Tag: logging for fire prevention

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Forests, HabitatsTags ,

Bureau of Land Management to fund 11,000 miles of fuel breaks in 6 states

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to fund 11,000 miles (17,703 kilometers) of strategic fuel breaks in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Utah in an effort to help control wildfires.

The fuel breaks are intended to prop up fire mitigation efforts and help protect firefighters, communities and natural resources, The Oregonian reported Saturday.

According to the BLM, wildfires are becoming bigger and more frequent across the Great Basin states. Between 2009 and 2018, more than 13.5 million acres of BLM land burned in the project area.

“Recovering from the devastating effects of wildfires can take decades in the rugged, high-desert climate of the Great Basin. These tools will help firefighters contain fires when they break out,” said acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management Casey Hammond in a news release. “That’s why creating fuel breaks is incredibly important to the entire basin, the people who live in these communities, and our wildland firefighters.”

Fuel breaks are intended to break up fire fuels by creating breaks in vegetation that slow a blaze’s progress. By implementing them strategically, they help firefighters control the spread of fire, and can protect homes and resources.

Some scientists debate the effectiveness of fuel breaks, raising questions about whether these efforts are worth funding.

Read more at https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2020-02-15/blm-to-fund-11-000-miles-of-fuel-breaks-in-basin-states

Author SuzannePosted on Categories ForestsTags , ,

Federal judge halts timber sale including old-growth trees

April Erlich, JEFFERSON PUBLIC RADIO

Destructive wildfires along the California-Oregon border in recent years has the U.S. Forest Service pursuing projects to clear forests of burnt debris and trees that could feed future fires.

One of those projects included selling the rights to log old-growth trees in Northern California, until a federal judge halted the timber sale on Friday.

Environmental groups asked a federal court to halt the Seaid-Horse timber sale in the Klamath National Forest. They say it would violate the Northwest Forest Plan by clear-cutting protected old-growth trees and harming Coho salmon.

U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley issued a preliminary injunction to temporarily halt the sale, which included 1,200 acres of timber in Siskiyou County. Environmental groups will negotiate terms of the sale with forest service workers, who returned to work on Monday for the first time since the month-long partial government shutdown.

Western Environmental Law Group attorney Susan Jane Brown says old-growth trees in Northern California provide a habitat for threatened species such as the northern spotted owl. They’re also the most resilient in enduring wildfires.