Here is a weekly digest of on-line news pertinent to forestry in California provided by University of California Cooperative Extension Natural Resources Advisor Greg Giusti (gagiusti@ucdavis.edu):
Sacramento federal judge to decide whether to seal Moonlight fire documents, Denny Walsh, Sacramento Bee, Jan. 19, 2012
A Sacramento federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments today on a Bee challenge to sealing documents in a legal slugfest between the government and Sierra Pacific Industries over the origin of a monster wildfire in 2007 and who should pay for the devastation it wrought. Sierra Pacific, one of the nation's biggest timber products companies and the largest private landowner in North America, has asked U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to seal evidence that the company claims tends to show a coverup of misconduct and fraud on the part of U.S. Forest Service employees in connection with the agency's investigation of the Moonlight fire.....
Greenville logger optimistic after Forest Service meeting, Dan McDonald, Plumas County News, 1/18/2012
Greenville logger Randy Pew said he was upbeat after the latest round of talks with the U.S. Forest Service. “I think we had a very good meeting,” said Pew, owner of Pew Forest Products. “It was the first time I didn’t feel like we had to go to war to try to justify our position.” Pew was referring to a Monday, Jan. 9, meeting in Vallejo with Regional Forester Randy Moore. The meeting was to discuss Pew’s claim that his company lost more than a million dollars trying to log charred trees left behind from the 2007 Moonlight Fire.....
DFG seeks comments on black-backed woodpecker, The Times-Standard, 01/17/2012
The Department of Fish and Game is seeking public comment as part of a status review of California's black-backed woodpecker population. DFG is currently evaluating whether the species warrants listing as a threatened or endangered species under state law. Comments are due by June 1.....
USFS approves project to reduce risk of wildfires, Sacramento Bee, Jan. 17, 2012
The U.S. Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has approved a 10,000-acre fuel-reduction project. Designed to reduce wildfire risk to communities on the lake's south shore and restore forest health, the project will thin trees and brush on national forest land from the state line west to Cascade Lake. "Our goal is to begin implementing the project this summer," unit Forest Supervisor Nancy Gibson said in a news release. It is expected to take eight years to complete. In the planning and approval stages since 2007, the project will involve both hand and mechanical thinning and prescribed burns. "The fuel-reduction efforts … are critical to protecting our communities from wildfire," Gibson said......
Is Brown's plan to close state parks all a political gimmick? By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News, 01/16/2012
When Congress cut the budget for the National Park Service in 1969, Richard Nixon's national parks director responded with the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb: He decided to close the Grand Canyon and the Washington Monument. "It was unheard of. Even my own staff thought I was crazy," George Hartzog recalled years later. But it worked. The public was so outraged that Congress restored the money. Now, as California Gov. Jerry Brown moves forward with a plan to close 70 state parks by July 1, environmental leaders, political scientists and budget experts say "the Washington Monument syndrome" appears to be at work again.....
Protection closer for rare Humboldt marten, Eureka Times Standard, 01/15/2012
ARCATA -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the Humboldt marten, a rare forest carnivore found only in coastal old-growth forests in Northern California and southern Oregon, will be reviewed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Environmental Protection Information Center and Center for Biological Diversity petitioned for protection for the marten in 2010. The Humboldt marten is a cat-sized carnivore related to minks and otters. Because nearly all of its old-growth forest habitat has been destroyed by logging, the Humboldt marten is now so rare that it was believed extinct for 50 years....
Fire danger high, Cal Fire warns, By Cathy Kelly, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 01/15/2012
FELTON -- Cal Fire officials Friday issued a reminder that ongoing dry conditions have heightened the danger of fire and that a ban on outdoor burning continues. The burn suspension was imposed on Dec. 26, 2011, and applies to all areas served by Cal Fire in Santa Cruz County and several neighboring counties, Battalion Chief Jim Crawford said. It will be lifted once the area gets significant rain, Crawford said.....
U.S. woody biomass prices have dropped the past three years, By Hakan Ekstrom, Forest Business Network, January 14, 2012
Prices for woody biomass in the US, whether sawmill byproducts, forest residues or urban wood waste, have been sliding for most of the past three years but were still higher in the 4Q/11 in most regions than they were five years ago, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review. The price drop seen in 2010 and 1H/2011 was mainly the result of lower prices for fossil fuels, particularly that of natural gas, and reduced demand for energy. This declining price trend has reduced the interest by both commercial and residential energy consumers in switching to more expensive green energy.....
Suit pits sucker fish habitat against Inland Empire water rights, Opponents of the federal plan, which is intended to protect the Santa Ana sucker fish, say it puts Inland Empire water supplies and development in jeopardy. By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2012
A federal plan to preserve more than 9,000 acres of river habitat so that the threatened Santa Ana sucker fish can fulfill its complex life cycle has run into stiff resistance from critics who say it jeopardizes development and water supplies in the Inland Empire. Two cities and 10 water districts have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in U.S. District Court over the agency's decision to preserve the habitat. They say that it imposes restrictions on water conservation, groundwater recharge and flood control operations that affect water supplies for 1 million residents, and that it threatens plans to sell Santa Ana River water to thirsty communities elsewhere......
Gone with the subsidy -- Vestas weighs laying off wind turbine workers, ClimateWire, Jan. 13, 2012
Vestas Wind Systems said 1,600 of its American workers risk being laid off this year if the United States doesn't renew the renewable energy production tax credit. That is on top the 182 U.S. jobs Vestas eliminated yesterday as part of its plan to cut 2,335 jobs worldwide and save €150 million ($192 million) per year as it battles lower wind turbine prices and increased competition from low-cost Chinese manufacturers. "The U.S. market could see a massive fall in 2013 if the production tax credit is not extended," said Ditlev Engel, Vestas' CEO. "We are prepared to weather potential difficult times in the U.S. We need to reduce our capital needs. These job cuts will give us better visibility in the long term.".....