Here's a collection of news stories bearing on California forestry from Natural Resources Advisor Greg Giuisti:
Sticker Shock, The “hidden” costs of wildfire — and who gets stuck with the tab, NFPA Journal®, January/February 2013
Recent wildfire seasons have provided mainstream media with plenty of material for dramatic images and attention-grabbing headlines, some more accurate than others. We often worry that misleading coverage can deliver the wrong message to the public, but it can also be a problem among wildfire professionals. Lately, I’ve had to re-evaluate my own methods of understanding wildfire news and where it comes from, as well as how I transmit that information to colleagues and the public......
Obama settlement with green groups sparked major change in listing decision, Greenwire, Jan. 11, 2013, (subscription required)
Now entering its third year, a landmark legal truce between the Obama administration and environmental groups has resulted in new and proposed protections for scores of new wildlife species, signaling a major shift in the Obama administration's use of the Endangered Species Act.....
Environment and the California budget: Seeking more money and staff for fire prevention and logging oversight, By Paul Rogers, Contra Costa Times, 1/10/2013
When it comes to the environment, the state budget released Thursday was the first time in four years that a governor has not proposed closing state parks to save money. Gov. Jerry Brown was banned from doing that last year by the Legislature for at least two years.....
New state tax on wood products confusing, Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 2013
To the surprise of many, since Jan. 1, California retailers have been required to collect an extra 1 percent tax on sales of certain lumber products including plywood, 2-by-4s and unfinished decking, fencing and railings. But products that have had a little more work done - such as indoor finished flooring, baseboards, doors and windows - are exempt.....
Calif. carbon trading takes off, ClimateWire, Jan. 4, 2013
California's official carbon market kicked off this week with an uptick in trading, as businesses began accounting for their greenhouse gas emissions in earnest. No lawsuit against the program accompanied the official start date of Jan. 1, as many had anticipated. Instead, appetite for California's carbon allowances grew, reflecting confidence in the burgeoning, first-in-the-nation economywide greenhouse gas market, traders said.....
Cap and trade may draw individual investors, Individuals can speculate in carbon-credit market, Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 2013
Sacramento -- The participants in California's new program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the buying and selling of pollution permits have so far been large industrial interests, but there's another large group that can join in: any resident of the United States......
Edison bailed out CA Cap & Trade auction, By Wayne Lusvardi, Cal Watchdog, Jan. 9, 2013
The facts slowing coming out about the state’s first Cap and Trade auction seriously question whether the system is already being gamed by government, together with electric utilities. Edison International made an announcement on Dec. 20, 2012: At California’s first Cap and Trade auction held back on Nov. 14, 2012, it offered to buy 21 times more pollution permits than allowed......
Justices agree to further briefing in logging road case, Lawrence Hurley, E&E NewsPM, Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Supreme Court today agreed to allow parties to file additional briefs in an ongoing dispute over whether stormwater runoff from logging roads should be regulated under the Clean Water Act. The court heard arguments in the case last month, three days after U.S. EPA finalized a rule that would formally exclude such runoff from permitting requirements (Greenwire, Dec. 3, 2012). On Dec. 20, 2012, the state of Oregon asked for permission to file a new brief.....
Ore. group files challenge to new EPA logging road rule, Lawrence Hurley, Greenwire, Jan 8, 2013
An environmental group awaiting a Supreme Court decision on whether logging roads are exempt from Clean Water Act permitting has filed a new challenge to a recently issued U.S. EPA rule on the same issue. The Portland, Ore.-based Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) filed a petition last week in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking review of the rule finalized Nov. 30 that would formally exempt logging roads from permitting under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program.....
The forest roads legal quagmire is now here, Dave Tenny, NAFO President and CEO National Alliance of Forest Owners, January 8, 2013,
As expected, the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule clarifying that logging is not an industrial activity under the Clean Water Act (CWA) has precipitated a legal quagmire. Last Friday the Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) filed a new lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenging the EPA rule. This comes just ahead of the Supreme Court’s order today inviting further briefing on the impact of the EPA’s rule on Decker v. NEDC currently pending before that Court.....
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS OUTLINE BROAD AGENDA, By Michael Gardner, San Diego Union Tribune, Jan 7, 2013
SACRAMENTO — Firmly in command of the policy agenda and controlling a state budget that is in its best shape in years, California Democrats are expected to push a broad agenda of fiscal and social change in 2013. The vast list includes new taxes, revamping education spending formulas, gun control, health care, highway expansions and redefining Proposition 13, the landmark property tax protection measure passed by voters in 1978......
California parks officials deliberately hid millions, report says, Fear of embarrassment and budget cuts led high officials to conceal the money, which remained hidden for years until it was exposed by a new staff member, according to attorney general's investigation. By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2013
SACRAMENTO — Fear of embarrassment and budget cuts led high officials at the California parks department to conceal millions of dollars, according to a new investigation by the state attorney general's office. The money remained hidden for years until it was exposed by a new staff member who described a culture of secrecy and fear at the department......
Center for Biological Diversity files appeal over Tahoe/Truckee biomass project, BY MARGARET MORAN, Sierra Sun, JANUARY, 2 2013
TRUCKEE, Calif. — A national environmental nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting nearly extinct species is appealing the latest approval in the proposed two-megawatt Cabin Creek Biomass Energy Facility process, officials confirmed Wednesday. The Center for Biological Diversity submitted the appeal after the Placer County Planning Commission adopted a conditional use permit and certified the project's final Environmental Impact Report on Dec. 20, said Brett Storey, Placer County project manager for the biomass facility, on Wednesday...
Group hails forest cooperation, Calaveras Enterprise, January 1, 2013
For the first time in many years, loggers and conservation groups are working together and the results have been stunning, according to Katherine Evatt, president of the Pine Grove-based Foothill Conservancy. The Amador Calaveras Consensus Group has been working in the Stanislaus and Eldorado national forests on projects that are part of a larger national program called Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration......
The goal is to restore forests for people, water and wildlife, and a report released in December shows some of those goals are being met.
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