forest management Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Federal government allocates over $6 billion to wildfire technology and management

By Lauren Gallup January 24, 2023

Firefighters stand in the distance with drip torches along a road surrounded by trees. A fire burns in the foreground of the picture. It's climbing up some smaller trees.

Lawmakers are allocating over $6 billion this fiscal year to support the Department of the Interior and the United States Forest Service in wildfire response. It’s an increase of 14% from the last year’s funding, and will support wildfire suppression, operations and a new research hub to aid fire management. This fiscal year, the forest service will see an increase of Read More

Rally Outside Board Of Natural Resources Meeting Demands Board To Address Call To Action

By Lauren Gallup September 9, 2022

Activists hold signs with demands for the Board of Natural Resources at the rally on September 6th. Photo by Lauren Gallup.

Hundreds gathered outside the Board of Natural Resources meeting in Olympia this week to demand the board make further commitments to forest conservation.Read More

“Prepare For Higher Than Average Fire Season,” Says Washington Forest Protection Association

By Lauren Paterson June 1, 2022

A woman walks through a thick green washington forest with light streaming in behind the trees.

Paula Swedeen, a forest policy specialist for the Washington Environmental Council, walks through forest land adjacent to Mount Rainier National Park. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Listen Reporter Lauren Paterson tells […]Read More

The Fight For Legacy Forests: Part Two – Why & How DNR Manages Forest Land

By Lauren Gallup March 23, 2022

The Washington Department of Natural Resources manages 3 million acres of forest land / Photo by Olena Sergienko, Unsplash Listen In the 2nd of her 8-part series “The Fight For […]Read More

The Fight For Legacy Forests – Part One: Defining What Should Be Preserved

By Lauren Gallup March 16, 2022

A battle is raging over how the DNR is managing and selling logging rights to state forest lands Listen NWPB reporter Lauren Gallup introduces us to her 8-part series on […]Read More

A Look At The Keep Washington Evergreen Initiative – Part Three: Reforestation

By Lauren Gallup December 16, 2021

Forested area in Washington. CREDIT: Connor Henricksen

The Keep Washington Evergreen initiative, proposed by public lands commissioner Hilary Franz in November, seeks to protect forests in the state over 20 years. In this final story, we look at the goal of reforestation.Read More

A Look At The Keep Washington Evergreen Initiative – Part Two: Protecting Forests From Conversion

By Lauren Gallup December 16, 2021

Forests provide vital habitat for wildlife, but they are under threat of development.

Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz introduced the Keep Washington Evergreen initiative at the end of November, which aims to protect and reestablish the state’s forests. In part two of this three part report, we look at the goal of protecting forests from conversion.Read More

A Look At The Keep Washington Evergreen Initiative – Part One: Restoring Forest Health

By Lauren Gallup December 16, 2021

Looking east at Washington Pass on Highway 20.

Conservation Groups Want Washington Forests Managed ‘For All The People’

By Courtney Flatt October 25, 2021

Many federal old-growth forests were protected in the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. (Credit: Paula Swedeen / Conservation Northwest)

At a Supreme Court hearing, conservation groups argued Washington forest managers should log fewer trees.Read More

In North Central Washington, Forest Thinning, Controlled Burns Help Slow Wildfire

By Courtney Flatt August 26, 2021

Forest managers said thinning this stand in North Central Washington and a controlled back burn set by firefighters helped trees survive this summer's Cedar Creek fire.

As wildfires have burned throughout the Northwest this summer, some forest stands have fared better than others. Managers say that’s thanks, in part, to thinning and prescribed burns, which have made the stands more resilient in the face of wildfire.Read More

‘Nothing Looks Good.’ Across The West, Firefighters Prepare For A Potentially Bad Fire Season

By NWPB News May 30, 2021

A couple embrace Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, while touring an area devastated by the Almeda Fire in Phoenix, Ore. John Locher/AP

Severe drought has turned forests and grasslands into dry fuels, ready to ignite from a careless camper or a lightning strike. More people are building in areas bordering wildlands, expanding the so-called wildland-urban interface, an area where wildfires impact people the most. Invasive, highly flammable vegetation is spreading uncontrolled across the West.Read More

Much More Than A Spotted Owl Fight: Northwest ‘Timber Wars’ Of 30 Years Ago Revisited In Podcast

By Scott Leadingham December 3, 2020

A northern spotted owl. CREDIT: Todd Sonflieth/OPB

Here’s a quick game: When you hear, “spotted owl,” what do you think of? If you were in the Northwest in the 1980s and 1990s, you may think of logging and a fight over endangered species versus jobs and lumber towns surviving. But there’s much more background in that fight than you may remember. Read More

Inland Northwest Trees Are Playing An Outsized Role In Curbing Climate Change, Study Says

By Jes Burns November 12, 2020

Thinning, mowing and prescribed fire are used in Ponderosa pine forests to maintain an open forest floor. CREDIT: Jes Burns/OPB/EarthFix

New research suggests that a U.S. Forest Service proposal to allow the cutting of larger trees on public lands east of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington will have an outsized impact on forest carbon storage in the Pacific Northwest.Read More

Experts To Western States: Time To Finally Fight Wildfires With More Fire

By NPR News October 27, 2020

a sign for a prescribed burn in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, Calif., remains posted two years after the fire. The prescribed burn, a low-intensity, closely managed fire, was intended to clear out undergrowth and protect the heart of Kings Canyon National Park from a future threatening wildfire. The tactic is considered one of the best ways to prevent the kind of catastrophic destruction that has become common, but its use falls woefully short of goals in the West. CREDIT: BRIAN MELLEY/AP

Experts warn that Western states and the federal government need to radically increase the number and size of controlled burns to help reduce the ongoing risks of more catastrophic wildfire seasons. Read More

Rule Protecting The Northwest’s Old-Growth Trees Is Under The Federal Government’s Ax

By Monica Samayoa August 12, 2020

Beyond the borders of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness are as much as 200,000 acres of undeveloped forest.

This latest rollback proposal, issued Tuesday, comes from the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region. It would end a 25-year-old provision that prevents logging of trees that exceed 21 inches in diameter in six national forests across Eastern Oregon and Washington.Read More

Forest Service Considers Rule Change That Prevented Logging Of Some Northwest Old-Growth Trees

By Courtney Flatt July 13, 2020

OSU scientists detect a tagged hermit warbler in the canopy of an old growth grove in the Oregon Cascades. Learning how the small song birds travel over the course of a day could provide insight into why bird populations are doing well in old growth forests while declining in other warming landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. CREDIT: GREG DAVIS

The land management plans, known as the “Eastside Screens,” came about in 1995 to protect old growth trees east of the Cascades. The rules were meant to be temporary. The Forest Service wants to amend a section of the policy called the “21-inch rule,” which prohibits harvesting trees that are greater than 21-inches in diameter.Read More

Research From Northwest Scientists Shows Negative Climate Change Effects On Old Growth Forests

By Courtney Flatt June 1, 2020

Deforestation, climate change and the disturbances it can exacerbate – like wildfires, extreme droughts and insect outbreaks – are decimating old growth forests across the globe. That means forests worldwide are filling in with younger and shorter trees, according to a new study.Read More

Do Thinning And Prescribed Burns Help? New Study Following 2014 Carlton Complex Fire Says Yes

By Courtney Flatt March 3, 2020

File photo. An area burned in the Carlton Complex fire, as seen in 2019, along Highway 20 near Loup Loup Ski Bowl, east of Twisp, Washington. CREDIT: Megan Farmer/KUOW

Researchers began their detective work, trying to figure out what happened to these treated areas during the first few extreme days of the Carlton Complex fire. They gathered geospatial maps and satellite images.Read More

Across The West, Communities And Landowners Prepare For Their Own Paradise Wildfire Scenario

By NWPB News December 15, 2019

Towns living among forests have taken notice after recent deadly wildfires in Northern California, particularly after Paradise. But for the rural community of Foots Creek in Southern Oregon, wildfire has long been on their radar. CREDIT: April Ehrlich/JPR News

It’s been a little over a year since the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, which impacted thousands of lives in Northern California. The disaster also alarmed people across the West, who are now asking themselves: Could a fire like that happen here?Read More

In Central Washington, Forest Equipment Chews Through Fuel To Reduce Threat Of ‘The Next Paradise’

By Courtney Flatt October 3, 2019

Land managers are using a masticator to help thin a dense forest outside Cle Elum, Washington. The masticator chews up the forest fuels with spinning metal teeth. It takes out whole trees at a time. CREDIT: Courtney Flatt/NWPB

Connecting different projects – like these large-scale fuels management ones – with efforts by homeowners down below helps make the landscape more resilient. It’s part of a larger effort to help central Washington avoid the fate of towns like Paradise, California, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018. Read More

Careful With Those Birthday Candles, Smokey: Beloved Wildfire-Prevention Bear Turns 75

By NPR News August 10, 2019

Smokey the bear cub is flown from Santa Fe, N.M., to his new home at the Washington National Zoo by New Mexico's Assistant State Game Warden Homer C. Pickens in 1950. The little bear was rescued from a forest fire and named Smokey after the fire prevention symbol of the U.S. Forest Service, which launched in 1944. FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The longest-running public service campaign is tied to a reduction in wildfires, but in some ways Smokey's message may have worked too well. Here's how he's changed. Read More

Researchers Work To Control Moth Outbreak In Washington Forests

By Courtney Flatt June 28, 2019

A tussock moth caterpillar. CREDIT: Connie Mehmel

The tussock moth caterpillar is quite the sight, if you’ve ever seen one hanging around a Douglas fir tree. These hungry caterpillars can eat Douglas fir and grand fir needles, first starting with the new needles that grow as the caterpillars hatch. Later, munching on older needles high in the treetops.Read More

U.S. Forest Service Seeks To Overhaul Timber Management Rules

By NPR News June 12, 2019

A logger cuts a large fir tree in the Umpqua National Forest near Oakridge, Ore. Federal land managers are proposing a sweeping rule change that could expand commercial logging on Forest Service land. Don Ryan/AP

Federal land managers have proposed sweeping rule changes to a landmark environmental law that would allow them to fast-track certain forest management projects, including logging and prescribed burning.Read More

1 Billion Acres At Risk For Catastrophic Wildfires, U.S. Forest Service Warns

By NPR News June 5, 2019

Crews tend to a prescribed fire in April 2016 northeast of Silver City, N.M. In line with a controversial Trump administration executive order pushing for "active forest management," the U.S. Forest Service is aiming to perform thinning, brush clearing, prescribed burns and other treatments on 3.5 million of its 80 million acres this year. CREDIT: NATIONAL FOREST/AP

The chief of the U.S. Forest Service is warning that a billion acres of land across America are at risk of catastrophic wildfires like last fall's deadly Camp Fire that destroyed most of Paradise, Calif.Read More

Federal Officials Seal Deal With Washington Agencies On Forest-Protection Measures

By Courtney Flatt May 8, 2019

A roadside reminder in southwest Washington's Gifford Pinchot National Forest that homes in the "wildlands urban interface" need special landscaping, building materials and maintenance to reduce the risk of being destroyed by a wildfire. CREDIT: CASSANDRA PROFITA

State and federal officials signed an agreement Wednesday to protect Washington’s forests and wildlife. The plan would combine resources to fight destructive wildfires, threats to forest health and challenges faced by salmon and orcas.Read More

‘Good Fire’ Season: How Land Managers Select Areas For Prescribed Burns

By Courtney Flatt April 15, 2019

A member of the Wolf Creek Hotshots uses a drip torch to ignite the forest floor during a prescribed burn near Sisters, Oregon. CREDIT: JES BURNS

Land managers are using prescribed burns -- also called "good fire" -- and thinning to restore forests and reduce the extra wood, sticks and needles that fuel megafires. Different land managers look for certain things when they’re selecting where prescribed fires will work best.Read More

Federal Judge Greenlights Controversial Forest Restoration Project In Northeastern Washington

By Emily Schwing October 4, 2018

The Vaagen Brothers Lumber mill in Colville, Washington is surrounded by the Selkirk Mountain foothills, and the potential 'A-Z Project' timber. Courtesy Josh Anderson/Vaagen Bros.

On Thursday, a U.S. District Court Judge in Spokane gave the green light to a controversial forest restoration project on Washington’s Colville National Forest.Read More

Will More Logging Save Western Forests From Wildfires?

By NPR News August 29, 2018

The 2018 Carr Fire destroyed more than a thousand homes, largely on the western edge of Redding, Calif. CREDIT: KIRK SIEGLER/NPR

The Trump Administration has called for more logging of western forests to reduce wildfire risks. But people on the ground in the west say the solution is thinning and forest restoration, not logging.Read More

In The Fire-Prone West, Differing Views Of What Forest Health Really Means

By Liam Moriarty February 4, 2018

A view of the Bridge 99 Complex fire along Green Ridge near the Lookout and east of Camp Sherman and the Metolius River. CREDIT STEVE ZIEL / INCIWEB

The intense fire season of 2017 led to calls for more "treatment" of federal forests to remove excess fuel that can make for bigger, hotter wildfires. But while there's broad bipartisan agreement that more needs to be done to promote forest health, the opposing sides can have very different pictures of what that looks like on the ground.Read More