- Author: Susie Kocher
Forest Owners Thank Congressional Leaders for Bipartisan Bill Preserving EPA Forest Roads Policy, Jobs, National Alliance of Forest Owners, May 16, 2013
The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) today thanked Congressional leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate for introducing the Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act, preserving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 37 years of success regulating forest roads as nonpoint sources under the Clean Water Act (CWA)....
Endangered Species Act: On 40th anniversary, time to rethink how we protect wildlife, By Laura E. Huggins and David Currie Special to the Mercury News San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, May 15, 2013
Many organizations are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. One group of equity investors that will not be honoring the occasion is Google, NRG Solar and BrightSource. This trio has spent millions to keep a large solar thermal power plant from going dark before ever lighting a single home -- and all because of a tortoise listed as threatened under the species act.....
Brown taps cap-and-trade money, By John Howard, Capitol Weekly | 05/14/13
Gov. Brown’s rewritten budget borrows $500 million from California’s cap-and-trade auctions and diverts the money for use in other state programs – a move that drew immediate fire from clean-air advocates. The administration said the $500 million represents a one-time loan and will be paid back, with interest. Tapping the money was proper, the administration said, because the state needs more time to set up programs to coordinate the investments of the auction proceeds and nobody can predict how much the auctions will raise in the future......
Federal omission in closing oyster farm broke law, court told, The firm's attorneys say U.S. did not do an environmental review. The closing of the farm would lead to the first marine wilderness area on the West Coast. By Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times, May 14, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Interior Department violated federal law by failing to conduct an environmental review before ordering a Northern California oyster farmer to shutter his operation, attorneys for the farmer told a federal appeals court panel here Tuesday. In a case that has become a cause celebre across the political spectrum, oysterman Kevin Lunny had been ordered to close the farm late last year when his lease to operate within Point Reyes National Seashore expired.....
House farm bill has plenty for California growers, Michael Doyle, Sacramento Bee, MAY. 14, 2013
WASHINGTON -- California lawmakers will now help plant another farm bill, hoping it will bear fruit for the state’s frustrated growers. The last farm bill died on the vine. But on Wednesday, House Agriculture Committee members are scheduled to start trying again, with a draft 576-page package that would change rice and cotton subsidies, potentially shake up California’s dairy industry and open an olive oil debate, among other provisions.....
Wildfire risk runs high, but budget cuts mean fewer firefighters, The U.S. Forest Service will hire 500 fewer this year, officials say, although the cuts are expected to affect Eastern states rather than the drought-stricken West, By Wes Venteicher, Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2013
WASHINGTON — The drought that caused record wildfires in California and other Western states last year is expected to persist through the summer, but fewer firefighters will battle this year's blazes in other regions because of federal budget cuts, top federal officials said Monday.....
Environmental group's cable TV ad hits Jerry Brown on logging, Sacramento Bee, May 13, 2013
A Northern California environmental group has begun airing advertisements on cable TV stations criticizing Gov. Jerry Brown for allowing clear-cut logging on thousands of acres of forest land. Marily Woodhouse, co-founder of the Manton-based Battle Creek Alliance, said today her organization paid $3,000 to air spots this month on CNN, MSNBC and other cable networks in Sacramento.......
Wildfires 2013: A government-sponsored disaster, By Brian Dahle, R-Bieber, represents California’s 1st Assembly District. Redding Record Searchlight, May 10, 2013
When severe wildfires blazed through Southern California a decade ago some people started rethinking our forest management practices. So far there has been too much thinking and not enough action. Every year since 2003 we have seen millions of dollars wasted as Cal Fire responds to the annual ritual of trying to save people and property from out-of-control catastrophic wildfires. In the next 60 to 90 days we will again see millions of dollars spent on California wildfires. Unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, wildfires are a disaster that we can see coming well before they happen......
- Posted by: Susie Kocher
Here is the weekly news digest of news about California forestry from UCCE Natural Resources Advisor Greg Giusti.
LaMalfa praises bill to increase timber cutting in national forests, By LARRY MITCHELL, Chico Enterprise-Record, April 4, 2013
A bill to increase timber cutting on national forests has the strong support of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale. "I'm excited that the bill is moving forward," he said, speaking by phone Wednesday from his Oroville office. "It's something I look forward to helping on in committee." The bill, called the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, was introduced by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. He chairs the House Natural Resources Committee......
'Fire tax' debate heats up, Cindy Baker, Capitol Weekly| 04/02/13
As the weather heats up, a Capitol debate is heating up, too -- on the hotly disputed 'fire tax.' The $150 annual charge on some 850,000 rural property owners is on the books, despite delays in collections, court action and tens of thousands of complaints from property owners. Republican lawmakers have seized the issue as a hot political topic......
Tree-sitter shot, 70 feet up, by CHP rubber bullet, Tim Redmond, San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 2, 2013
Tree-sitting is nothing new. It's happened all over California, going back decades. It's a dangerous, but often effective protest tool that stops logging in its tracks. Nobody with any official sanction is going to cut down a tree while there's a human perched in it -- and it's been notoriously difficult for the authorities to remove people from platforms high above the forest. And now, in Mendocino County, police response has entered a new phase......
High court declines to hear challenge of EPA air standard for nitrogen dioxide, Greenwire, April 1, 2013
The Supreme Court today denied a call from industry to review U.S. EPA's air pollution standard for nitrogen dioxide pollution. In deciding against hearing the petition from the American Petroleum Institute, the court effectively upheld an appellate court ruling last year that said EPA had not acted arbitrarily or capriciously in setting a one-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard for nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, which is commonly emitted from smokestacks, auto tailpipes and oil rigs.....
Federal judge rejects plan to drop marbled murrelet habitat, The Oregonian, April 01, 2013
SEATTLE -- A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected a proposal by the federal government that would have dropped nearly 4 million acres of designated "critical habitat" for the marbled murrelet.
Lumber markets improved sharply in the US during 2012 and early 2013, Forest Business Network, March 31, 2013
Lumber production in the US and Canada improved during 2012, with total output in 2012 being eight percent and five percent higher, respectively, than in 2011, according to WWPA. Sawmills in the Western region have been more fortunate than mills in other regions in North America since they have been able to ship lumber both to markets in the US and to Asia......
AB 245 would shine light on cap-and-trade auctions, Warren Duffy, Cal Watchdog, March 29, 2013
AB 245 is a bill that would reverse the secrecy that currently exists around the cap-and-trade auctions of the California Air Resources Board. As CalWatchdog.com reported last August, the Legislature “nixed” proposals to mandate accountability under Sections 11120-11132 of the California government code, which is the Bagley Keene Open Meeting Act......
Feds want $18 million back from timber counties, JEFF BARNARD AND BEN NEARY, Huffington Post | March 29, 2013
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The U.S. Forest Service's demands that rural timber counties pay back millions of dollars in federal subsidies under automatic budget cuts have outraged members of Congress from both parties and caused concern in those counties with struggling economies.....
Lawmakers blast White House over retroactive bill for rural schools payment, Phil Taylor, Greenwire, March 28, 2013
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers today urged the White House to halt its request for forest communities to repay a portion of $323 million in Secure Rural Schools and commodity payments they received earlier this year to satisfy the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester......
Logging season nearing, Sean Janssen, The Sonora Union Democrat, March 29, 2013
Rights to harvest enough saw logs from the Stanislaus National Forest to build almost 1,600 average-sized homes will be sold in an annual meeting of timber operators next month. The U.S. Forest Service will allow nearly 24 million board feet of timber to be harvested this year in the Stanislaus, down about 1 million board feet from last year......
Nobody is declaring a state of drought in California, but, Surveyors in the Sierra find only half the snowpack that is normal for the date. But it could have been worse, considering the last three months have been the driest January- March period on record, Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2013
When snow surveyors headed into the Sierra Nevada on Thursday for the most important measurement of the season, they found only about half the snowpack that is normal for the date. It could have been a lot worse — considering that the last three months in California have been the driest of any January-through- March period on record, going back to 1895......
PLF sues over three outdated ESA listings in California, Anthony Francois, Pacific Legal Foundation, March 27, 2013
Federal officials must take two California plant species off the Endangered Species Act (ESA) list, and “downlist” one other species, Pacific Legal Foundation claimed in a lawsuit filed today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The complaint, filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleges that federal officials have known for more than five years that the three species should be reclassified, but have not acted......
Lawsuit Filed to Overturn Latest Spotted Owl Critical Habitat, Tom Partin, American Forest Resource Council, March 21, 2013
Today, the American Forest Resource Council joined the Carpenters Industrial Council, Siskiyou County, California, and a group of forest products manufacturers and private forest landowners in a lawsuit to overturn the latest Northern Spotted Owl critical habitat designation. The case was filed in federal District Court in Washington, D.C., against the Secretary of Interior and the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service......
- Posted by: Susie Kocher
Here is a digest of recent news stories that affect forestry in California:
Lumber Boom Boosts Home Depot, Timber Towns, By ALAN FARNHAM, ABC News, Feb. 28, 2013. Good News For Oregon, Wyoming, Alabama, Other Timber States
Timber! An improved U.S. housing market plus rising foreign demand for wood are boosting lumber prices, to the benefit of mill owners, retailers like Home Depot, and timber towns like Eugene, Ore.
Home Depot's announcement this week that its quarterly profit had jumped 32 percent--more than had been forecast—helped lift the Dow Jones industrial average. The company's shares climbed nearly 6 percent--their best percentage gain in four years......
West coast lumber exports to China nearly doubled in fourth quarter of 2012, Forest Business Network, Feb 23, 2013
Lumber exports to China from Washington, Oregon, northern California, and Alaska rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2012, jumping to 89.4 million board feet, an increase of 97.2 percent compared to the third quarter of the year, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station. At the same time, total lumber exports to all countries from the West coast increased about 21 percent, from 185.6 million board feet in the third quarter of 2012 to 224.2 million board feet....
Cellulosic producers fume at 'phantom fuel' label as EPA cancels production target, Greenwire, Feb. 28, 2013
Second-generation biofuel producers are pushing back against the moniker "phantom fuels," a term that opponents of the renewable fuel standard (RFS) have tagged them with, even as U.S. EPA cancels its cellulosic biofuel requirements. Major ethanol companies Poet LLC and Abengoa Bioenergy, along with the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), yesterday took to Capitol Hill to tout the progress they have made on producing biofuels from plant-based materials like switch grass, agricultural residues and municipal solid waste......
Cities, rural areas, transportation join the scrum for cap-and-trade cash, Debra Kahn, ClimateWire, Tuesday, February 26, 2013, (paid subscription required)
As money pours into California's coffers from the auction of greenhouse gas allowances, green groups and government agencies are putting in their bids for a share of the state's cap-and-trade largesse. Potentially billions of dollars could be up for grabs as the quarterly auctions continue through 2020. Thus far, the program has raised about $140 million for the state via two auctions, the most recent one last week (ClimateWire, Feb. 25). .....
Subpanel to explore discrepancy in state-federal logging levels, E&E Daily, February 25, 2013, (paid subscription required)
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulations tomorrow will explore logging levels in state and federal forests, kicking off what are likely to be many discussions in the 113th Congress on how rural communities can extract more forest revenue.....
Global warming worries California voters, poll finds, By Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee, Feb. 25, 2013
A new survey shows most California voters don't like government's response to global warming and still support the state's greenhouse gas emissions law. The Field Poll results released today show that 62 percent of voters are unhappy with the federal government's actions and nearly half, 49 percent, give low marks to what the state is doing.....
Justices decline to hear 3 enviro, energy case, Greenwire, February 25, 2013
The Supreme Court today declined to hear a case challenging U.S. Forest Service rules restricting the use of motor vehicles in Eldorado National Forest. In Public Lands for the People v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, miners and prospectors hoped the court would overturn a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last September that upheld the Forest Service's 2008 rules. The regulations limited motor vehicle use in the eastern California forest and prohibited wheeled vehicle cross-country travel. Specifically, the regulations require vehicle users to obtain permission though a notice of intent or plan of operations.......
Climate law curtails students, UC spending $8 million to comply with AB32, Orange County Register Editorial, Feb 25, 2013
Not even in government, which can spend money it doesn't have, can the same dollar be spent twice. The University of California system confronts this unpleasant reality as it faces the onerous costs of complying with Assembly Bill 32, the state's Global Warming Solutions Act, ostensibly intended to combat climate change. At a recent hearing before the state Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, a UC official testified that it will cost the university system $8 million in the coming fiscal year to comply with AB32's rigid rules......
Delayed vote causes California, Quebec carbon market concerns, PointCarbon.com, Feb. 25, 2013, (subscription required)
A California state senate committee has delayed the confirmation vote on an appointee to the California Air Resources Board (ARB) until next month, causing concerns that plans to link the state CO2 market with Quebec might be delayed. Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg on Wednesday said that while Governor Jerry Brown’s pick for the board, Alexander Sherriffs, is qualified for the position, he wanted to put the vote on hold until he can have a dialogue with the administration over its plan to expand California’s emissions market beyond its borders.....
California's second carbon auction gets higher price, By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee, FEB. 23, 2013
California's fledgling cap-and-trade carbon market is becoming more familiar to the companies that have to participate in it – and that's showing up in the price they're paying for the right to pollute. Carbon emission allowances sold for $13.62 a ton this week during the state's second-ever carbon auction, the California Air Resources Board reported Friday. The price at Tuesday's auction was considerably higher than the first state-run sale last November, when carbon sold for barely above the $10 legal minimum......
Rural fire fee faces new challenge, Lawmakers considering broad-based insurance tax as alternative, By Michael Gardner, San Diego Union Tribune, Feb. 23, 2013
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers this year will once again square-off over how to pay for fighting wildfires and preventing outbreaks in the first place. The Legislature will begin to take up a number of measures aimed at repealing or at least narrowing a $150 annual fire prevention fee just as the state starts sending out the second round of bills to property owners later in March. The fee covers rural regions that are defended by Cal Fire, affecting about 750,000 properties statewide and 73,000 in San Diego County......
CEQA serves the state well, but it needs adjustments, Fresno Bee Editorial, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013
Forty-two years after its enactment, the California Environmental Quality Act needs an update to prevent it from being used as a sledge-hammer against progress by special interests. You might notice that we didn't use the word "reform" to describe potential CEQA adjustments. This is because the Act has served the citizens of California well. It has brought more transparency to the development process, given people a louder voice in the look and feel of their communities and, most of all, protected our state's air, water, wildlife and public health......
Wyden pledges renewed timber county payments, Secure Rural Schools, first enacted in 2000, has expired, Herald & News, Feb 22, 2013
GRANTS PASS (AP) — Sen. Ron Wyden is pledging to renew and expand the federal subsidies to timber counties known as Secure Rural Schools. The Oregon Democrat says that for the next year or two, he wants to renew the payments that brought $105 million to Oregon in 2012 as part of $346 million that went to 729 counties nationwide. As a permanent solution, he wants to go beyond timber country and extend similar payments to rural counties with federal lands and waters being tapped for mining and energy......
- Posted by: Susie Kocher
Here's a collection of news stories bearing on California forestry from Natural Resources Advisor Greg Giuisti:
Sticker Shock, The “hidden” costs of wildfire — and who gets stuck with the tab, NFPA Journal®, January/February 2013
Recent wildfire seasons have provided mainstream media with plenty of material for dramatic images and attention-grabbing headlines, some more accurate than others. We often worry that misleading coverage can deliver the wrong message to the public, but it can also be a problem among wildfire professionals. Lately, I’ve had to re-evaluate my own methods of understanding wildfire news and where it comes from, as well as how I transmit that information to colleagues and the public......
Obama settlement with green groups sparked major change in listing decision, Greenwire, Jan. 11, 2013, (subscription required)
Now entering its third year, a landmark legal truce between the Obama administration and environmental groups has resulted in new and proposed protections for scores of new wildlife species, signaling a major shift in the Obama administration's use of the Endangered Species Act.....
Environment and the California budget: Seeking more money and staff for fire prevention and logging oversight, By Paul Rogers, Contra Costa Times, 1/10/2013
When it comes to the environment, the state budget released Thursday was the first time in four years that a governor has not proposed closing state parks to save money. Gov. Jerry Brown was banned from doing that last year by the Legislature for at least two years.....
New state tax on wood products confusing, Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 2013
To the surprise of many, since Jan. 1, California retailers have been required to collect an extra 1 percent tax on sales of certain lumber products including plywood, 2-by-4s and unfinished decking, fencing and railings. But products that have had a little more work done - such as indoor finished flooring, baseboards, doors and windows - are exempt.....
Calif. carbon trading takes off, ClimateWire, Jan. 4, 2013
California's official carbon market kicked off this week with an uptick in trading, as businesses began accounting for their greenhouse gas emissions in earnest. No lawsuit against the program accompanied the official start date of Jan. 1, as many had anticipated. Instead, appetite for California's carbon allowances grew, reflecting confidence in the burgeoning, first-in-the-nation economywide greenhouse gas market, traders said.....
Cap and trade may draw individual investors, Individuals can speculate in carbon-credit market, Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 2013
Sacramento -- The participants in California's new program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the buying and selling of pollution permits have so far been large industrial interests, but there's another large group that can join in: any resident of the United States......
Edison bailed out CA Cap & Trade auction, By Wayne Lusvardi, Cal Watchdog, Jan. 9, 2013
The facts slowing coming out about the state’s first Cap and Trade auction seriously question whether the system is already being gamed by government, together with electric utilities. Edison International made an announcement on Dec. 20, 2012: At California’s first Cap and Trade auction held back on Nov. 14, 2012, it offered to buy 21 times more pollution permits than allowed......
Justices agree to further briefing in logging road case, Lawrence Hurley, E&E NewsPM, Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Supreme Court today agreed to allow parties to file additional briefs in an ongoing dispute over whether stormwater runoff from logging roads should be regulated under the Clean Water Act. The court heard arguments in the case last month, three days after U.S. EPA finalized a rule that would formally exclude such runoff from permitting requirements (Greenwire, Dec. 3, 2012). On Dec. 20, 2012, the state of Oregon asked for permission to file a new brief.....
Ore. group files challenge to new EPA logging road rule, Lawrence Hurley, Greenwire, Jan 8, 2013
An environmental group awaiting a Supreme Court decision on whether logging roads are exempt from Clean Water Act permitting has filed a new challenge to a recently issued U.S. EPA rule on the same issue. The Portland, Ore.-based Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) filed a petition last week in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking review of the rule finalized Nov. 30 that would formally exempt logging roads from permitting under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program.....
The forest roads legal quagmire is now here, Dave Tenny, NAFO President and CEO National Alliance of Forest Owners, January 8, 2013,
As expected, the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule clarifying that logging is not an industrial activity under the Clean Water Act (CWA) has precipitated a legal quagmire. Last Friday the Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) filed a new lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenging the EPA rule. This comes just ahead of the Supreme Court’s order today inviting further briefing on the impact of the EPA’s rule on Decker v. NEDC currently pending before that Court.....
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS OUTLINE BROAD AGENDA, By Michael Gardner, San Diego Union Tribune, Jan 7, 2013
SACRAMENTO — Firmly in command of the policy agenda and controlling a state budget that is in its best shape in years, California Democrats are expected to push a broad agenda of fiscal and social change in 2013. The vast list includes new taxes, revamping education spending formulas, gun control, health care, highway expansions and redefining Proposition 13, the landmark property tax protection measure passed by voters in 1978......
California parks officials deliberately hid millions, report says, Fear of embarrassment and budget cuts led high officials to conceal the money, which remained hidden for years until it was exposed by a new staff member, according to attorney general's investigation. By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2013
SACRAMENTO — Fear of embarrassment and budget cuts led high officials at the California parks department to conceal millions of dollars, according to a new investigation by the state attorney general's office. The money remained hidden for years until it was exposed by a new staff member who described a culture of secrecy and fear at the department......
Center for Biological Diversity files appeal over Tahoe/Truckee biomass project, BY MARGARET MORAN, Sierra Sun, JANUARY, 2 2013
TRUCKEE, Calif. — A national environmental nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting nearly extinct species is appealing the latest approval in the proposed two-megawatt Cabin Creek Biomass Energy Facility process, officials confirmed Wednesday. The Center for Biological Diversity submitted the appeal after the Placer County Planning Commission adopted a conditional use permit and certified the project's final Environmental Impact Report on Dec. 20, said Brett Storey, Placer County project manager for the biomass facility, on Wednesday...
Group hails forest cooperation, Calaveras Enterprise, January 1, 2013
For the first time in many years, loggers and conservation groups are working together and the results have been stunning, according to Katherine Evatt, president of the Pine Grove-based Foothill Conservancy. The Amador Calaveras Consensus Group has been working in the Stanislaus and Eldorado national forests on projects that are part of a larger national program called Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration......
The goal is to restore forests for people, water and wildlife, and a report released in December shows some of those goals are being met.
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- Posted by: Susie Kocher
Here is the week's news affecting forestry in california:
Wildfire epidemic leaves states searching for answers, By JIM MALEWITZ, Sacramento Bee, DEC. 13, 2012
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- To some people living in the drought-scorched American West, it may seem like the fires will never stop raging. Months after forests and grasslands in much of the region usually cease smoldering for the year, smoke still wafts across parts of Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. Hundreds of residents living nearby have returned to their homes, but firefighters have not fully contained the blaze, which they hope will be the last in Colorado's worst fire season ever. .....
Environmental assessment released for Rush fire, By Jane Braxton Little, Sacramento Bee, DEC. 13, 2012
SUSANVILLE – Bureau of Land Management officials have released an environmental assessment of the Rush fire, which in August burned more than 315,000 acres of mostly public lands northeast of Susanville along the California-Nevada border. The federal document describes projects to restore the burned area, including portions of nine livestock grazing allotments, important wildlife habitat and parts of the Twin Peaks and Buckhorn wild horse and burro herd management areas.....
Feds designate habitat for Klamath sucker fish, By JEFF BARNARD, Contra Costa Times, 12/12/2012
GRANTS PASS, Ore.—The federal government has designated habitat critical to the survival of two endangered species of sucker fish that have been at the center of bitter battles over water in the Klamath Basin for decades. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday designated critical habitat for Lost River suckers and shortnosed suckers. ....
NIST, Forest Service Propose System to Help Communities Resist Wildfires, Michael E. Newman, From NIST Tech Beat: December 12, 2012,
Federal researchers have developed the first-ever rating system that allows communities to assess their risk from wildfires—on a building-by-building basis—and then ties that assessment to improved building codes, standards and practices that could help reduce the threat. The proposed Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Hazard Scale addresses fires that occur where developed and undeveloped areas meet.
Rare wolf in California moves to lower ground, Associated Press, Contra Costa Times, 12/11/2012
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Oregon-born wolf looking for a mate in the wilds of Northern California has moved to lower ground as winter approaches. California Department of Fish and Game program manager Karen Kovacs told The Oregonian that winter storms lashing the high country south of Lassen Peak have forced deer to lower elevations, and the wolf, known as OR-7. has followed......
Call for nominations: Softwood Lumber Board seeks candidates, Forest Business Network, Dec 11, 2012
The Softwood Lumber Board (Board), which administers a national research and promotion program for softwood lumber, is seeking nominees to fill six seats on the Board. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, which oversees the program, would like to encourage all eligible industry members to participate in the process. In an effort to enhance the diversity of the Board, USDA also encourages women, minorities and people with disabilities to seek positions on the Board.
Evidence Keeps Building Of Flaws In State’s Carbon Auction, By John Hrabe, Fox & Hounds Daily, December 10th, 2012
California’s cap and trade regulators can’t seem to do anything right. Taxpayers, businesses and even some environmentalists are exposing the serious flaws with the state’s carbon auction. Small businesses have criticized the landmark greenhouse gas emissions law for being “the greatest threat to the growth of our business in California.” On the eve of the state’s inaugural cap and trade auction, the California Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit claiming that the state was illegally profiting from the sale of “free” emission credits. The next day, the auction itself proved to be a major disappointment, yielding less than a dime more than the floor price for carbon allowances......
North American lumber prices forecast to soar in 2013 and reach record highs in 2014, Woodmarkets, Dec. 10, 2012
New Five-Year Outlook shows that supply and demand conditions in wood products for the long-awaited 'super-cycle' are now taking hold, with the full impact still some 3+ years away! With the return of a demand-driven wood products market in 2012 - due to rapidly increasing housing starts in the U.S. - it is now forecast that lumber and panel prices will move to new highs in 2013 and record highs for lumber in 2014......
Number of Improving Housing Markets Surges to 201 in December, National Assn of Homebuilders, December 6, 2012
The number of housing markets considered “improving” according to parameters established by the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) surged by 76 to a total of 201 metros in December, according to IMI data released today. The index also shows that the number of states represented on the list by at least one metro increased from 38 in November to 44 (plus the District of Columbia) in December.......
Let it burn? Federal agencies draft national wildland fire strategy, BY ROB CHANEY, Missoulian, Dec 9, 2012
Wildfires and weather share a common problem: We all talk about them, but what can we do about them? The federal government hopes to answer the wildfire question with a three-year strategy session that’s wrapping up this month. But there’s no guarantee the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy will save an acre of forest. In fact, it might force the nation to decide how much it’s willing to let burn......
Big, Old Trees in Decline Worldwide, Our Amazing Planet, Dec 06, 2012
Big, old trees are in decline throughout the world, which spells trouble for the forests in which they play such an important role, a new study finds. These elders of the forest do many things that smaller, younger trees cannot; for example, providing homes for many types of animals, providing space for other plants to grow in tropical rainforests and producing large amounts of seeds that serve as food for other animals and replenish tree populations, according to the study, published today (Dec. 6) in the journal Science. .....
Rural America becoming less relevant, By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press, HughesNet, December 8, 2012,
WASHINGTON (AP) — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It's "becoming less and less relevant," he says. A month after an election that Democrats won even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican, the former Democratic governor of Iowa told farm belt leaders this past week that he's frustrated with their internecine squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights......
Retailers to collect lumber products assessment, Eureka Times Standard, Dec 7, 2012
Retailers and construction contractors who make retail sales will begin to collect a 1 percent assessment from California consumers who purchase lumber and engineered wood products beginning Jan. 1, 2013, according to a recent announcement by the state Board of Equalization.
