Pacific salmon run helps shape Canada’s ecosystems

Predators help disperse salmon, nutrient on streambanks

This article describes the results of a study suggesting another “trophic cascade” mechanism by which predators and salmon interact, enriching the diversity of plant-life in the world’s largest old-growth temperate rainforest:

Pacific salmon run helps shape Canada’s ecosystems – BBC News

The annual migration sees salmon return to western Canada to spawn, but many are caught by bears and wolves, which carry carcasses away from the streams.

This allows nutrient-rich plants to thrive in these areas.

Climate Change Takes Toll on Lodgepole Pine

The most abundant of all Western pine falls at astounding rate-

Every Western pine from the Yukon to New Mexico is suffering high mortality from unusually severe attack by native insects, diseases and direct mortality from drought and heat. Lodgepole pine, which often grows in vast almost monocultural stands, is dying too.  Almost anyone who lives in the West knows this. In many places the beauty of the forest has been greatly marred for many miles.

Climate Change Takes Toll on the Lodgepole Pine. By John Collins Rudolf. New York Times.

When lodgepole pine dies, the needles first turn red for a year before they fall off.  While red, they burn with remarkable explosive force.  After they are dead, however, lodgepole and other dead conifers do not burn as fiercely as a green forest.  A common misconception is that they do, a mistake this New York Times article perpetuates. Lodgepole are shallow rooted.  When dead they are easily blown over in windstorms.  If they pile up in large “jackstrawed” heaps, these can burn very hot.  Miles of downed lodgepole also form barriers to wildlife migration.

I took this photo of red lodgepole pine near Stanley, Idaho about 5 years ago. Since then, they have almost all died and many fallen over or cut down. They didn’t burn.

Massive Australian floods were no natural disaster

It is land clearing for livestock-

Despite some recognition today, just one tree is being planted in Queensland for every one hundred cleared to increase livestock grazing.

Yes, it rained a lot for a long time, but cows on huge tracts of “cleared” land made the disaster.

Video. http://suprememastertv.com/save-our-planet/?wr_id=1659

Clearing tropical forests is a lose-lose

It releases a great deal of carbon and produces much less new food than more intensive use of existing croplands-

Lose-lose . . . sounds like a Western land use issue.

Clearing tropical forests is a lose-lose. Michael Marshall. New Scientist.

Is the American Chestnut ready to begin its restoration?

The first large scale planting blight resistant chestnut is done-

When the chestnut blight hit in the 1950s, there were probably 3 billion American chestnut trees in the United States. Now there are perhaps only about a hundred trees in its natural range. The demise of the chestnut was a blow to wildlife that ate their prolific and reliable nut crop. The current die off of whitebark pine from a blight and bark beetles is a more recent catastrope.

There is now good news for the return of the American chestnut, The mighty American chestnut tree, poised for a comeback. By Juliet Elperin. Washington Post.  Of course, it will take a hundred years for a widespread restoration, one that will have big ecological benefits.

The American chestnut’s blight resistance was created by crossing it with the highly resistant Chinese chestnut in way that retained essentially all the details of the American chestnut. Perhaps a similar restoration can be done for the whitebark pine, although I suppose the preferred method might be direct genetic manipulation of survivors because of a lack of closely related pines.

I think we will need more and more genetic science to keep our ecosystems from unravelling in this rapidly changing world.

Losing the Whitebark Pine affects much more than grizzly bears

“We don’t know what’s going to happen without whitebark.”-

I know it will soon be functionally extinct, although no doubt some token remnants will be protected from beetles and blister rust. Ecologically speaking, it is already almost gone.

Here is a long essay on its demise and the effects. Feature article in New West. Grizzlies Only Scratch the Surface of What It Will Mean to Lose the Whitebark Pine.  The twisted, threatened symbol of high elevation connects an entire ecosystem. As one biologist puts it, “We don’t know what’s going to happen without whitebark.” By Shauna Stephenson. New West

Grizzly Managers Spin Whitebark Pine Woes: Just How Important is Whitebark to Yellowstone Bears?

Very important.

Interesting post by NRDC’s Louisa Wilcox about how the science shows how critical whitebark pine nuts are for grizzlies and how the managers talk out of both sides of their mouth.

“In its August 9th legal brief challenging the 2009 ruling by Federal Judge Donald Molloy that required relisting of the Yellowstone grizzly bear under the Endangered Species Act, federal attorneys said, “the grizzly does not depend on whitebark pine for its survival. The grizzly is a very successful omnivore, and that…they will somehow be able to adapt to a decline in whitebark pines.” The legal briefs then go on to dismiss the issue of whitebark pine relationships to grizzly bear vital rates, including mortality risks, as well as the reproductive success of females. This argument, as the district court ruled, and I will discuss later, runs counter to the evidence on the record.

Then, just yesterday, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team sent out a press release saying, “the scarcity of whitebark pine cones this year may be driving bears to find food at lower elevations, where there is more human activity, increasing the chances of bear-human interactions.” (This comes in a year when 22 grizzly bears are known to have died, and many human-bear conflicts have occurred — months before bears will den up.)”

Grizzly Managers Spin Whitebark Pine Woes: Just How Important is Whitebark to Yellowstone Bears?.
Louisa Willcox’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Whitebark Pine May Gain Federal Protection

Tree, important for grizzly bears, affected by global warming, insects, and fungus

The whitebark pine is a tree that lives at high elevations and was historically unaffected by pine beetles but due to global warming this has changed. Also, blister rust, an introduced fungal infection has taken a large toll on the trees.

The pine nuts of the trees are collected by squirrels and Clarke’s nutcrackers who’s caches are an important food source for grizzly bears. With their decline the bears are being affected too.

Whitebark Pine May Gain Federal Protection
From KTVZ.COM

Giant whitebark pine in south central Idaho get protection from beetles

Trees to receive ” ‘verbenone pouches’ that contain a synthetic pheromone to trick beetles into thinking the trees are already full of beetles”-

Fighting pine bark beetles is very expensive, but these giant, ancient trees have been determined to be worth it. Good news!

Whitebarks in Pioneers [Pioneer Mountains] get protection from beetles. Associated Press.

Sustainable forestry pact set for 175 million acres!! of Canada forest

Conservation deal for Canadian forest the size of Texas-

Although the first article below has a somewhat pessimistic tone, this certainly seems better than the current trend in boreal Canada. There is more value to the vast boreal forest than caribou.

Caribou still at risk under historic forestry deal. Industry, environmentalists band together for sustainability. By Hanneke Brooymans, edmontonjournal.com

-Ducks Unlimited is plenty happy. DU celebrates boreal wetlands protection announcement. Vital wetland systems in Canada’s Boreal Forest conserved.

-The deal might also retard global warming because this generally wet (boggy) forest contains huge amounts of the much more potent methane* gas that could be released into the atmosphere.  Timber companies agree on conservation plan for Canadian forests. Christian Science Monitor. By Pete Spotts, Staff writer

This pact will not stop the biggest threat in the area, the open pit mining of “tar sands,” conversion of which into synthetic oil is tremendously polluting and has relatively poor net energy efficiency.

– – –  –
*Methane, CH4, is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, CO2

Protected Forest Areas May Be Critical Strategy for Slowing Climate Change

This may be one of the most cost-effective ways of slowing climate change-

I should add, however, that I think we will find that treating areas with other kinds of land cover the right way might prove to be very important too.

Protected Forest Areas May Be Critical Strategy for Slowing Climate Change. ScienceDaily

What’s Killing the Great Forests of the American West?

Worse, die-offs are not limited to North America-

Next summer will probably be a pretty bad forest fire season in the Pacific Northwest due to a dry winter, and so many of the forests are dead.  This is not a local problem, however, as Jim Robbins discusses in the feature article below.

What’s Killing the Great Forests of the American West? “Across western North America, huge tracts of forest are dying off at an extraordinary rate, mostly because of outbreaks of insects. Scientists are now seeing such forest die-offs around the world and are linking them to changes in climate.” By Jim Robbins. Yale Environment 360.

As for myself, I have been following the politics of forest fires since 1980 when Idaho had its first large forest fire in a generation or so. In the 30 years, I have learned that forest (and range fires too) will always be used for political purposes to further the agenda of the timber and grazing industries.

Their lobbyists know that most people don’t know that the pine beetle kill covers the entire West. They know the people don’t know that logging an area has no effect at all in stopping the spread of the beetle. They know that the public doesn’t know that dead forests are probably less flammable than green, but dry (droughty) forests.

So it is easy to predict there will be an effort to blame conservationists for the forest fires.  They have been doing it for 30 years, and they will do it next summer.  The news media should be prepared for this. I can also confidently predict most of the media won’t be.

More water release from dams could bring new cottonwoods on the Upper Missouri River

Cottonwood along the Upper Missouri in Montana all date before the dams. Some are two centuries old-

More flow could bring back trees. By Karl Puckett. Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer

The need to manage national forests as carbon sinks

Forest fire prevention? Thinning? Maximize size of individual tress? Leave it alone? It’s hard to say

The article below is related to the one posted about “Sen. Udall sponsors bill to attack pine beetles.”

It’s good to finally see some attention to the role of forests as carbon sinks, but it is not clear how to maximize their role as sinks, or even how to prevent them from becoming carbon sources.

On thing the article doesn’t discuss the the amount of carbon stored in forest soils. In the dry interior forests with shallow soils, it probably isn’t much. In the wet, big tree  forests west of the Cascades up into British Columbia and coastal Alaska , the kind of logging done in the past, clearcuts followed by burning slash, has a horrible effect on the carbon storage.

Every kind of forest probably needs to have a different carbon management plan.

Story in the New York Times by William Yardley. Note that the Times headline is misleading as a description of the article’s content.

Sen. Udall sponsors bill to attack pine beetles

Colorado Democrat Udall says his bill will combat a great natural disaster-

Yes there are millions of  acres of beetle killed pine trees in Colorado, but also Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon and Washington, New Mexico, British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon. Local politicians respond to local demands to do something, but rarely do they realize or at least tell their constituents that that beetle kill is unstoppable by humans. The pine trees over hundreds of thousands of square miles are vulnerable to attack due to their age, but more due to winter’s failure to have sustained cold temperatures below -20 F.

I have never seen a large pine bark beetle infestation stopped anywhere by human means. I have been following mountain pine beetle kills since 1974 when I was first hired as consultant on the Targhee National Forest to help with the big mountain pine bark beetle infestation there, west of Yellowstone Park.  The current infestation is much large, it almost spans the Continent from north to south.

As far as the alledged fire danger of vast tracts of dead trees, it isn’t high, except for the year or two right when the tree dies and the needles have turned red, but not fallen off. At that time they might as well be soaked in gasoline. I have set fire to red-needled branches that were soaking wet.

After the needles have dropped forest fires can no longer crown, because the dead trees have no crowns. The only extreme fires that can happen are in gullies or other places where the dead trees are windthrown.  This means they pile on top of each other like the way you would arrange sticks and logs to get a campfire going. However, that is the exception.

The big, extreme forest fires take place in “red” timber and green timber during a drought, especially if it is hot and there is wind.

Yes, the forest has turned ugly, but the little bit of treatment humans can do at this late date is like pouring a glass of water on a house fire.

Sen. Udall sponsors bill to attack pine beetles. By Judith Kohler. Associated Press.

Canada’s boreal forest top-rated carbon warehouse

The Carbon the World Forgot — the boreal forest-

“The boreal forest stores more carbon than any land-based ecosystem on the planet, according to a new report that says the Amazon is no match for Canada’s boggy bush.”

It turns out that a major reason is all peat under the trees. Too many carbon sequestration analyses only look at the vegetation above the ground, maybe not even the roots, and certainly not the soil. Very serious errors of policy will be made unless the entire structure of the land from bedrock to the tallest vegetation is not taken into account.

Story: Canada’s boreal forest top-rated carbon warehouse. By Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service.

Breathtaking and misleading fire story in the Missoulian

“Red and dead” forests make extreme fires; but most bug-killed forests are not in this stage-

Beetle-ravaged trees change wildfire behavior in western Montana. By Rob Chaney the Missoulian

Beetles are changing the fire regime in Western Montana. Unfortunately, this story did not get to the key until the end – – “Dead trees will lose those red needles within three to five years. The bare-branch trees tend to be less burnable than either green live trees or red dead ones.” . . . Rob Chaney

These needles are so flammable that they will burn when dripping wet and a cold temperature! In fact, most just killed, and, therefore red lodgepole pine, the most common beetle killed tree, are red for just one year. Then the needles drop. As a result, most dead trees present less of a fire danger rather than more. There are exceptions, such as piles of windthrown, jackstrawed dead timber.

The story also failed to mention that this is not a problem limited to Western Montana. The great die-off extends from the Yukon to New Mexico, making local efforts to deal with the problem with salvage logging or spraying of no use.

I’d mention global warming but all the tea partiers will probably jump down my throat. It’s really too late to do much. The pine forests are pretty much all going to die.

– – – –

Related. Weather wipes out wildfires in Montana. Great Falls Tribune.

Clinton Roadless Rule Upheld… Again.

The 9th Circuit just upheld the Clinton Roadless Rule, and slapped down Bush’s amended rule which granted states and local interests undue influence to craft their own roadless rules, rules which ended up being weaker than the Clinton Rule.  Idaho and Colorado were the only states to ride Bush’s timber-train.

Clinton-era Rule Protecting Forests Upheld Green Inc., New York Times

The “roadless rule,” approved in 2001 during the waning days of the Clinton administration, substantially limited road development in national forest lands. The Bush Administration effectively replaced it with another policy that allowed states to establish their own rules on roads in forests.

A Bit of the Backstory

Obama Admin Scraps Logging Plan in Ore. Carbon Sinks

Salazar cites failure to provide adequate Endangered Species Act consultations as on the forefront of his decision to scrap attempts to log BLM land in Oregon.

Obama Admin Scraps Logging Plan in Ore. Carbon Sinks – New York Times

The move scraps a Bush-era decision to rezone 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management forests, which would have tripled current logging production and opened old-growth forests to clear-cutting.

Bridger-Teton National Forest to map beetle-killed whitebark pine

It’s critical for grizzly bear management to see where pine bark beetles have not killed this extremely valuable, bear food source in the Greater Yellowstone-

Bridger-Teton to map beetle-killed whitebark. Forest Service partners with conservation group to quantify the damage. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Rethinking Mountain Pine Beetles: Wuerthner testifies to Congress

A forest displaying beetle effects in Colorado

So many of us have seen the effects of Mountain Pine Beetles on forest we’ve visited here in the west ~ up close we see dead or dying trees and from afar perhaps a red and gray hue from within a forest canopy.

Mostly, we’ve come to learn via media accounts, the words and tones of managers – even conservationists – that Pine Beetles are “negative”, that they’re a “threat” to “healthy” forests.

Testimony of George Wuerthner June 19, 2009 Joint Oversight Hearing on “Mountain Pine Beetle: Strategies for Protecting the West”:

PEJORATIVE WORDS
Let me start my testimony by suggesting that many of the phrases and words used to describe natural ecological processes like episodic pine beetle events and wildfire are pejorative in tone. We heard a lot of people testifying in this hearing that pine beetles were destroying the forests and/or wildfires were catastrophic and so forth. From the perspective of human values, these words might resonate—certainly if a wildfire burns down someone’s home, it is a devastating experience. However, it is less clear that these terms are appropriate in describing natural ecological events like pine beetle events or large blazes. (See my comments on this in Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy or Rocca and Romme (2009).

Burning Questions

Why the National Fire Plan is a Trojan Horse for Logging

Earlier Ralph noted a new study that suggests fire mitigation work in the US may be misplaced.  Along those same lines, George Wuerther shares an account of one experience he had digging deeper into the rationale & motive of some “fuels reduction” projects :

Burning Questions ~ George Wuerther

A couple of years ago I went on a show me tour of a Forest Service Thinning project that was funded under the National Fire Plan (NFP). A group of us, including some forest service employees, a university fire researcher, country commissioners, timber interests, and the like gathered at the Forest Service office. The district ranger explained that we were going to see a fuel reduction project designed to protect the small town where we were standing. After giving preliminary background on the proposed timber sale, we got into a bunch of Forest Service vehicles and drove out of town. And drove. And drove. And drove. Eighteen miles from the town, we got out of the car to look at the thinning project.

Northwest’s biofuel boom goes bust

The headline should read “corn ethanol,” not biofuel-

Despite the past, and continuing subsidies, ethanol made from corn produces little net energy and a lot of political conflict as it consumes a quarter of the country’s corn crop.

Advanced biofuels might hold promise, especially those using bacteria to directly produce ethanol or other low carbon fuels. However, the creation of vast monocultures of vegetation on lands unsuited for crop (such as corn) production, could pose a planet changing environmental cost. “Waste” trees and brush from all over the countryside fed into a bottomless biofuel energy machine could leave the countyside looking like Haiti.

Northwest’s biofuel boom goes bust. By Scott Learn, The Oregonian

Mudslides from the 2007 Idaho wildfires begin after unusual June wet spell

Article below is about a mudflow near Ketchum, orginating from the Castle Rock Fire area, but there a numerous slides around southern Idaho-

June is often a fairly wet month in Idaho, which is mostly an arid or semi-arid state. The end of May and continuing into June has brought a lot of precipitation into southern, south central and southeast Idaho. Much of it is in slow moving thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are much more typical of July and August than May in Idaho.

In 2007 over a million acres of wildfire burned in Idaho’s mountains (and even more on its sagebrush steppe country — “rangelands”). The soil on the burns on these steep mountains are stable yet as this mudslide west of Ketchum indicates.

When travelling backcountry roads you should inqure about slides and washouts, and at least for the next week (according to the weather report) be prepared for flash floods.

Officials: Burned hillsides still pose risk. Mudslide threat could last several years in Castle Rock Fire area. By Jason Kauffman. Idaho Mountain Express Staff Writer.

Are any readers aware of slides and blockages in your part of Idaho or nearby states that folks should be aware of. Please post.

Permanent Damage From Temporary Logging Roads

George Orwell is likely spinning in his grave when it comes to all the linguistic mischief that gets thrown around by politicians and land managers doing their best to cut down our forests, “manage”, “control”, and “harvest” the wild. Think “Healthy Forest” Initiative, removing that troublesome “fuel”, “wildlife friendly fences”, and “thinning and cleaning the forest”.

George Wuerthner calls out another such word-hack used to lull so many into a false sense of well-being ~ “Temporary Roads” ~ sounds good to me ! :

Permanent Damage From Temporary Logging Roads – George Wuerthner

Let us Praise—and Keep—the Dead

Dead trees are critical components of a healthy forest ecosystem

George Wuerthner writes about the value of dead trees and how removing them can lead to impoverished forest ecosystems :

Let us Praise—and Keep—the Dead – George Wuerthner, Forest Magazine

It’s the Wilderness, Stupid

Why can’t we understand that wilderness should be a big part of our economic future?

It’s the Wilderness, Stupid
By Bill Schneider

Bridger-Teton National Forest quickly moves to use stimulus money for anti-conservation logging

Traditional logging dwindled on the Bridger-Teton, Caribou-Targhee and Shoshone National Forests because it brought in only pennies on the dollar spent. Stimulus may be used to renew logging at a loss-

The stimulus bill has money for forests, parks, wildlife that can be used in a beneficial or negative way. It appears the supervisors for 3 national forests in the Greater Yellowstone country are quickly moving to use the stimulus money directed to wildfire reduction and forest health to restore traditional logging by means of “salvage” of dead timber. They have asked timber interests for projects. Why haven’t they asked wildlife and conservation groups?

As George Wuerthner points out, stands of dead timber are not particularly flammable. In addition, building new roads into these areas spreads noxious weeds and degrades wildlife habitat. If they wanted to create a lot of jobs, they would hire people to pull the noxious weeds. Because most of the timber mills in the area went out of business long ago, it will be long time before stimulus money will result in new timber mills and trained loggers. Logging is capital intensive nowadays and creates few jobs per dollar spent.

A word to these forest supervisors, use the money to truly improve forest health — eliminate weeds, rehabilitate erosion sources on the national forests, recut overgrown trails, reduce livestock grazing impacts, clean trash out of the forests, improve human degraded stream conditions, repair damaged roads you plan to keep open, close and obliterate vehicle tracks that are degrading the forest.  This is the way to create jobs in a hurry and improve rather than harm the environment.

What is taking place here is a warning to those who love the national forests and want jobs to get involved quickly so that the money does not go to old fashioned projects that create few jobs and actually degrade the forests. Contact your local national forest now!

Remember that forests are more than just the trees.

Story in the Jackson Hole News and Guide. Bridger-Teton asks loggers for wishes. Letter links logging industry, local mills with health of national forests. By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Parks and Wildlife Get Stimulus

Outdoor Recreation, Jobs and Economics Go Together

Parks and Wildlife Get Stimulus
Obama’s massive spending bill funds national park infrastructure and finds innovative ways to improve fish and wildlife habitat.

By Bill Schneider, 2-14-09

New US office takes fresh approach to carbon

One possibility: Industrial emitters of CO2 partner with landowners to plant forests-

By Todd Wilkinson
New US office takes fresh approach to carbon. Christian Science Monitor.

– – – – –
Added by RM. Related article. It’s cold. Does that debunk global warming? By Eoin O’Carroll. Christian Science Monitor.

Don Simon Art: Unnaturalism

Don Simon Art: Unnaturalism. “Images of an evolving world” by artist Don Simon

This is an interesting perspective on the human affect on wildlife and wilderness. (Audio/Visual).

Can Wolves Restore An Ecosystem?

This seems to be a reasonable conclusion made by Dr. Bechta and Dr. Ripple who studied the Lamar Valley’s rehabilitation of cottonwood and willow following wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone NP. These researchers feel that wolves, if returned to the Olympic Peninsula, would help restore the flora as well as a balance in the fauna in the national park. They claim that elk are an obstruction to forest health by feeding on the young trees which appear to be unable to thrive there.

Can Wolves Restore An Ecosystem?

Massive Public Lands Bill a Bonanza for Sportsmen, but?

Protection of Wyoming and Salt River Range, plus Commissary Ridge from drilling wins praise-

Massive Public Lands Bill a Bonanza for Sportsmen. By Chris Hunt. New West.

But there is more in the bill than protection of certain parcels of land-

If you don’t think about the Owyhee Initiative part of the bill, it seems like a good bill for wildlife; although there are several little discussed provisions. For example, I just got email containing an almost overlooked entire “Title” of the bill. This title creates the “Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Fund,” which could result in a lot of tree cutting and brush clearing on the public lands and adjacent private and state lands, although it looks like the number of projects are legally limited. If this was lifted, this one way a lot of local employment could be created during the recession/depression.

To quote from the bill . . . the purpose of the Title is

“. . . to encourage the collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration of priority forest landscapes through a process that–

(1) encourages ecological, economic, and social sustainability;

(2) leverages local resources with national and private resources;

(3) facilitates the reduction of wildfire management costs, including through reestablishing natural fire regimes and reducing the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire; and

(4) demonstrates the degree to which–

(A) various ecological restoration techniques–

(i) achieve ecological and watershed health objectives; and

(ii) affect wildfire activity and management costs; and

(B) the use of forest restoration byproducts can offset treatment costs while benefitting local rural economies and improving forest health.”

Here is the text of the entire title s-22-title4-omnibus-public-lands pdf file.

Bark Beetles Kill Millions of Acres of [Pine] Trees in West

Beetle kill is hardly a local issue-

This is not the first I’ve posted articles about this, but it needs to repeated because of the continuing local perception that is an issue for a particular national forest or state without the recognition that pine trees (but not necessarily other kinds of conifers) are dying by the billions from the British Columbia and Alberta mountains southward to New Mexico.

Story in the New York Times. Nov. 17, 2008. Bark Beetles Killing . . . By Jim Robbins.

– – – –

Update. George Wuetherner has some important additions, clarifications, and corrections that need to be made to Robbins’ article above. Context and Perspective Needed in Bark Beetle Discussion. By George Wuetherner. Wuethner on the Environment (blog).

I’ve been in the central Idaho backcountry

Since Friday, I’ve been mostly in the central Idaho backcountry. So there have been just a few posts.

It’s incredible how much of central Idaho has burned since 2000 when I finished my last edition of Hiking Idaho.

On the other hand, at the present autumn colors are just tremendous.

Warm Springs Creek. Frank Church Wilderness. Burned out in 2007. October 6, 2008. Copyright Ralph Maughan ↓

Wild Forests and Landscape Amnesia

The Aug. 2008 The International Journal of Wilderness has a fine article by George Wuerthner.

Most of the rural East has become reforested as agricultural has shifted and these relatively marginal lands for cultivation have grown back into forests.

It may appear the old forest has now been considerably restored, but Wuerthner argues we hardly even know what the orginal forest was like. The new forest is something quite different, and “mere sticks and ghosts compared to past glory.”

U.S. Judge in Wyoming Rules Against Ban on Forest Roads

The back and forth over Clinton’s Roadless Rule continues.

U.S. Judge in Wyoming Rules Against Ban on Forest Roads – NY Times

Gunbarrel fire clears out massive area of beetle-killed timber

Gunbarrel still on fire. Long-term plan uses fire to clear forest of beetle-killed trees. By Ruffin Prevost. Billings Gazette Wyoming Bureau.

The fire is now 50 square miles and serving to clear out a part of the North Absaroka Wilderness that was a deadfall jungle (not that access was ever easy, given the rugged terrain and lack of trails.).

The North Absaroka Wilderness forms a long boundary with Yellowstone National Park.

Forest fire threatens Red Lodge, Montana

The forest fire season has finally gotten underway in Montana, and the “Cascade” fire is a potential threat to the tourist town of Red Lodge.

Firefighters fear strong winds could send fire toward Red Lodge. By Molly Priddy Billings Gazette Staff

Update July 30, 2008. Wind shift somewhat diminishes threat to Red Lodge. Billings Gazette Staff.

Update July 31, 2008. Ski resort evacuates. By Brett French. Billings Gazette.

Update Aug. 1, 2008. Red flag warning issued for Cascade fire today. By the Billings Gazette.

Update Aug. 3, 2008. Crews gaining upper hand. Pre-evacuation orders lifted for Silver Run, Lamb Estates. By Becky Shay. Billings Gazette.

Update Aug. 5, 2008. Red Lodge fire is 66% contained. By Zach Benoit. Billings Gazette.

‘Only you’ can change how we deal with fire

Heath Druzin and Rocky Barker discuss fire policy, suppression and keeping your public forests manicured:

‘Only you’ can change how we deal with fire – Idaho Statesman

Logging industry is misleading us on forest fires and global warming

The following “guest essay” in New West is by Dr. Chad Hanson,  a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis.

My view is that the logging industry has always used forest fires to try to stampede people into supporting policies that are bad for the forests, the environment, and most people except the logging company executives.

Logging Industry Misleads on Climate and Forest Fires. By Chad Hanson, Ph.D. New West.

The net effect of most logging is to increase the release of greenhouse gases.

Regrowth after a forest fire results in more update in carbon dioxide than regrowth after logging.

More on Plum Creek timber: The New Colonialism. Our Forest Legacy

The New Colonialism. Our Forest Legacy. The Flathead Beacon. The Plum Creek matter is a growing issue. Here is another article.

George Wuerthner recommended a link to this article.

Microburst downs thousands of conifers near Stanley, Idaho

Microburst downs thousands of trees at Redfish Lake. ‘A miracle that no one was killed’ during mountain wind event. By Greg Stahl.  Idaho Mountain Express.

This happened on July 3. There were thousands of people in the area.

Approaching: Mark Rey’s court date

This has got to be one of my favorite stories. It is too rare these days that public officials are directly held to account. The court date for Rey is set for Tuesday.

Agriculture chief may face jail time

As the story illustrates, and we’ve gone over before, Rey spent much time with disgraced Sen. Larry Craig and as a former timber lobbyist before being appointed undersecretary for natural resources and agriculture by the Bush Administration. Rey moved to privatize your public land, dismantle the legal safeguards for wild places, and so much more.

Although I am skeptical about the possibility that Rey will indeed be thrown behind bars for this particular contempt, he should be – the lawlessness and public land profiteering personified by this man ought be reprimanded, he’d make a fine example.

Chair of House Appropriations Committee calls Bush’s proposed Forest Service budget an “unmitigated disaster”

“The plan could mean the loss of more than 2,700 jobs – nearly 10 percent of the agency’s work force – as well as reductions in dozens of non-fire related programs, from road and trail maintenance to state assistance, land acquisition and recreation, lawmakers said.”

Forest Service could lose 2,700 jobs. By Matthew Daly. Associated Press in the Missoulian

George Wuerthner Gets it Right on Fire, Ecosystems, Management

This analysis is from Forest Policy – Forest Practice, an interesting blog on forest policy written by a number of academics and “practitioners.”

George Wuerthner Gets it Right on Fire, Ecosystems, Management. By Daver Iverson.

This is a summary of George Wuerthner’s recent letter to Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden who believes that legislation putting more effort into forest thinning is going to have a substantial effect on the growing size and length of the wildfire season in the West.

[Mark Rey] threatened with jail

It looks as if more has developed in the Mark Rey contempt of court case. It is being reported that a judge decided Friday that the Forest Service is indeed in contempt of court for not properly assessing the environmental impacts of the fire retardant ammonium phosphate by its deadline. The Forest Service had dragged its feet the whole way through court, ignoring court orders and deadlines to the point of igniting the ire of the federal judge. Official threatened with jail (link broken – i.e. registration required) in the Sacramento Bee :

Agriculture Secretary Mark Rey could be forced to wear a monitoring bracelet until the U.S. Forest Service complies with an order to evaluate the chemical, ammonium phosphate.

New Link – Judge ready to hold Forest Service in contempt The Oregonian :

“The Forest Service, throughout these proceedings, evidenced a strategy of circumventing, rather than complying with,” the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, [Judge Mollow] wrote. “The apparent pattern suggests a strategy of looking for ways to avoid the law’s mandate as opposed to looking for a means of complying with the law.”

New Link – Molloy orders feds to explain fire retardant policy The Missoulian :

Previous Post –
Bush top forestry official could be jailed for contempt of court

Call me mean-hearted or whatever you will, but anyone who’s sifted through Mark Rey’s resume knows that this former timber lobbyist appointed top forester is one of the top environmental obstructionists and public land profiteers in our government – It sort of brings a smile thinking about Larry Craig’s point man in Executive with an ankle bracelet.

Wyden looks to thin Forests

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden wants to expedite logging for one of his home state’s chief industries – timber.  Ore. Senator’s Bill Would Thin Forests :

Wyden said he was particularly interested in developing collaborative processes to identify objections early on, so they can be addressed without ending up in court.

This while the timber industry laid out its terms :

“If you put diameter limits on this process, it’s not going to work.”

So in order to protect old growth, they’re going to need to harvest old growth.  I see …

Bush Administration Abandons Effort to Undercut National Forest Protections

It looks like the horrible 2005 Bush rule governing forest management is a relic of the past. Monday, the government filed a motion to dismiss its appeal of a court decision striking down the Bush rule.

Bush Administration Abandons Effort to Undercut National Forest Protections

In memoriam:

Bush Administration tries again with new Forest Service regulations

Court victory over Bush forest planning rules causes halt in Shoshone National Forest plan

Federal judge tosses out new [Bush] rules governing national forests

Critics hit bill on bark beetles. Senator Barrasso’s forest bill claims called ‘dishonest.’

Earlier I posted about Wyoming US Senator John Barrasso’s “Wyoming Forest and Watershed Restoration Act of 2007” which would allow the state of Wyoming to subcontract US Forest Service lands to timber companies with the notion that this would somehow stop the beetle epidemic that is sweeping the state (actually sweeping most of the Rocky Mountains states and Provinces).

It continues to get negative media coverage. Critics hit bill on bark beetles. Barrasso’s forest bill claims called ‘dishonest.’  Jackson Hole News and Guide. By Noah Brenner.

Barrasso’s move is, sadly enough, typical of a number important political and economic leaders. They use our growing situation of planetary distress as a great way to advance their personal objectives — all the morality of maggot.

Wyoming US Senator’s bill claims to target beetle kill in Wyoming; others say he is really interested in a public lands giveaway

Barrasso bill targets beetle kill. By Brodie Farquhar. Casper Star-Tribune correspondent.

Whatever his motives, logging has never stopped any of the current beetle kill which is taking place all over the Rocky Mountains. That’s because beetles are not the ultimate cause; it’s the warming climate. The winters are no longer cold enough to kill beetle infestations.

People don’t realize it, but most of the coninferous forests are going to die and then burn to be replaced by something else — what is not clear.

Nation’s Largest Sitka Spruce Dies In Oregon Storm

The largest Sitka Spruce broke off in the latest severe storm to hit Oregon. This article tells of it and what happened with things that affect the environment during its 700 year life, e.g., it was a sapling when The Plague struck Europe.
Story. New West. By Joseph Friedrichs

Added. Related from the Oregonian. Big, wet storms may become new ‘normal’. Global warming – Faster-than-expected tropical expansion could bring more tempests to the Northwest By Michael Milstein.

Added. More on more rain in the Pacific Northwest. Climate change could mean more massive downpours. By Lisa Stiffler and Tom Paulson. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporters.

Professor: Fires in West will worsen

WASHINGTON — A Montana expert testified Thursday that climate change will increase and intensify wildfires, while members of Congress and U.S. Forest Service officials grappled with how to pay for the increased costs of fire suppression

Story: Professor: Fires in West will worsen. By Noelle Straub. Casper Star-Tribune Washington bureau.

This should be obvious, but it isn’t.

Some people will want to argue that we can’t say because global warming isn’t real. Regardless, the critical fact is this: conifers, especially pine, are already dead and are dying at unprecedented rates in the northern Rockies, B.C. and Alberta.

They are burning, and they are going to burn every summer that is not unusually wet. Thinning them is too late now, and often useless anyway, even if there was enough money.

This means that almost every summer is going to be awful smoky in Montana and other places that are downwind of large forest areas.

My advice to anyone with property in these areas is to unload it now before potential buyers figure this out. Move to a cleaner place like a city far from the forests.

This will not go down well, and one of those who will have to adjust to this new reality is Plum Creek Timber, which is trying to become mostly a real estate company that will sell land in “the fire plain.” Timber Giant Takes a Hit: Plum Creek’s Risky Businesses. By Myers Reece, Flathead Beacon (republished in New West).

George Wuerthner interviewed on “Off the Trail” about benefits of wildfire

George Wuerthner does an interview on the KBSU public radio program “Off the trail” with Jyl Hoyt. Wuerthner describes the upside of forest fire. You can listen to a stream of the interview here.

Due to fires, about half the Bob Marshall Wilderness closed to the public

The Ahorn and Fool Creek fires are behaving erratically and lightning has started a bunch of new fires in this wilderness area just to the south of Glacier NP.

Story in the Great Falls Tribune. By Eric Newhouse

Photos of the Ahorn Fire in the “Bob”

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Rocky Barker’s blog: Don’t plan on a lot of campfires this summer

Rocky Barker’s blog today fleshes out what a lot of people are talking about right now in Idaho, Nevada, Montana, and Utah — the coming forest fire season.

The winter had below normal precipitation and the spring was generally dry. Dry springs actually reduce the range fire potential because the flammable seasonal grasses don’t grow as tall, but the the heavy fuels — logs and standing trees, will be very flammable beginning in mid-June. Couple this with the many insect attacks on the forests, and things could explode.

Rocky Barker’s blog: Don’t plan on a lot of campfires this summer.

Barker wrote an excellent book on forest fires and their role in the development of the public land agencies and their philosophies. I used it in my public lands politics class one semester. A review of his book and similar ones appeared in the Washington Post.

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The great Canadian pine forest die-off and grizzly bears

Despite the headline, the article says isn’t clear what the huge pine die-off in Alberta (and, not mentioned in the article, nearby B.C.) will have on the grizzly bear.

Scientists using bears to battle bugs. By Jeff Holubitsky, CanWest News Service

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SLT editorial hits uplifting chord

The Salt Lake Tribune published a welcome editorial about a federal court decision regarding forest plans. The editorial also boldy illustrates the importance of wildness and its uplifting affect.
Value of a forest: Federal ruling is a victory for conservation
Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Whitebark pine beetles continue to chew away on Yellowstone forests

Various pine beetles are attacking pines all over North America with an extraordinary vengeance. In Yellowstone the high valued whitebark pine, which grows, and grows but slowly, at high elevations continues under attack.

This pine is especially valuable to grizzly bears who eat its fat rich nuts in the fall to fatten up. In years when the nut crop is plentiful, there are usually far fewer grizzly incidents because the bears are at high altitude, generally on public lands and away from the large majority of people.

 Beetle unleashes voracious appetite. By Mike Stark. Billings Gazette.

New Forest Plan Rule Nukes NEPA

Perhaps the most important environmental decisions the Forest Service makes is the 15-year (on the average) forest plans for each of national forests. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has always been at the core of the forest plans. NFMA, the National Forest Management Act, requires the forest plans and their updating, but it’s NEPA that guarantees they have to truly consider the public’s opinion (including the opinion of the timber industry, and extractive groups). It is also NEPA that guarantees that their data is accurate, reality-based, so there won’t be made-up figures to satisfy some local or state politician.

Now the Forest Services has issued a final rule that lets the Service ignore NEPA when amending or writing new forest management plans.

This means the Forest Plans won’t have any scientific analysis to support them, and they won’t apply until and if future decisions are made. It makes the Forest Service blind and renders the Forest Plans meaningless.

Was it happening is the standards of politicized intelligence gathering and interpretation that led the United States into Iraq to get those “terrible WMDs” will now be applied to the pride of American public lands, the National Forests.

Brodie Farquhar has the news in New West.

I imagine these new regulations will be struck down in court, but it shows the spirit corruption so typical of the old Congress and the hatred of science so typical of the Bush Administration lives on in the Department of Agriculture of which the Forest Service is part.

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Related New Controls on Publishing Research Worry USGS Scientists. AP. International Herald Tribune. “The Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, who study everything from caribou mating to global warming, subjecting them to controls on research that might go against official policy.”

So information about grizzly bears, elk, and climate change is going to be subject to censorship by political commissars, just like in any totalitarian country, although I have not heard of despots censoring information about wildife before.

Related too. The A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science. Union of Concerned Scientists

Beaver restoration in SE Idaho

This is a story about beaver being reintroduced to places in southeast Idaho where they have been wiped out. Because of the natural abundance of aspen and willows in Eastern Idaho, the area is naturally better beaver habitat than points north, such as central Idaho and Yellowstone.

In the past, many beaver dams were deliberately destroyed. Just a decade ago some agency people and some farmers argued that beaver stole water and grass by impounding it. The result of dynamiting or trapping out beavers was stream erosion from rapid runoff, and lower water flows in the summertime, and the drying of riparian meadows.

It’s good to see that incorrect view going and maybe gone and beaver restoration underway.

Article in the Idaho State Journal.

Fire salvage logging in Oregon lost money

After almost every forest fire, there is a push for salvage logging based on the idea that the forest is destroyed, so some of its former value needs to be captured.

Folks who have watched salvage logging know that instead, the practice often introduces weed seeds, actually sets back forest regrowth and loses money too.

So far the controversial Biscuit fire salvage logging has fit this pattern, at least in terms of losing money. Part of the loss stems from the the Administration decison to greatly increase the logging after plans for a less ambitious project were underway. See news article. Here is the actual General Accounting Office Report (pdf file).
Note that the Biscuit fire was 500,000 acres, the largest in Oregon in many years, and maybe in the history of the state.

The Democratic side of the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee has a news release up this. See their news release.

Potlatch Corp. to charge fees for access to its land in Idaho

Potlatch has joined a growing trend toward access fees. It is the largest private land owner in Idaho, with almost all of its land in the Idaho Panhandle and in North Central Idaho.

There is also a continuing battle over US Forest Service, BLM, and other public land management agencies charging access fees.

Story in the Post-Intelligencer.

Helena climate conference says warming changes in Pacific Northwest are already huge

There was a gathering of climate experts this week in Helena, MT. The effects of global warming in Montana were described with more and greater wildfires being just one of the most obvious.

There has been a furious debate in recent years whether the increase in forest fires is due to bad forest practices, not enough logging, too much logging, the wrong kind of logging, etc. No doubt these questions are relevant, but trees in the Rocky Mountains are having to endure longer summers almost everywhere. Regardless of the size of the winter snowpack, the period of summer drying is longer and the warmer winters allow endemic tree killing insects to build to greater levels.

Seminar: Effects of warming are huge. AP. Billings Gazette article.

Related to this is an article on forest thinning in the Taylor Fork of the Gallatin River. This is immediately adjacent to the NW corner of Yellowstone NP. Article.

Added on Sept. 25. Public Doesn’t Understand Global Warming — By Dr. David Suzuki, David Suzuki Foundation. This is part of the problem in addition to deliberate efforts to confuse the public. I know that among my students it takes about a half hour lecture to explain the difference between the ozone hole and the the greenhouse effect. The average person doesn’t get a note-taking required explanation.

Destructive insects multiply in forests due to warm winters

Warm winters harm conifers in many ways leaving them open to insect attack. Presently insects are killing millions of acres of trees in Alaska. See article by Dan Joling, Associated Press.

What the article doesn’t say it, this is not just happening in Alaska. It is happening throughout the West. British Columbia has an even bigger infestation, and the Western states are all fighting insects. The tress are dying, and they are burning to the double whammy of insects and drought.

The result will be just what you would expect on a warming planet — the forests will be replaced by grasslands.

Sept. 13. There is another article just out on this in the Idaho Mountain Express by Steve Benson. “Why is 2006 fire season so severe?”