Here is the weekly news digest from Forestry Advisor Greg Giuisti:
Feds consider regional challenges in fire planning, Sacramento Bee, JUN. 07, 2012
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Federal officials are focusing on regional challenges in fire management as they deal with limited resources and an active fire season that has already blackened hundreds of square miles in states from New Mexico to Michigan. The U.S Department of Agriculture and the Interior Department on Thursday released the latest iteration of their strategy for wildfire management. Assessments were done for the West, the Northeast and the Southeast to identify population ....
GOP bill to boost production, extend county payments would cost billions -- CBO, E&E Daily, June 6, 2012
A Republican bill to significantly increase timber harvests on national forests and extend a popular county payment program would increase direct spending by roughly $2.6 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.....
To save owls, biologists may need a chain saw, Redding Record Searchlight, June 6, 2012
Do northern spotted owls, whose legal protection under the Endangered Species Act helped fell the north state's traditional timber industry in the 1990s, need a little more logging to survive and thrive over the long haul? In the right place and done the right way, the answer is yes, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is preparing its latest recovery plan for the northern spotted owl and explained it to the public at meetings in Redding on Monday.....
NTSB: Tanker 'heavily fragmented' after Utah crash, PAUL FOY, San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 2012
An air tanker that crashed and killed two pilots fighting a wildfire in southern Utah was reduced to fragments that shed few clues about the accident's cause, federal investigators said Wednesday. The wreckage will be recovered within days for a closer look, said Debra Eckrote, deputy regional chief at the National Transportation Safety Board's Seattle office......
GAO to investigate wildfire air fleet in wake of fatal Utah crash, E&E Daily, June 5, 2012
In the wake of a fatal crash Sunday of an airplane fighting a wildfire along the Utah-Nevada border, the Government Accountability Office yesterday said it has accepted lawmakers' request to review the Forest Service's efforts to modernize its aging air tanker fleet.
Forester John P. "Jack" Sweeley honored, Julie Bawcom, Ukiah Daily Journal, June 6, 2012
On May 17 a group of foresters, loggers, two sheriff deputies and other resource professionals gathered along Miller Ridge at 12-mile along the Masonite logging road to honor Jack Sweeley, 85, a long-time advocate of the working forests in Mendocino County. .....
Sequoia National Forest threatened by Calif. blaze, Greenwire, June 5, 2012
At least 1,700 acres of the Sequoia National Forest have been destroyed by a wind-driven wildfire as of yesterday. The blaze grew from about 1,000 acres Sunday, consuming dead and downed trees in an area of the forest that has not burned in 140 years, Forest Service spokeswoman Michelle Puckett said. More than 500 firefighters were working to put out the blaze in the southern Sierra Nevada with 25 percent of the fire contained......
Ultra-strong wood could replace steel in big buildings, Greenwire, June 5, 2012
Cross-laminated timber, a wood product strong enough to replace steel and concrete in large buildings, is popular in Europe as a cheaper and environmentally friendly alternative, and its proponents are hoping it will catch on in the United States. In London, a 29-unit building made of the material reaches nine stories high......
Agency agrees to outside review of Sierras management, E&E News, June 4, 2012
The federal management plan for 10 national forests in California's Sierra Nevadas will undergo third-party review, under a settlement reached by environmental groups and the Forest Service. The agency will submit its list of 13 key "indicator" species living in the Sierras to an independent scientific panel, which will evaluate whether they serve as an accurate measure of overall forest health......
Federal wildlife officials collect spotted owl comments, Proposal: 9.7M acres in three states, Damon Arthur, Redding Record Searchlight, June 4, 2012
Diane Richards was ready to chew out some public officials Monday. There were plenty on hand at the Redding Convention Center, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held a public information session about a proposal to expand critical habitat for the northern spotted owl. The Hayfork resident thinks federal officials are going in the wrong direction in their effort to assist in the survival of the spotted owl, which is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. And she told them so......
Environmentalists move to block Willits highway bypass, Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee, JUN. 04, 2012
A half-century ago, the 400-mile stretch of Highway 101 between San Francisco and the Oregon border was a two-lane roadway that meandered through dozens of small towns. During summer months, it was clogged with logging trucks and vacationers' trailers. Mile-by-mile, at no small cost, almost all of Highway 101 was upgraded, mostly to freeway, allowing traffic to move more smoothly and rapidly. But a few bottlenecks remained......
Forest Service has 4-point plan for Tahoe Basin, Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 2012
The grand plan for Lake Tahoe calls for restoring habitat, cleaning up creeks and keeping the lake and surrounding areas clean, according to a U.S. Forest Service draft management plan released Friday. The Forest Plan is an attempt to provide direction for which recreational activities will be allowed on the 154,000 acres of public land surrounding Lake Tahoe and how natural resources will be managed over the next two decades. The last time the plan was updated was in 1988......
USFS moves Lake Tahoe logging; still criticized, SCOTT SONNER, San Francisco Chronicle, June 2, 2012
Forest Service officials have agreed to move post-fire logging operations at Lake Tahoe farther away from nests with rare, black-backed woodpecker chicks at the request of conservationists who've been fighting the overall project for years. But leaders of the John Muir Project — who have documented one nest in the path of the logging and suspect there are more — say the no-cut buffers the agency is implementing are far too small to protect one of the rarest birds in the Sierra Nevada......
Forest Project Protocol V3.3 and Federal Lands White Paper Available for Public Comment - Comments Due July 18, Climate Action Reserve, June 1, 2012
The Climate Action Reserve's Forest Project Protocol (FPP) has undergone revision and Version 3.3 is now available for public review and comment. Reserve staff addressed issues needing further refinement and proposed a number of improvements to the protocol based on recommendations from the soil carbon white paper, lying dead wood white paper, sustainable forestry certification white paper and stakeholder comment process......
Steinberg questions Brown's wildfire proposal, Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2012
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg signaled Friday that he's uncomfortable with Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to limit legal liability for people who cause wildfires. His statement comes days after meeting with Benjamin Wagner, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento, who opposes the proposal and has mounted a rare lobbying effort to stop it......
Piece of history cut at lumber mill, RICK ELKINS, Porterville Recorder, 2012-05-31
It is not every day Sierra Forest Products sees logs like it saw Wednesday — logs that had been preserved under water for the past 100 years. Cut up Wednesday were two truck loads of sinker logs, logs that sink to the bottom of timber ponds, that have sat at the bottom of Shaver Lake since the late 1890s. The logs, not only in excellent condition but extra valued because of their age, grain and color, will be used at the Central Sierra Historical Society Museum in Shaver and for things like picture frames, paneling and furniture......