget cuts have outraged members of Congress from both parties and caused concern in those counties with struggling economies.

Thirty-one members of the House this week sent a letter to the Obama administration protesting demands that they return $17.9 million in revenues that pay for schools, roads, search and rescue operations in rural counties as well as for conservation projects.

Letter from Congress:  http://naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/03-28-13lettertosecvilsack.pdf

Depending on where you stand on idea of States taking over federal land and the “community forest trust” notion, press like the above is either a blessing or a curse.  Here in Idaho the idea, for better or worse, it’s gaining traction, regardless of the idea’s ultimate legality.

As an (almost) lifelong resident of a small community I’m torn.  I have kids just entering the school system and have already seen and dread the future effects of the budget cuts.  As a forester, I can understand the sex-appeal of tapping into the vast acreages of timber to offset  to the loss of SRS.  Unfortunately, I’m stuck in the middle as a practioner of the NEPA and all the other environmental regs. that need to be adhered to in order to cut a tree off the National Forests these days.   The regs aren’t necessarily confictling, per-se, but they aren’t easy to navigate either.  Darned if you do, darned if you don’t. 

It was a little disheartening for me and some colleagues to see the above press making the front page splash, especially after years of efforts to satisy both sides (more timber harvested in an environmentally benign fashion).  Unfortunately, the locals (and certain members of Congress) will continue to blame the FS for a lack of management, and the discontent for the FS and enviro’s (after all they’re the root cause – right!?!)  will continue to grow.  

I’m starting to think that Andy’s suggestion of  a “diabolical plot” to squash the FS might not be so off-the-mark after all.       

Interesting post from Forest2Market’s blog about Greenpeace’s activities after the 2010 Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. Suz-Anne Kinney includes a few excerpts from Patrick Moore’s book, Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout:

http://www.forest2market.com/blog/canadian-boreal-forest-agreement-survives-greenpeace-misinformation-campaig

“Ironically, [Greenpeace’s] retreat from science and logic was partly a response to society’s growing acceptance of environmental values. Some activists simply couldn’t make the transition from confrontation to consensus; it was as if they needed a common enemy. When a majority of people decide they agree with all your reasonable ideas the only way you can remain confrontational and antiestablishment is to adopt ever more extreme positions, eventually abandoning science and logic altogether in favor of zero-tolerance policies.”

IMHO, this applies to some, but not all, “ENGOs” in the US, such as the Center for Biological Diversity.

Paul Fattig has written a nice summary on the NW Forest Conference of 20 years ago — the effects of which have continued to be felt to the present day:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130331/NEWS/303310330

My favorite quote is Jack Ward Thomas’s memory of Clinton’s summary speech: “When it ended, I remember being overwhelmed with his eloquence but I can’t remember what the hell he said.”

People are always somewhat surprised when I tell them that the air quality in Missoula, Montana – especially during the winters months – is right up there with the worst air in the nation.  To say Missoula has a fragile ‘air-shed’ would be a significant understatement.

In fact, a 2011 American Lung Association “State of the Air” report, gave Missoula’s air quality a D grade, which doesn’t sound too great, except that the grade for the previous few years was an F.   From time to time the air gets so bad in Missoula that the Missoula City-County Health Department has to issue a Stage 2 air pollution warning, alerting the public that particulate pollution in Missoula’s air exceeds national limits.  Yep, this is basically Missoula’s ‘dirty’ secret, as Missoula ranks 59th among the 230 most-polluted American cities for short-term particle pollution.

Clearly the geography of the Missoula Valley and our wintertime weather patterns are a big reason why our air is so bad.  The valley is prone to some pretty severe inversions, which can last for weeks, and weeks.

Today, the Missoulian is reporting that Roseburg Forest Products – one of the more vocal supporters of Senator Tester’s mandated logging bill, the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act – will be paying $130,925 for “numerous permit violations over the previous five years at its Missoula particleboard plant.” Here’s more information from the article:

“State officials say that in 2011 Roseburg submitted revised air pollution monitoring reports that revealed numerous permit violations over the previous five years at its Missoula particleboard plant.  Violations included improperly certifying that the company was in compliance with its air quality permit, failing to inspect equipment and not using gasoline vapor control equipment.”

Apparently, the $130,925 will go towards a wood-stove change-out program up in community of Seeley Lake, which sits an hour north of the Missoula Valley and during the winter-months may have even worse air quality than Missoula.

Finally, it should also be pointed out that while Roseburg Forest Products was repeatedly violating air pollution standards, they were also part of a $30,000 statewide newspaper ad campaign calling for more logging of our national forests by exempting many Montana timber sales from judicial review and the citizen appeal process.

UPDATE: The Missoulian is reporting that the mill manager was fired as a result of these air pollution violations.