Covering Idaho, Montana and portions of the Dakotas, Region 1 of the U.S. Forest Service has reached a grim milestone. Over 35,000 acres of forest projects on Region 1 National Forests are stymied by litigation. The amount of timber tied up in lawsuits (355 million board feet) is now more than region’s entire timber harvest…
Writing for The Oregonian, Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman, Josephine County Commissioner Simon Hare and Polk County Commissioner Craig Pope recently weighed in on the future of the Secure Rural Schools program: The Secure Rural Schools program, which provided funding to timber dependent communities hit hard by declining harvests, is often described as a “lifeline”…
The recent article “Colorado lawmakers ask Congress to fix wildfire funding issue,” highlights the complex issue of wildfire funding, an issue that directly affects our local national forests. I applaud our state legislators for once again passing a Senate Joint Memorial, strongly sending a message that our national forests can no longer afford to do…
Harvesting dead and dying trees after a fire can help recover the economic value of lost timber, while supporting the replanting of native tree species on the burned forest. Long-term research is finding that “salvage logging” isn’t as damaging to understory vegetation as some fear. The following is a press release from the Pacific Southwest…