Here is the weekly news digest of news about California forestry from UCCE Natural Resources Advisor Greg Giusti.
LaMalfa praises bill to increase timber cutting in national forests, By LARRY MITCHELL, Chico Enterprise-Record, April 4, 2013
A bill to increase timber cutting on national forests has the strong support of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale. "I'm excited that the bill is moving forward," he said, speaking by phone Wednesday from his Oroville office. "It's something I look forward to helping on in committee." The bill, called the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, was introduced by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. He chairs the House Natural Resources Committee......
'Fire tax' debate heats up, Cindy Baker, Capitol Weekly| 04/02/13
As the weather heats up, a Capitol debate is heating up, too -- on the hotly disputed 'fire tax.' The $150 annual charge on some 850,000 rural property owners is on the books, despite delays in collections, court action and tens of thousands of complaints from property owners. Republican lawmakers have seized the issue as a hot political topic......
Tree-sitter shot, 70 feet up, by CHP rubber bullet, Tim Redmond, San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 2, 2013
Tree-sitting is nothing new. It's happened all over California, going back decades. It's a dangerous, but often effective protest tool that stops logging in its tracks. Nobody with any official sanction is going to cut down a tree while there's a human perched in it -- and it's been notoriously difficult for the authorities to remove people from platforms high above the forest. And now, in Mendocino County, police response has entered a new phase......
High court declines to hear challenge of EPA air standard for nitrogen dioxide, Greenwire, April 1, 2013
The Supreme Court today denied a call from industry to review U.S. EPA's air pollution standard for nitrogen dioxide pollution. In deciding against hearing the petition from the American Petroleum Institute, the court effectively upheld an appellate court ruling last year that said EPA had not acted arbitrarily or capriciously in setting a one-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard for nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, which is commonly emitted from smokestacks, auto tailpipes and oil rigs.....
Federal judge rejects plan to drop marbled murrelet habitat, The Oregonian, April 01, 2013
SEATTLE -- A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected a proposal by the federal government that would have dropped nearly 4 million acres of designated "critical habitat" for the marbled murrelet.
Lumber markets improved sharply in the US during 2012 and early 2013, Forest Business Network, March 31, 2013
Lumber production in the US and Canada improved during 2012, with total output in 2012 being eight percent and five percent higher, respectively, than in 2011, according to WWPA. Sawmills in the Western region have been more fortunate than mills in other regions in North America since they have been able to ship lumber both to markets in the US and to Asia......
AB 245 would shine light on cap-and-trade auctions, Warren Duffy, Cal Watchdog, March 29, 2013
AB 245 is a bill that would reverse the secrecy that currently exists around the cap-and-trade auctions of the California Air Resources Board. As CalWatchdog.com reported last August, the Legislature “nixed” proposals to mandate accountability under Sections 11120-11132 of the California government code, which is the Bagley Keene Open Meeting Act......
Feds want $18 million back from timber counties, JEFF BARNARD AND BEN NEARY, Huffington Post | March 29, 2013
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The U.S. Forest Service's demands that rural timber counties pay back millions of dollars in federal subsidies under automatic budget cuts have outraged members of Congress from both parties and caused concern in those counties with struggling economies.....
Lawmakers blast White House over retroactive bill for rural schools payment, Phil Taylor, Greenwire, March 28, 2013
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers today urged the White House to halt its request for forest communities to repay a portion of $323 million in Secure Rural Schools and commodity payments they received earlier this year to satisfy the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester......
Logging season nearing, Sean Janssen, The Sonora Union Democrat, March 29, 2013
Rights to harvest enough saw logs from the Stanislaus National Forest to build almost 1,600 average-sized homes will be sold in an annual meeting of timber operators next month. The U.S. Forest Service will allow nearly 24 million board feet of timber to be harvested this year in the Stanislaus, down about 1 million board feet from last year......
Nobody is declaring a state of drought in California, but, Surveyors in the Sierra find only half the snowpack that is normal for the date. But it could have been worse, considering the last three months have been the driest January- March period on record, Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2013
When snow surveyors headed into the Sierra Nevada on Thursday for the most important measurement of the season, they found only about half the snowpack that is normal for the date. It could have been a lot worse — considering that the last three months in California have been the driest of any January-through- March period on record, going back to 1895......
PLF sues over three outdated ESA listings in California, Anthony Francois, Pacific Legal Foundation, March 27, 2013
Federal officials must take two California plant species off the Endangered Species Act (ESA) list, and “downlist” one other species, Pacific Legal Foundation claimed in a lawsuit filed today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The complaint, filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleges that federal officials have known for more than five years that the three species should be reclassified, but have not acted......
Lawsuit Filed to Overturn Latest Spotted Owl Critical Habitat, Tom Partin, American Forest Resource Council, March 21, 2013
Today, the American Forest Resource Council joined the Carpenters Industrial Council, Siskiyou County, California, and a group of forest products manufacturers and private forest landowners in a lawsuit to overturn the latest Northern Spotted Owl critical habitat designation. The case was filed in federal District Court in Washington, D.C., against the Secretary of Interior and the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service......