Here are news highlights about California forests from Natural Resources Advisor Greg Giusti:
Military veterans learn to fight wildfires in Auburn training program, Timothy Sandoval, Sacramento Bee, MAY. 10, 2012
Traditionally, there has been a friendly rivalry between different branches of the military. But it was more like cooperative teamwork Wednesday when more than 50 veterans from the Army, Navy, National Guard and Marines learned together how to prevent and extinguish wildfires at the California Conservation Corps' Placer Center in Auburn......
Lessons From The Fire Tax And Looking Outward, Assemblyman Paul Cook, FlashReport, May 9, 2012
If you’re reading this editorial, you probably already agree with me. I think taxes in California are too high, and I bet you do as well. The problem is simple: there are too few of us who think this way. We’re surrounded by pro-tax interest groups and politicians who have no answer to the question “How much taxation is enough?” No matter what the tax burden, there will always be winners and losers in a free market. In their eyes, this gives them license to raise taxes, because government can always find some suffering to address. But this problem, this incessant drive to raise taxes, is as much ours as it is theirs. .....
California senators roll out proposal aimed at keeping state parks open, Torey Van Oot, Sacramento Bee, MAY. 09, 2012
Democratic Sens. Joe Simitian and Noreen Evans have rolled out a proposal aimed at keeping gates open at more than 50 California state parks set to close this summer. The proposal, which will be heard by a Senate budget subcommittee this afternoon, includes shifting as much as $40 million from existing accounts for road maintenance, septic system repairs and trails and off-highway vehicle funds to cover parks' costs......
Supervisors, forest reps seek common ground, Sally Morris,The Trinity Journal, May 9, 2012
Deputy Forest Supervisors Alan Olson and Merv George, local district rangers and other high ranking staff members from the Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers national forests attended a meeting last week in Weaverville at the request of the Trinity County Board of Supervisors in search of greater input on forest management issues. It was the first in a series of coordination meetings with the Forest Service being planned this year and was also attended by Trinity County Sheriff Bruce Haney, several members of the public and other resource management agencies in the county......
California’s Cap-and-Trade Auction Creates Billions in Needless Costs, Gino DiCaro, Vice President of Communications for the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, Fox & Hounds Daily, May 8th, 2012
The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) cap-and-trade auction will create needless costs for employers at a time when our state must compete, scrap, wrangle, advocate and fight for every high-wage job we can get. These costs will seriously hamstring our ability to grow. What most people don’t know is that CARB is asking employers to pay for far more emission credits than are needed to reach our goals. California will reach it’s 1990-level greenhouse gas emissions without the economy-debilitating cap-and-trade auction, but CARB continues to move forward. .....
Our too-thirsty forests, Federal fire suppression policy has led to an overabundance of trees, Helen M. Poulos and James G. Workman, Los Angeles Times, May 8, 2012
Ronald Reagan once justified logging with "a tree is a tree; how many more do you need to look at?" Besides, he warned, "trees cause more pollution than automobiles." We cringed at his biases. Yet due to forces none foresaw, Reagan's gaffes may now ring true. Today, the hottest and thirstiest parts of the United States are best described as over-forested. Vigorous federal protection has stocked semiarid regions of public land with several billion trees too many. And day after day these excess trees deplete a natural resource that has become far more precious than toilet paper or 2-by-4's: water......
Siskiyou County officials want to ban wolves, Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, May 8, 2012
Fear of the big bad wolf has taken hold of a few politicians in Siskiyou County, who have introduced an ordinance to ban the predators. The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider a proposed law Tuesday that would "prohibit the presents of wolves in Siskiyou County." .....
State OKs forest-to-vineyard plan in Sonoma County, BRETT WILKISON, SANTA ROSA PRESS DEMOCRAT, May 8, 2012
State forestry officials on Tuesday approved a controversial timber-to-vineyard conversion project in northwest Sonoma County, following through with a decision expected months ago. The decision on what is considered the largest timber-to-vineyard project in state history clears the most significant regulatory hurdle facing Artesa Vineyards and Winery....
Suggestions in changing Wildlife Services range from new practices to outright bans, Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee, MAY. 06, 2012
Last of three parts
Like many ranchers, Bill Jensen drives a pickup, shoots a high-powered rifle and loves to talk about sheep, cattle and the outdoors. But unlike many ranchers, he no longer relies on the federal government for predator control. Nor does the Marin County rancher have a choice. Ten years ago Marin, known for its environmental activism, halted lethal federal control and launched a program emphasizing nonlethal methods. Jensen, initially skeptical, has turned the program into a success with miles of electric fencing.....
California's Emerald Triangle pot market is hitting bottom, Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee, MAY 05, 2012
ARCATA – The pot market is crashing in California's legendary Emerald Triangle. The closure of hundreds of marijuana dispensaries across California and a federal crackdown on licensing programs for medical pot cultivation are leaving growers in the North Coast redwoods with harvested stashes many can't sell. Some pot cultivators who sought legitimacy through the medical market are fleeing to the black market. So much cheap weed is getting dumped in the college town of Arcata, some local dispensaries say business is down 75 percent. Even the region's itinerant and colorful bud trimmers are going broke......
Giacomini has best approach for District 3, Staff Reports, Redding Record Searchlight Editorial, Friday, May 4, 2012
Hat Creek rancher and businesswoman Pam Giacomini is one of the most promising and qualified entrants on the local political scene in some time, and is the clear choice for District 3 supervisor. Where's she been hiding all this time? Hat Creek, where her roots go back to her great-grandfather's arrival in 1903. In a variety of roles, she's gained extensive experience with government and established a track record as a leader and collaborator who gets things done.....
'Whistleblower' will speak about Klamath dam removals; scientist's advice opposed their removal, Alayna Shulman, Redding Record Searchlight, Friday, May 4, 2012
A federal agency's former scientific integrity adviser who filed a whistle-blower complaint in February, saying he was fired for his findings on a controversial proposal to remove dams in Siskiyou County, will speak at a meeting Monday in Yreka. Paul R. Houser will address his complaint at the meeting of the Cal-Ore Bi-State Alliance at 6:30 p.m. in the Flower Building of the Siskiyou County fairgrounds, 1712 Fairlane Road......
Rural fire fee could be revised, not repealed, The Sheet News, May 4, 2012
The controversial Rural Fire Fee appears to still have some spark to it, and doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon for residents in counties across the state. But it could be revised before fees are collected this August. The $150 annual fee has drawn fierce opposition from homeowners and county officials throughout rural parts of the state and it is slated to affect around 800,000 homeowners beginning this summer. .....
Protection sought for rare woodpecker, SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press, May 3, 2012
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Smokey Bear has done such a good job stamping out forest fires the past half-century that a woodpecker that's survived for millions of years by eating beetle larvae in burned trees is in danger of going extinct in parts of the West, according to conservationists seeking U.S. protection for the bird.
Four conservation groups filed a petition with the U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday to list the black-backed woodpecker under the Endangered Species Act in the Sierra Nevada, Oregon's Eastern Cascades and the Black Hills of eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota......