Tag Archives: collaboration

Colorado: Hermosa Creek conservation bill gets a bipartisan introduction in Congress

Posted on by
Reply

Summit County Voice 4/27/2013
Excerpt:     “FRISCO — Colorado lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are reaching across party lines to try and protect more than 100,000 acres of the Hermosa Creek watershed north of Durango.

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Rep. Scott Tipton(R-CO) are introducing companion bills that would establish management for the Hermosa Creek Watershed based on recommendations from the Hermosa Creek River Protection Workgroup. The panel includes local water officials, conservationists, sportsmen, mountain bikers, off-road-vehicle users, outfitters, property owners, grazing permit holders and other interested citizens.  …”
Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2013/04/27/colorado-hermosa-creek-conservation-bill-gets-a-bipartisan-introduction-in-congress/

4FRI environmental analysis available for public comment

Posted on by
Reply

Williams News 4/9/2013
Excerpt:      “The U.S. Forest Service has published an environmental analysis for the first phase of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) project, and is now seeking public comment about the document.

The draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) published March 29 proposes habitat enhancement, thinning and prescribed burning on one million acres of the Kaibab and Coconino national forests in the next 20 years. The DEIS will now undergo a 60-day public comment period.

The 4FRI project is the largest forest restoration project in the country, spanning 2.4 million acres within the Kaibab, Coconino, Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests. The project proposes restoration for 189,255 acres surrounding Williams.  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.williamsnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubsectionID=1&ArticleID=13305

Forest Service to modify appeals process for citizens to challenge agency decisions

Posted on by
Reply

Oregonian 3/25/2013
Excerpt:    “LEWISTON, Idaho — The U.S. Forest Service is proposing changes to the process people use to challenge timber sales and other agency decisions.

New guidelines expected to be unveiled later this week would require anyone interested in challenging agency actions to fully take part in the public review process and file formal objections before agency administrators make final policy decisions, according to a story published Monday in the Lewiston Tribune.  The modified objection procedure is designed to make agency officials aware of potential problems earlier.  …”
Read entire article at http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/03/forest_service_to_modify_appea.html

U.S. Forest Service Collaboration Process: Solution or Sham?

Posted on by
Reply

Forest Industry Network 3/25/2013
Excerpt:       “For those of you who have been following Forest Service land management issues, the term “collaboration” should be familiar.

For approximately 10 years now, since the Forest Service began the Healthy Forests Initiative and Congress passed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act in 2003, the agency has been promoting the collaborative process in the hopes that it would reduce analysis paralysis, reduce appeals and litigation and increase fuels reduction and forest restoration work on the National Forests.
Read entire article at http://forestindustry.com/feature-article/200/us-forest-service-collaboration-process-solution-or-sham

U.S. Starts Massive Forest-Thinning Project

Posted on by
Reply

Scientific American 3/22/2013
Excerpt:          “FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The smell of wood-burning stoves seems to permeate this gateway to the Grand Canyon and pit stop on the legendary Route 66.

In this corner of the state, trees, wood and fire have an ever-evolving relationship. Surrounded by the Coconino National Forest, this northern Arizona town sat at the edge of the 2010 Schultz fire, which burned 15,000 acres.   While the Schultz fire visibly marked the landscape, the damage was relatively benign compared with the floods that came a month later.    ….”
Read entire article at  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-starts-massive-forest-thinning-project

Public forest users flock to meeting on plan revision

Posted on by
Reply

Hendersonville Times News 3/19/2013
Excerpt:      “BREVARD — More than 130 sportsmen, environmentalists, Boy Scouts and other forest users crowded into the Rogow Room of the Transylvania County Library on Monday to help the U.S. Forest Service map out a management plan for the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests.
The meeting was the fifth — and best attended so far— of six district meetings the Forest Service is holding in ranger districts across the region to collect information about the current state of the public forests and what changes citizens want to see over the next 15 years.  …..”
Read entire article at http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130319/articles/130319813?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar

Forests test-drive collaboration

Posted on by
Reply

High Country News 3/14/2013
Excerpt:       “It was a big deal when the Forest Service introduced its new planning rule in 2012. The rule dictates how the nation’s 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands write their individual plans, which in turn regulate nearly every aspect of how these public lands are managed: where logging and grazing occur, what’s set aside as wilderness, when motorized travel and other uses are allowed, how species are protected. The last time the rule was successfully changed was in 1982.

As you’d expect, both industry and environmentalists had high hopes for the new rule, which is holding its ground despite a lawsuit from timber, grazing, and recreation groups claiming the unlawfulness of making “ecological sustainability” the primary purpose of forest management.  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/forests-test-drive-collaboration

Blue Mountain timber: Top forester backs ambitious program of tree thinning and restoration

Posted on by
Reply

Oregonian 3/13/2013
Excerpt:      “LA GRANDE — Trucks gathering logs for the Boise Cascade sawmill here roll out at 2 a.m. to begin their daylong, 480-mile round trips to the Mount Hood National Forest, Washington’s Okanogan National Forest and other federal woodlands in Idaho.

“It is crazy to have to go that far for logs, totally,” said Jim Princehouse of La Grande, who owns a fleet of 11 log trucks.   “This is a hard life,” said Princehouse, 67. “It really is.”  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/03/blue_mountain_timber_top_fores.html

State forest health, resilience top many agendas

Posted on by
Reply

Yakima Herald 3/12/2013
Excerpt:      “The future health and resilience of Washington’s forests may be that rare topic that finds willing supporters and budget dollars even in times of tight budgets. It’s certainly on everybody’s agenda these days.   Last Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee was pitching his climate change bill before the House Environment Committee. On Friday, the House Capital Budget Committee met with state agency representatives in a work session on the impacts of climate change. Next Tuesday, the Senate Natural Resources will hear testimony on why prescribed burning is part of the solution for the long-term health of state forests.

And now the Department of Natural Resources is aligning itself with nongovernmental conservation organizations — including prescribed-burning advocates — in seeking $15 million in “forest health” funding for Eastern Washington forests over the next two years. …”
Read entire article at http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/yhr/tuesday/928853-8/state-forest-health-resilience-top-many-agendas#print

Finding different paths for forests

Posted on by
Reply

Idaho Statesman 2/27/2013
Excerpt:         “Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and Boise are looking at changing a federal management system that all but ended logging after the forest wars of the 1980s and 1990s.

The desire for new forest plans is driven by wildfires that are growing in intensity and cost, and by lawsuits that lead foresters to add time and pages to environmental reviews to avoid litigation.
In Idaho, the Legislature is studying whether to copy a Utah law that would try to force the federal government to turn over millions of acres of public lands.
Read entire article at http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/02/27/2468471/finding-different-paths-for-forests.html