Here's the weekly news update from Greg Giuisti:
Coalition deal preserves panorama of High Sierra, Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, September 5, 2013
A development war that has raged for more than a decade ended Tuesday when an agreement was reached to preserve forever a sweeping panorama of Sierra forest, pristine meadow and a long-coveted mountaintop overlooking Lake Tahoe. The decision by a coalition of conservationists, land owners and developers will protect 6,376 acres of land sloping up from the Martis Valley to Brockway Summit, near the Northstar atTahoe Resort, creating a huge corridor of protected High Sierra wilderness......
Subpoenas Issued for Documents on the Obama Admin’s Retroactive Cuts to Secure Rural School Payments, House Committee on Natural Resources, September 4, 2013
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today issued subpoenas to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for documents they have failed to produce as part of the Committee’s oversight into the Obama Administration’s decision to retroactively subject 2012 Secure Rural School (SRS) payments to the fiscal year 2013 sequester......
Fire in Yosemite offers forest management lessons, Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, September 3, 2013
Stanislaus National Forest, -- Tuolumne County - The danger of catastrophic fire was already clear to Scott Stephens when flames erupted almost on cue and chased his team of UC Berkeley researchers out of the Stanislaus National Forest. The enormous Rim Fire, which started on Aug. 17 and has now blackened 343 square miles of forest in and around Yosemite National Park, was almost licking at his heels. "I was thinking before the fire that if we ever get a fire in here, most of the old trees will be killed," said Stephens, the university's chief fire science expert. "I think that has happened."....
Failure to thin brush may have worsened California wildfire, By Jonathan Kaminsky, Reuters, Sun, Sep 1 2013
A cluster of controlled fire and tree-thinning projects approved by forestry officials but never funded might have slowed the progress of the massive Rim Fire in California, a wide range of critics said this weekend. The massive blaze at the edge of Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains has scorched an area larger than many U.S. cities - with some of that land in the very location pinpointed by the U.S. Forest service for eight projects aimed at clearing and burning brush and small trees that help fuel wildfire......
Let it burn? Yosemite park officials won't say that, but it's policy. Unless a naturally occurring fire threatens lives or structures, Yosemite and other national parks are likely to let nature run, its course. Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2013
GROVELAND, Calif. — As the massive Rim fire roared out of the Stanislaus National Forest and deeper into Yosemite National Park this week, public attention rose sharply. But the intensity of firefighting did not. That's because part of the blaze had crossed into the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, which has a more restrained approach to managing wildfires than other federal, state and local fire agencies battling the 300-square-mile blaze. Officials estimate that it will be fully contained in two or three weeks, but it is expected to keep smoldering for weeks longer and won't be truly out for months......
Strengthen our forests - thin the trees, David A. Bischel, San Francisco Chronicle, August 29, 2013
The Rim Fire is one of the largest fires in recent California history. It highlights how every Californian has a stake in our forests, no matter how far away you are from the flames. Thousands of firefighters are working to attack the fire before it
destroys the watersheds of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir - the water supply for millions in the Bay Area. Many of our forests are overgrown because of more than a century of fire suppression and lack of forest management. Dense and unhealthy forests make fires burn hotter and faster. They then become too dangerous to attack on the ground, limiting the ability of our firefighters to contain the fire quickly......
State audit hits Cal Fire hidden funds, John Ortiz, Sacramento Bee, AUG. 30, 2013
For years, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials collected nearly $100 million from legal settlements, but didn't track all spending and socked some of it away in an off-the-books training fund, according to a state
audit released Wednesday. Department of Finance auditors concluded that Cal Fire didn't have the authority to create the Wildland Fire Investigation
Training and Equipment Fund in 2005. They also found the Cal Fire Civil Cost Recovery Program, which billed and sued responsible parties for firefighting costs to the tune of $93 million over eight years, cannot accurately account for the
number of cases it's handling or civil liability payments being pursued......
Vilsack defends national forest management amid wildfires, By Tim Hearden
Capital Press, Aug 29, 2013
SACRAMENTO — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack largely defended the federal government’s management of national forests amid criticisms that massive buildups of hazardous fuels have added to wildfires’ intensity. Vilsack said there’s “no question there’s been more intense fires,” but the total number of fires this summer is down a bit from a normal year. He said his agency is committed to efforts like the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, a series of conservation projects on federal lands.....
Cap-and-trade cost increases on hold, By Shelly Sullivan Capitol Weekly | 08/29/13
Many large employers in California were scheduled for massive greenhouse gas (GHG) “cap-and-trade” cost increases starting in 2015. Now state regulators propose to delay any increase until 2018 at the earliest. This is good news for
manufacturers and thousands of California workers with high wage manufacturing jobs. Food processors, consumer products firms, aerospace, chemical and oil refiners, and others will be able to efficiently operate in the state without being forced to buy millions of dollars worth of greenhouse gas permits at a state-sponsored auction......