WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday held its first of two hearings to consider Deb Haaland, Biden's nominee to lead the Interior Department.
The Biden administration has announced it will delay a controversial rollback of critical habitat protections for the northern spotted owl in Oregon, Washington and Northern California in orde…
Going from summer wildfires to winter ice storms, TimberUnity has again mobilized to offer public assistance, donating firewood for people who were left without power.
Addressing infrastructure was identified as a top priority for the nonprofit Family Farm Alliance in 2021. The organization held its two-day virtual conference Feb. 18-19, featuring panel disc…
A conservation group claims a 65-acre logging project on private forestland in Washington’s Klickitat County violates federal protections for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
The proposed rule would release the Forest Service from reinitiating consultation with Fish and Wildlife on forest plans every time “new information” claims come up.
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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — More than 24,000 Oregonians applied for federal disaster assistance after the catastrophic 2020 wildfires and about 57% of them were denied.
Fifteen years in the making, a nonprofit forestry group and Linn County, Ore., are collaborating on a project designed to highlight reforestation of the Willamette Valley Ponderosa pine.
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The damage caused by wildfires can be devastating, gutting structures and driving out people who live and work nearby. And researchers say the smoke from the annually recurring blazes also del…
A group of eight Western lawmakers is calling for a federal review of the Trump administration's decision to reduce critical habitat protections for the northern spotted owl in Oregon, Washing…
LA GRANDE — Snow is proving to be a friend and foe this winter for Jesse Reed of Union as he helps reduce the odds of a catastrophic wildfire someday striking the Grande Ronde Valley.
An Arizona-based "eco-timber" company, World Tree USA LLC, is reaching out to farmers in Washington and Oregon, seeking to build a market for carbon stored in trees and produce specialty hardw…
Projects target landscape-scale improvements through partnerships.
The federal government is again defending a timber sale in a recreational area near Springfield, Ore., arguing that it’s not prohibited from logging around proposed trails.
After 38 years, Oregon wildlife regulators want to make permanent a program that provides hunting tags to landowners who provide habitat for elk, deer and antelope.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, has been named to the House Natural Resources Committee. The freshman lawmaker will sit on the panel that deals with legislation affecting water, land, energy, min…
A federal judge has struck down another legal challenge to barred owl removal experiments along the West Coast, which aim to gauge impacts on threatened spotted owls.
Trees hit by Woodhead Fire to generate some revenue.
ROSEBURG, Ore. — Future funding for Wildlife Services and the predator control work it provides is a concern for land and livestock owners in a couple southwestern Oregon counties.
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The Trump administration is overturning a decades-old ban on logging large trees in six national forests across Eastern Oregon and southeast Washington.
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The federal government has removed 17 times more land from the threatened spotted owl’s “critical habitat” than it had originally proposed, likely provoking a court challenge.
ELGIN — If the Boise Cascade plywood plant in Elgin closes this year, it could cost Eastern Oregon 446 jobs, nearly $21 million in labor income and more than $78 million in economic output wit…
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The Department of Health and Human Services announced sweeping changes Tuesday in the national vaccine rollout plan.
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Many parts of the U.S. are facing lumber shortages — and experts say the problem is acute in the West after 2020's devastating wildfires.
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Timberland owners across the West are facing a hard winter as they struggle to replant millions of acres of burned trees after 2020's devastating fire season.
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A group of agricultural pilots in Napa Valley, Calif., met this week to start talks about how to partner with Cal Fire to put out wildfires.
Not only can visitors “attend” the show from the comfort of their computer, laptop or smart phone, they can do it anytime of the day or night — and it’s free of charge.
New behavior by insects, including a moth found in Idaho for the first time in 2020, will be a top concern for foresters in 2021, says Chris Schnepf with University of Idaho Extension. Schnepf…
The deal is part of a growing market — the business of paying landowners not to cut down trees.
University of Idaho Extension forestry programs have had to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they're also drawing nearly double the attendance, UI Extension forestry educator Chris Schnepf says.
The Oregon Department of Forestry has canceled two timber sales to postpone proceedings in an environmental lawsuit, which the timber industry considers a troubling development.
Year-old program finds sizable audience for fire-related outreach, education.
Crews are making biochar out of forest slash burned in the Riverside Fire on the Mt. Hood National Forest.
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The complexity of the project underscores the challenges that national forest managers encounter when trying the ratchet down the voracious nature of wildfires that strike suddenly and unpredi…
Large trees, defined as 21 inches in diameter or bigger, make up just 3% of national forests in central and eastern Oregon, yet they store a disproportionately massive 42% of above-ground carb…
As an ex-firefighter, Chris Dunn knows withdrawing from advancing flames is discouraging — but as a fire science researcher, he understands such retreats can be strategic.
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The Trump administration will likely decrease the threatened Northern spotted owl’s critical habitat before the end of his first term, though the reduction may fall short of the timber industr…
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The Alliance for the Wild Rockies claims the U.S. Forest Service failed to study how logging roads would affect grizzlies. U.S. District Court Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. asked why it mattered,…
Shared-stewardship program works across jurisdictional, ownership boundaries. Some work completed.
The University of Oregon is leading a study to test the hygiene and infectious disease control properties of mass timber in outpatient health care facilities.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board is offering grants for private, non-industrial forestland owners to help with post-wildfire recovery following the Labor Day conflagrations that burned m…
Logging is set to start this month at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Blue Creek East Timber Sale in northern Idaho’s Wallace Forest Conservation Area.
Fuel conditions, annual windy season, among challenges.
A planned prohibition against log exports from Russia isn’t expected to have immediate impacts on U.S. log producers but may create future market opportunities.
Despite the presence of familiar rumors, Elgin (Ore.) residents received a jolt this week when they learned their town’s 56-year-old Boise Cascade plywood plant soon could close.
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Private timberland owners face a long road to recovery in western Oregon as they look to replant millions of burned trees following the calamitous post-Labor Day wildfires.
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A Washington court on Tuesday barred the state Department of Fish and Wildlife from issuing timberland owners permits to kill black bears that damage trees.
WALLOWA COUNTY — More than 11,000 acres in the Wallowa Fire Zone and over 20,000 total acres within the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest are under consideration for a prescribed burn in the com…
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Washington’s Department of Natural Resources will “aggressively” push for funding to combat wildfires, its leader says.
One tool for taking on troubling carbon dioxide levels is trees, and their natural process of photosynthesis that captures carbon in a process called sequestration.
Western Governors’ Association is leading collaborative efforts for forest and rangeland health.
ELGIN — The Boise Cascade Company announced it might shut down its plywood plant in Elgin in early 2021.
Bringing federal land managers together with stakeholders helps advance restoration proposals, keep large-scale projects on track.
PENDLETON — Infrastructure and forest management were among the primary topics of concern during a Wednesday, Oct. 14, virtual town hall held by Sen. Ron Wyden for Eastern Oregon residents.
Even as fires continue to burn in parts of Oregon, officials on the Sisters Ranger District of the Deschutes National Forest are preparing to ignite their own fires — part of the annual prescr…
