Tag Archives: U.S. Forest Service

New Forest Service report on management of wildfire risk to homes

Environmental Issues, Fire Information and Status, News, ,

The U.S. Forest Service released a new report on managing wildfire danger on the “wildland-urban” interface, a subject of special interest on the North Fork . . .

Earlier this year, U.S. Forest Service researchers found that roughly 90 percent of fuel reduction treatments on national forests were effective in reducing the intensity of wildfire while also allowing for better wildfire control.

The report, “Wildfire, Wildlands, and People: Understanding and Preparing for Wildfire in the Wildland-Urban Interface,” synthesizes the latest research and provides examples of what communities in the wildland-urban interface can do to reduce their risk by becoming “fire adapted.”

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Next Flathead Forest Friday meeting focuses on partnerships

News,

The local Forest Service office is still doing their Flathead Forest Friday meetings every couple of months. With the big push for the development of a new forest plan, the focus of the upcoming meeting is on partnerships. Here’s the press release . . .

It has been a year since we started our casual breakfast chats known as Flathead Forest Fridays. We’ve talked with people about our recreation program, avalanche center, work on our four ranger districts, plan revision and whatever else was on our guest’s minds. We believe these chats are a great way to have an open dialog and stay connected to the forest users, protectors, and champions. Thank you for the support.

This month we want to talk about partnerships. Everyone is invited to join us for the July Flathead Forest Friday breakfast with Flathead National Forest Staff Officer Gary Danczyk and others at the Perkins Restaurant (1390 U.S. 2, Evergreen, Montana) starting at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, July 19, 2013.

This is an opportunity to discuss how partnerships allow us to do work we could not otherwise accomplish; give us an opportunity to be a good neighbor and part of the community; and create opportunities to improve programs where we may have the knowledge and desire but not the resources. We also want to hear your ideas about possible opportunities to create new partnerships.

Every other month, the Forest Service will coordinate these no-host breakfast meetings at a local restaurant with the goal of sharing good food, great company, and a little information about what’s happening on our National Forest. We hope the event will be a great way to discuss public land management opportunities and challenges that are important to us all.

If you plan to attend or have any questions, please notify Public Affairs Officer Wade Muehlhof at ewmuehlhof@fs.fed.us or (406) 758-5252. Your response allows us to plan accordingly with the restaurant.

Wildfire fighting costs up; fire prevention funds down

News,

Thew New York Times has a lengthy article on the Forest Service’s increasingly tight budget for fire mitigation work . . .

…As another destructive wildfire season chars the West, the federal government is sharply reducing financing for programs aimed at preventing catastrophic fires. Federal money to thin out trees and clear away millions of acres of deadfall and brittle brush has dropped by more than 25 percent in the budgets for the past two years, a casualty of spending cuts and the rising cost of battling active wildfires.

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Judge blocks three more timber projects over lynx rules

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

More lynx-related lawsuits on the docket . . .

A federal judge this week blocked three Montana logging projects in two national forests, saying the U.S. government did not properly examine the effects the projects might have on lynx and the threatened animal’s habitat.

That makes four timber projects since May in which U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen found fault with the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ conclusion that cutting and burning in those areas would not significantly harm the big cats’ territory.

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New Forest Service budgeting process could impact backcountry trails work

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Some folks are getting fussed about how a new Forest Service budgeting process could impact backcountry trails work. Region 1, which includes the Flathead National Forest, is one of the regions trying out this approach . . .

A U.S. Forest Service cleanup program repaired or removed more than 1,000 of roads and trails in Montana over a recent five-year period. Now its advocates worry a new budgeting process could squelch that momentum…

But that momentum could be lost under a new budgeting system the Forest Service let some of its regions try. Missoula-headquartered Region 1 is one of the pilot sites for Integrated Resource Restoration budgeting, which combines money from five task-related budget pools into single buckets defined by landscapes or watersheds.

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Forest Service changes rule on project issue resolution

Environmental Issues, News,

The U.S. Forest Service is implementing a rule change that allows discussion of a project with affected parties before a final decision is made.

No, really. This is actual news, not simply common sense. You just can’t make this stuff up . . .

In U.S. Forest Service-speak, we’re switching from a 215 to a 218.

The difference in digits determines how and when someone can protest a timber sale or a road decommissioning, or any other Forest Service project that needs an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment.

Under rule 215, you appeal the decision after it’s announced. Under rule 218, you object before the decision is made.

“The idea is we can sit down together and work out the issues,” said Ray Smith, Forest Service Region 1 objections and appeals coordinator. “It’s really important – the work together part.

“Under the appeal process, an appellant couldn’t sit down with the person who made the decision or the person who’s reviewing the project. It’s all separate, all isolated. You even need a specific official document to communicate. That isolated everybody, and made it difficult to have good back-and-forth dialogue.”

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Beargrass focus of new report

Environmental Issues, News,

Well, now. Science Daily reports that beargrass, a common sight around here, is the focus of a research report just released by the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. One tidbit I didn’t know: Beargrass leaves are very popular with the commercial floral industry . . .

Beargrass is an ecologically, culturally, and economically important plant in the Western United States and, for the first time, landowners, managers, and harvesters now have a comprehensive report about the species.

The report, Natural and Cultural History of Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax), published by the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, identifies critical knowledge gaps and areas for future research. It also documents how changes in disturbance, including fire, may affect the species across its range.

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Link: Natural and cultural history of beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax)

Forest Service wants to snuff out all wildfires this year

Environmental Issues, Fire Information and Status, News, ,

This story centers on Gila National Forest, but discusses a general, if temporary, policy this year: Whenever practical, the U.S. Forest Service is jumping on all fires as soon as they brew up. Why? Because it’s cheaper . . .

If lightning strikes in the New Mexico wilderness and starts a fire, the blaze would normally be little more than a blip on the radar of land managers who have earned a reputation for letting flames burn to keep forested lands from growing into a tangled mess.

This season is different. Now firefighters are trekking deep into the Gila National Forest with trains of equipment-carrying horses and one overriding goal: snuffing out all fires, no matter how small or remote.

The U.S. Forest Service’s decision is temporary. But after years of upholding fire’s natural ability to clean up the landscape, the agency’s about-face has drawn criticism from watchdog groups, some scientists and others who fear the agency might be setting the stage for an even more destructive season next year.

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Family recounts struggle to establish Scapegoat Wilderness

Environmental Issues, News, ,

This is the second of the Missoulian’s two-part series on the establishment of the Scapegoat Wilderness . . .

A quote on the wall of the Montanan Steakhouse may be familiar to literature fans: John Steinbeck expressing his affinity for Montana during his travels with a French poodle named Charley. “I’m in love with Montana,” Steinbeck quipped in “Travels with Charley: In Search of America.” “For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.”

The quote is a fitting one for a Lincoln restaurant owned by Barbara Solvie, who as Barbara Garland founded the Garlands Town and County store in the 1950s with her husband, Cecil.

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(Additional reading: The first part of this series.)

Scapegoat, first citizen-designated wilderness, created 40 years ago

Environmental Issues, History, ,

The Missoulian starts an excellent two-part series on the Scapegoat Wilderness today . . .

While camped above Ringeye Falls in the 1950s, Cecil Garland pulled an elk reed bugle from his duffel bag and released a call into the crisp September air.

Within minutes, the calls rang back – big bulls hidden deep in the Lincoln backcountry. Sleep wouldn’t come easy for Garland that night, his heart pounding and his senses alive.

“All through the frosty fall air the calls echoed back and forth and I knew I’d found wilderness,” Garland testified before the U.S. Senate on Sept. 23, 1968. “But all was not at peace in my heart; for I knew that someday, for some unknown reason, man would try to destroy this country as man had altered and destroyed before.”

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(See also this related article: Support waning for future Montana wilderness designations.)