...Last week fire managers announced their decision to manage it and a handful of others for forest health, opting not to try to put them out...
...we can thank St. Molloy and his friends in Earthjustice “because the Earth needs a lawyer.” ...
... particulate levels had increased to about 200 micrograms per cubic meter, and air quality was verging on the “very unhealthy” mark...
...Pushed by erratic winds through tinder dry grass and timber, the Red Quill Fire burned about 20 acres before fire crews from several different jurisdictions corralled the blaze...
...We'd rather trust our governor and our forester to craft a good plan than risk the possibility of a 5-4 disaster written by Justice Antonin Scalia...
An interim legislative committee charged with addressing the state's rising costs of fighting wildfires will meet Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain Front community of Choteau, and the public is invited...
Fire managers on the Ninemile Ranger District currently are managing the Indian Creek Fire in the Great Burn Proposed Wilderness as a wildland fire use fire...
...The Bear Gulch Fire started at about 2 p.m. and had grown to more than 600 acres by evening...
...In 1989, Ravalli County received $429,000 as its share in timber receipts. By 2000, that figure dropped to about $89,000...
...The nasty looking weed has a more aggressive root system than knapweed...
...the state has gained 4 miles of access to isolated state parcels for every one mile of easement granted to Plum Creek...
...The attitude expressed by USFS Chief Gail Kimbell is, “pray for rain.” Maybe we should pray for a new Chief..
...Timber is an important resource which we should strive to source regionally and one that must be managed sustainably. To achieve sustainable timber management requires that we understand how soils function...
...the push to get these changes into the record and adopted during the final months of the Bush administration is suspicious...
...The role a mature tree plays in stemming climate change is dismissed with a wink and a nod to the new shoots of saplings...
...a series of wildfires that have scorched more than 1 million acres in California alone this year and cost the state nearly $300 million to fight...
...not everyone agrees that sending firefighters to backcountry blazes that pose no obvious threat to lives or property is the right approach...
...Unfortunately, the administrative process for environmental review of federal actions, such as harvesting timber, is not tailored to address the exigent realities of fire salvage and the expedited deterioration of fire-damaged and -killed trees...
..."We've been able to catch them small and keep them small," ...
...Firefighters went into the wilderness after a regional forester decided to suppress all fires that were burning, including those in remote areas where lives and property were not at risk...
...the latest chapter in a lengthy dispute over the legality of the rule issued in the final days of the Clinton administration in 2001...
...With Schweitzer came an opportunity to take a hard look at the Plum Creek easements, since they had to come back before the Land Board for approval. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen...
...the deal also could hinder the Forest Service’s obligation to reduce harm to wildlife, fish and water quality from its extensive road system and could undermine a habitat conservation plan Plum Creek negotiated nearly a decade ago with the federal government...
...The hazardous fuels situation within the Wildland Urban Interface around Seeley Lake n where the forest meets the community n has been greatly improved through coordinated efforts...
...Tre Arrow was sentenced Tuesday to 78 months in federal prison for his role in burning logging trucks,..
... "If housing rebounds, then the product they make will be back in demand and we could start it back up."...
...Lightning storms last week started nine new fires in the Bitterroot National Forest...
...continued to gain ground Tuesday, pushing slowly but surely through spotty timber on a path toward Flathead Lake...
...The city has already removed 32 American elms because of the disease...
...cut the amount of designated critical habitat for the owl from 6.9 million acres to 5.3 million acres...
U.S. Judge in Wyoming rules against ban on forest roads (New York Times, 8/12/08)
A Clinton administration rule that banned the building of new roads on undeveloped tracts of federal forests was invalidated once again...
... prices for some products such as sawn wood had fallen in North America to their lowest levels since 1991...
...In 2007, a total of 516 million board feet was harvested from public, private and tribal timberlands in Montana, a decline from
1.3 billion board feet in 1987...
The Bureau of Land Management wants to salvage 40 million board feet of timber blown down in a Jan. 4 windstorm. Environmentalists, who have opposed many salvage sales, are at least partly aboard...
A representative of Stimson Lumber Co. sought to reassure the community Monday they would work diligently to find an industrial buyer for the defunct Bonner sawmill...
...changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a "back door" to regulate the gases blamed for global warming....
..."As you go higher and higher in a Douglas-fir tree, it's almost like experiencing a drought,"...
...The idea behind the project was to undo some of the region's forest practices that have, over time, caused a tinderbox of potential destruction throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin...
...surpassed $1 million as acres burned by the fire approached 10,000...
More than 200 fires have started in B.C. since Friday, the province's forest service said...
...It might be time for Gov. Schweitzer to include this in his “restoration economy.” ...
...more than two dozen developing nations received ideas and insights from Bitterroot National Forest professionals...
...The state is adding additional “all-lawful- purposes” rights to easements originally granted for natural resource uses such as logging...
...Nearly 500 firefighters are battling the 22,246-acre Columbia River Road fire,...
...If the property isn't sold in the next six weeks, Stimson will liquidate its assets by selling the equipment...
...removing some of the worst standing dead trees and putting them to good use. It may keep me from getting burned out and it may help slow the infestation...
...The fire has burned about 10 acres of lodgepole pine and subalpine fir, and scattered spot fires over another five acres.The smokejumpers reported 20 to 30 percent of the trees have been killed by insects...
...As just one-third of the growth is logged, there is more and more growth each year...
...Remove the fuel, either by deliberate burning at the right times of year, or by, um, er, logging...
..Then Al Gore made a documentary, and suddenly the specter of planetary-scale ecological devastation became the talk of the nation...
...worried taxpayers would bear the burden of providing services - not to mention firefighting costs - to new neighborhoods far off in the forested fringe...
...But leaving the burned timber alone while studies were conducted and experts debated the pros and cons of quick action caused 40 percent of the timber to deteriorate so badly during that period that it ended up with absolutely no salvage value...
...A few simple preventive measures can reduce the susceptibility of your forest to attacks by these tiny pests...
...Stimson officials said they were surprised by the state's announcement and that they hadn't talked to state officials about the cooling pond in a year...
...The groups asking for the change acknowledge that the protection measures may impose additional costs to forest landowners, but say the costs would be minor compared to the costs the commercial and sport fishing industries have suffered...
...Trying to do wildfire mitigation has tapped all the local and county resources. We have done what we can at the state level, but they frankly don't have many more dollars to pull from,"...
Between two national parks lies a corridor rich in wildlife - but also in fossil fuels. Will protection follow now that the gas extraction drillers want to move in?...
