In Oregon, mass timber is increasingly being viewed as a construction material that could help the state build more affordable homes and revive rural logging towns. Mass timber is made from wood to make large panels or beams.Â
The federal government is reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging on the country’s largest national forest in southeast Alaska. It is the latest move in a long-running fight over…
A bill introduced in the Colorado legislature would create a $2 million pilot program to use cameras, likely with artificial intelligence technology, in high-risk locations to help identify fi…
OLYMPIA — Washington lawmakers may make Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz get permission from an oversight board before leasing timberland for carbon offsets.
ELGIN — Boise Cascade announced it is planning to lay off employees at the Elgin Plywood mill by mid-February.
The Biden administration is directing $930 million toward reducing wildfire dangers in 10 western states by clearing trees and underbrush from national forests. The move is set to be announced…
The fluttering snowflakes turned into a full-on blizzard as Tony Bertel inspected a 10-foot tall stack of logs in a grove of ponderosa pine trees 3 miles west of Bend.
Ken Miller's long-simmering frustration with how Washington regulates small-forest landowners boiled over Nov. 10. On that day, without explanation, the Forest Practices Board, which regulates…
The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that it transferred a wildland fire engine to the Alfalfa Fire District to enhance its wildland firefighting capabilities. The community of Al…
A popular outdoor recreation area in Southern Oregon will be preserved as a community forest after it was recently purchased by the Trust for Public Land. Spence Mountain had previously been o…
Tabletop Christmas trees are an elegant answer to several problems facing growers. The petite trees — usually less than 3 feet tall — help plug holes in production schedules in addition to pro…
Oregon agriculture officials have adopted a temporary quarantine to slow the spread of emerald ash borer, a highly destructive forest pest that has killed hundreds of millions of native ash tr…
Aerial surveys led by the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry indicated record high mortality for fir trees in 2022, particularly in areas of central and southern Oregon that…
Dozens of people lined up along Main Street to watch the 32nd annual Timber Truckers Light Parade pass through John Day on Saturday, Dec. 10.
SALEM — Oregon lawmakers will consider changing their approach to wildfire prevention in 2023, potentially focusing on incentives for landowners to make defensible-space and home-hardening upgrades.
The economic impact of the forestry sector, especially in rural Oregon, was outlined in a report published Nov. 28 by the state Employment Department. Forestry jobs totaled 62,000 in 2021, or …
Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have proposed a scaled-back version of the River Democracy Act that would designate approximately 3,215 miles of new wild and scenic rivers statewide. O…
The Oregon Forest Resources Institute is making progress implementing recommendations from a 2021 state audit to improve the agency's transparency and objectivity, according to a memo sent Dec…
LA GRANDE — Chuck Sarrett has worked for decades in forestry around Eastern Oregon.
A BP-affiliated company has stepped away from helping craft a state carbon-storage plan that Washington Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz said would be a blueprint for conserving timberla…
Marline Koch and her husband, Andrew Koch, started planting trees on the family property in 1964. Since then it has grown into a managed forest of 770 acres and she has been honored as the Dou…
As wildfires grow bigger and hotter across the West, the U.S. Forest Service faces a daunting task. The agency has developed a 10-year strategy that calls for removing hazardous fuels across 2…
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Boise District plans two prescribed burns in Owyhee County, Idaho, between Nov. 14 and 30. Projects target fire fuel breaks and grouse-benefiting removal o…
A board that regulates logging has rejected a proposal by small-forest landowners to shrink buffers between streams and tree-cutting, sparking a one-man protest. After the vote, Ken Miller, of…
BEAR VALLEY — New details in the arrest of a Forest Service burn boss during a prescribed burn in Grant County last month are raising the possibility that the sheriff who arrested him could in…
LOSTINE — Lostine Canyon residents and partners of the area’s Firewise community put their heads together Saturday and mulled over what went well during the summer fire season and areas they n…
The Washington Board of Resources, which sets state timber policies, won't have a say in a new carbon-offset program until the leases are ready to sign.Â
Washington small-forest landowners are making a push to persuade a state board to shrink mandatory buffers between streams and timber harvests. Buffers now range from 90 to 200 feet, the same …
By DICK MASON • The Observer
The amount of forestland burned by wildfire in the Pacific Northwest fell by two-thirds this year compared to a year ago, due in part to wet spring weather. More than 549,000 acres burned in O…
The life cycle of a tree in the forest products industry — a rapidly changing sector of the economy — is a long journey involving many places, processes and people. The industry creates 119,83…
OLYMPIA — The Washington Department of Natural Resources welcomes free help from Finite Carbon, but the BP-owned company doesn't have the inside track to share revenue from selling carbon offs…
BEAR VALLEY, Ore. — When Rick Snodgrass approached Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley on the county road, he thought the sheriff was there to help him. Snodgrass had called for law enforcement…
Property-line adjustments in a wooded area in southwest Bend that is popular with joggers and dog walkers have raised concern among members of a group that is opposed to development in the area.
BEAR VALLEY, Ore. — The leader of a U.S. Forest Service crew conducting a prescribed burn in a remote area of Grant County was arrested on charges of reckless burning after the fire spread acr…
The Washington Department of Natural Resources will lock up 10,000 acres of timberland in Western Washington and work with a company owned by oil giant BP to sell carbon credits. The trees wil…
An inmate from the Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City was arrested about 13 minutes after he stole a Forest Service pickup truck while working as part of a 10-member crew buildin…
The Idaho Department of Lands will again ask the Legislature to spend more money to bolster the state's wildfire protection efforts. The preliminary request for fiscal 2024 is $16.7 million, u…
Forest treatments planned for 10,500 acres of Oregon spotted owl habitat must be re-evaluated after wildfires tore through the area. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken has ruled that federal wildli…
A timber industry group and coalition of Eastern Oregon counties is attempting to intervene in a lawsuit that, if successful, would reimpose a total ban on logging certain large trees in six n…
After burning for two months and threatening at times to reach Sunriver and La Pine, Ore., the eastern flank of the Cedar Creek Fire is no longer considered a threat, according to Chris Orr, t…
An Oregon land use ruling has again overturned a Linn County zoning decision that would allow a landowner to subdivide a 100-acre farm forest property. The state Land Use Board of Appeals foun…
State regulators say it’s a coincidence some home insurance policies were revoked or became more expensive after the rollout of Oregon’s ill-fated wildfire risk map. Insurance decisions that a…
As the U.S. Forest Service makes another run at updating land management plans on three national forests in Eastern Oregon and Southeast Washington, the authors of an in-depth economic analysi…
A coalition of businesses, including the Prairie Wood Products sawmill, logging contractors and ranchers, filed an antitrust lawsuit on Thursday, Sept. 15, in U.S. District Court in Pendleton …
Rain, hail and cooler weather have been helping crews battle the Cedar Creek Fire. Containment lines have increased, but crews are not out of the woods yet. The fire, around 20 miles west of L…
WALLOWA COUNTY, Ore. — Rain and moderate temperatures kept fire activity in Wallowa County minimal over the weekend, though rainfall amounts varied significantly, officials say.
Jake Strohmeyer is the new supervisor of the Sawtooth National Forest. He will be based in Jerome, Idaho, and succeeds Bekee Hotze, who was the acting supervisor. Hotze is now Salt Lake Distri…
A class action lawsuit pursued by 14 Oregon counties against logging restrictions on state forestlands has reached the end of the road. The counties have failed to convince the Oregon Supreme …
ENTERPRISE, Ore. — Containment of the Double Creek Fire in northeastern Oregon increased from 15% to 22% Sept. 13 thanks to lower temperatures, higher relative humidity and rain.
The Deschutes National Forest has increased its closures on the eastern side of the Cedar Creek Fire as the blaze has moved beyond earlier containment lines, leaving containment at zero percent.
IMNAHA, Ore. — What do you do when your hitch in the military fighting for your country is up? Take on a new fight, against wildfires. At least that’s what the members of the Umatilla Veteran …
Move to second-highest stage also reflects growth of individual fires, additional areas seeing action.
The U.S. Forest Service has activated two Air National Guard C-130s that have been specially equipped to fight wildfires in the West. The planes arrived Sept. 9 at the National Interagency Fir…
When Willamette Valley Vineyards opens its newest winery, Domaine Willamette, in the Dundee Hills about 30 miles southwest of Portland, it will be the latest building in Oregon to showcase mas…
