Here's the week's headlines on California forestry issues from Natural Resources Advisor Greg Giuisti:
Further Details Sought on Costs of Hundreds of Endangered Species Act Lawsuits and Settlements, Chairman Hastings asks Obama Administration for more information, House Natural Resources Committee, May 31, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) sent a series of letters to the Obama Administration requesting further information on how much the federal government spends on Endangered Species Act (ESA)-related litigation and settlement costs. .....
Feds asked to delay logging near rare Tahoe birds, By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, May 31, 2012
A conservation group says rare woodpecker chicks in burned forest stands at Lake Tahoe won't survive if the U.S. Forest Service proceeds with a contentious post-fire logging project. Leaders of the Sierra-based John Muir Project are pressing the agency to postpone cutting around the trees until after the nesting season in August......
Redwood Siding Returns, By Bob Mion, Redwood Empire Marketing Manager, The Lumber Log, June 2012
The perception that redwood siding no longer exists or is prohibitively expensive seems to be hanging around. In reality, Redwood Empire is producing more redwood siding than it has in years. The company’s main sawmill is conveniently located in the southern part of redwood country, and Redwood Empire acquired its second manufacturing facility in August 2011, in Redding, Calif......
LACN opposes additional lumber tax, The Lumber Log, June 2012
The Lumber Association of California & Nevada (LACN) Board of Directors has taken a position to oppose a proposal in the governor’s May Revision State Budget that would apply an additional tax on the retail sale of lumber in California. ......
Proposed lumber tax is best example of the worst in state fiscal policy, The Lumber Log, June 2012
Our lead story in this month’s LUMBER LOG is on the proposal to slap an additional tax on lumber products to fund state agencies that regulate the timber industry. It’s a bad idea and just plain bad public policy. The trend in California for some years and affecting many services has been to add these “fees” to cover what really ought to be covered by general fund taxation......
Foothill yellow-legged frogs get a leg up in Feather River, Jane Braxton Little, Sacramento Bee, MAY. 30, 2012
BELDEN, Plumas County -- A population of frogs in the Feather River Canyon has a leg up on life thanks to a project coordinated by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The foothill yellow-legged frogs in the north fork of the Feather River now have a way to get back and forth between the river, where they breed and lay eggs, and a tributary near the Butte-Plumas county line, where they spend the winter as well as most of the hot summer months......
Sierra Conservancy funds on course for Auburn-area forest health, City of Auburn, Placer Land Trust projects up for Sierra Nevada Conservancy board OK, By Gus Thomson, Auburn Journal, May 29, 2012
AUBURN CA - Healthy forest efforts in the Auburn area are in line for nearly half a million dollars in grant funding from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. The two projects that will be recommended by staff for funding approval at the Auburn-based conservancy’s board meeting next month are for Placer Land Trust forest management on a Bear River preserve and Auburn Fire Department shaded fuel break efforts along the American River canyon......
California counting its carbon tax riches, By Katy Grimes, Cal Watchdog, May 29, 2012
While the rest of the country shuns carbon trading schemes, California politicians continue to embrace the concept, and are forging ahead with a Cap and Trade carbon trading system. But eight states have dropped out of California’s Western Climate Initiative, leaving many scratching their heads in wonderment, as only California and Quebec are left alone to solve the world’s global warming and climate change issues.....
New Survey Says CA Unfriendly for Small Business, By Sander Daniels, Co-Founder, Thumbtack.com, Fox & Hounds, May 29th, 2012
Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, has released new data showing that small businesses rank California among the least friendly states for small business. California earned Fs in 6 of the 12 categories ranked, and the three worst cities nationwide for small businesses are all in California. The one bright spot is San Jose, which ranked in the top half of cities nationwide......
If they're stuck with fee, payers must see benefit, Redding Record Searchlight Editorial, May 29, 2012,
As multiple speakers told the state Board of Forestry last week during its public hearing in Redding on rules to implement a $150 annual tax on homeowners who live in forested rural areas, the only good thing to do with the unfair and almost surely unconstitutional "fee" is for the Legislature to reverse itself and scrap the bad law that created it. A productive second-best suggestion, however, came from the California Fire Safe Council, and if lawmakers cannot be persuaded to undo the fee, they should at least heed the sensible advice of the state's leading independent group focused on fire prevention......
Assembly passes controversial 'cap-and-trade' auction measure, Sacramento Bee, May 29, 2012
The Assembly passed hotly contested legislation Tuesday to regulate and restrict how money generated by California's new "cap-and-trade" program of marketing carbon emissions can be spent. Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez carried the measure, Assembly Bill 1532, which passed by a vote of 47-26. The bill marks a major step toward implementing "cap and trade," which places a limit on various pollution generators but allows that cap to be exceeded through the purchase of credits from businesses that fall below their cap.....
Lessons learned in 2008 shape fire preparation in Shasta County, Lessons learned in '08 put to use now, Sean Longoria, Redding Record Searchlight, May 28, 2012
Four years after the catastrophic summer of 2008, fire officials say the brush is drying out and another season is already under way. Technology has advanced and some of the lessons of that year's lightning fires have led to significant changes in policy and communication. But the forests remain loaded with fuel and most plans for addressing the issue in a broader way are still in their early stages. .....
Budget cuts might aid invasion by yellow star thistle, By Matt Weiser, Modesto Bee, May 27, 2012
It doesn't take a botanist or even a nature nut to identify yellow star thistle along a favorite hiking trail. Every outdoor enthusiast has felt the familiar stab of introduction. The invasive weed reaches 6 feet high with stiff limbs that seem to sprout daggers from every pore. Each arm is topped with a crown of inchlong spikes — and one showy yellow flower — that seems perfectly placed to stab a shoulder or poke an eye......
It’s time to judge forest policy by its result, not by its intent, Rural Americans suffer while the Northwest Forest Plan fails to save owls, BY ROB DEHARPPORT, The Register Guard Commentary, May 27, 2012
Failed federal policies implemented by unelected agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management during the past 30 to 40 years remind me of a quote from the late economist Milton Friedman: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” The Northwest Forest Plan enacted by President Clinton in 1994 may have had good intentions, but it has failed catastrophically......
Forest owners and EPA agree – No permits for forest roads, Forest Business Network, May 26, 2012
The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) agreed with the objective of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal to manage forest roads under the Clean Water Act (CWA) using state administered Best Management Practices (BMPs) rather than industrial permits. Despite agreement with the objective, NAFO expressed the need for legal certainty to ensure a BMP approach is not undone by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit......
Logging roads, not logging roadblock, By The Oregonian Editorial Board, Oregonian, May 26, 2012
Nobody doubts that a gravel road cut through a forest can, under hard rain, lose some dirt that washes into a nearby stream. Neither does anybody doubt that the same road, gullied by a torrent of stormwater, could send loads of silt downhill and choke waterways that are spawning grounds for protected fish....
SB455 Abandons Overreach on Watershed Scale Logging Plans, By Rob DiPerna, EPIC, May 24th, 2012
In a vital victory for EPIC and other conservation groups, the Watershed Timber Harvest Plan (WTHP) provisions of Senate Bill 455 have fallen by the wayside. Early versions of Senate Bill 455 would have created watershed-scale Timber Harvest Plan documents and longer Timber Harvest Plan permits......
California Fish and Game sues U.S. Army Corps over levee trees, Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee, MAY. 24, 2012
The state of California sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday to fight rules that could eliminate trees on levees in Sacramento and statewide. The Department of Fish and Game filed the suit in federal court in Sacramento, alleging the Corps' levee maintenance policy violates the Endangered Species Act and other laws. Fish and Game initially sought to join a similar lawsuit filed last year by Friends of the River and other environmental groups, but was denied on technical grounds......
U.S. attorney fumes at Gov. Jerry Brown's timber deal, Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert, May 24, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown has tucked provisions into his budget that would limit payouts in wildfire liability cases, potentially saving timber companies and other major California landowners hundreds of millions of dollars as federal prosecutors pursue record-high damages in court. The Democratic governor also has asked lawmakers to impose a 1 percent lumber tax to fund forestry oversight while reducing industry costs. And he wants to reduce the frequency with which California reviews tree-cutting plans for environmental impacts.....
Humans are the natural world, too, By Roger Hedgecock, San Diego Union Tribune, May 23, 2012
It seems like too much of what I read, see or hear in the media is propaganda and spin. Here’s an example. “Humans are ruining the planet,” or some version of this theme, is a daily drumbeat in American media and America’s classrooms. One of the subthemes is that wild animals are disappearing from the planet......
Western US lumber exports increase while log exports to China drop during first quarter, RISI. PORTLAND, OR, May 22, 2012
West Coast lumber exports increased slightly in the first quarter of 2012-just under 2 percent for a total of 234 million board feet worth $156 million, according to the US Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. Meanwhile, US log exports to Canada jumped by 43 percent to 255 million board feet during the first quarter, while exports to China dropped by 9.5 percent to 233 million board feet......