Here's the weekly forestry news round up from Forestry Advisor Greg Giuisti:
Critical public comments unwelcome at CARB?, Eric Eisenhammer, Fox & Hounds, June 14th, 2012
I recently had the opportunity to attend a California Air Resources Board hearing on the agency’s plans to spend revenue from a proposed cap and trade auction. This auction will cost Californians billions of dollars, but when citizens showed up at CARB to express their opposition, CARB Chairman Mary Nichols abruptly shut down public comments, announcing she was “disappointed” after she “invited” audience members to the hearing, they would have the audacity to criticize her plans......
Renewable power isn't green enough for enviro group, Redding Record Searchlight, June 14, 2012
The close study of the carbon-dioxide emissions of every industrial process is still a new science and one that will surely evolve, but both common sense and most studies support the idea that burning waste wood — slash and sawdust — for energy is far friendlier for the climate than, say, tapping fossil fuels......
US wildfires fuel urgency for forest restoration, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, San Jose Mercury News, June 14, 2012
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—As firefighters battle blazes in New Mexico and Colorado that have forced evacuations and destroyed hundreds of structures, the U.S. Forest Service chief is renewing his call to restore forests to a more natural state, where fire was a part of the landscape. Experts say a combination of decades of vigorous fire suppression and the waning of the timber industry over environmental concerns has left many forests a tangled, overgrown mess, subject to the kind of super-fires that are now regularly consuming hundreds of homes and millions of acres......
As We See It: Early start to fire season, Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 14, 2012
Summer officially starts in a week, but the high temperatures and dry conditions of the past week tell us it's already here. After a winter where rinfall was below normal -- less than half what fell the year before -- the weather means something else as well: the onset of a dangerous fire season. Firefighters have already battled spring wildfires in Colorado and New Mexico, and the same scenes could play out here......
USDA Forest Service Announces Award of Large Air Tanker Agreements; Federal Partners to Have New Resources to Suppress Wildfires, June 13, 2012
WASHINGTON-- U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell announced today that the U.S. Forest Service has awarded contracts to four companies to provide a total of seven next generation airtankers for wildfire suppression. The announcement follows the President's signature of S. 3261 earlier today, a bill which cleared the House and Senate this week that expedites the Forest Service contracting process that had been underway......
Global warming could lead to more wildfire in California: study, Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2012
California and the West, which have experienced a surge in wildfire during the last decade, can expect more of the same with global warming, according to a study published Tuesday. “A lot of the West, California included, really does look like it’s headed into a more fire-prone future,” said Max Moritz, a UC Cooperative Extension wildfire specialist and lead author of a new paper that examined climate change’s likely effects on global fire patterns.......
California, Oakland officials prepare for wildfire season, Anna Gallegos Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, June 11, 2012
The Bay Area has been untouched by any major wildfires since the fire season began Memorial Day, but a dry winter has made the conditions ripe, and officials want property owners to be on the watch. Cal Fire has responded to more than 1,500 wildfires this year, which is twice as many as last year. It also tops the state's five-year average of 1,307......
Dry winter has California nervous about fire season, Mike Rosenberg, San Jose Mercury News, June 11, 2012
With wildfires already raging in bone-dry Rocky Mountain states, the forecast for thirsty California isn't much better: Prepare for an early and busy wildfire season. After a winter that sprinkled the Bay Area with about half as much rain as normal, California has already experienced nearly twice as many wildfires as it did by this time last year. And with temperatures soaring into the mid-90s, experts say the scenes of weary residents evacuating blazes in Colorado and New Mexico could play out in the Golden State sooner than you'd think......
Let it burn: Prescribed fires pose little danger to forest ecology, study says, Yuba Net,Jun 11, 2012
BERKELEY June 11, 2012 Fighting fire with fire has been given the green light by a new study of techniques used to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. And with a rise in wildfires predicted in many parts of the country, researchers say controlled burns and other treatments to manage this risk should be stepped up. The paper, published in the June issue of the peer-reviewed journal BioScience, and led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, synthesizes 20 years of research throughout the country on the ecological impact of reducing forest wildfire risk through controlled burns and tree thinning......
State grant will pay for urban forestry projects, Chico Enterprise-Record, June 10, 2012
SACRAMENTO — California ReLeaf will provide $250,000 in grant funding to community-based organizations in California for urban forestry projects, funded through the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency. Nonprofit and community-based groups can apply for $1,000 to $10,000 for tree planting or tree care projects. Proposals must be postmarked by July 20 and work should be completed by March.....
East High School receives national BLM award; students monitoring forest health using salamanders and frogs, Jessica Cejnar, Eureka Times Standard, June 9, 2012
Students with East High School have received national recognition for their work on a series of projects with the Bureau of Land Management including a project that measures redwood forest health by monitoring salamanders and frogs. Fortuna Union High School District's continuation school was among eight recipients nationwide of the BLM's 2012 Making A Difference Award. .....
Inflated Endangered Species Act “success stories” revealed, Pacific Legal Foundation, June 5, 2012
The media has given a lot of ink to a self-serving “report” put out by the Center for Biological Diversity that purports to demonstrate “90 percent of species are recovering at the rate specified by their federal recovery plan.” The problem is, it ain’t so......
Public perception puts pressure on biomass, Ken Norris, Pulp & Paper International, RISI, June 4, 2012
NEW YORK - Biomass had so much promise. But now it's about to go up in smoke. Only a few years ago, energy production from biomass had one of the brightest, most promising futures in both the US and Europe. The EU's 20/20/20 Renewable Energy Directive set a sizable proportion of the 20% renewable energy goal to come from biomass. It looked like biomass was the perfect answer to the renewable energy puzzle. The problem no one anticipated was the smoke......