LATEST NEWS
Wildfire Season Ravages the US in 2024: Over 3.4 Million Acres Burned YTD
July 21, 2024 – As of this morning, 63 large active wildfires are being managed and have burned 1,083,684 acres. Fire managers are using full suppression strategies on 57 of these wildfires. Many wildfires in the Northwest area continue to have active to extreme fire behavior. The Durkee Fire burned nearly 60,000 acres yesterday, and the Lone Rock Fire gained over 16,000 acres.
CURRENT NATIONAL STATISTICS
Impact and Response
Human Impact: Thousands of residents were evacuated, and numerous homes and structures were destroyed or damaged.
Environmental Impact: Significant loss of wildlife habitat, forest cover, and increased carbon emissions.
Air Quality: Smoke from wildfires severely affected air quality across multiple states, leading to health advisories and widespread use of air quality alerts.
Firefighting Efforts: Over 20,000 firefighters and support personnel were deployed, including international assistance from Canada and Australia.
IT'S A CHOICE. MANAGE THE FORESTS AND ENJOY THE BENEFITS OR DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES - DEAD FORESTS, BURNING FORESTS, UNHEALTHY FORESTS, INFESTED FORESTS.
US Wildfire Smoke Impact: 27,800 US Deaths and $244-Billion Annual Spend by 2050
In the summer of 2023, the United States experienced an unprecedented heatwave and a significant increase in wildfire smoke. This combination led to air quality alerts and a thick orange haze covering large portions of the country, something that hadn't been witnessed by many in their lifetime. Unfortunately, experts warn that this could become a more regular occurrence as climate change continues to worsen.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the impact of wildfire smoke could be devastating. By 2050, it is estimated that it could cause up to 27,800 deaths in the United States annually and result in a staggering cost of around $244 billion per year. While the primary source of the smoke in 2023 was from Canada, the warming and drying climate also pose a significant risk to US forests. This means that severe wildfire events, which were previously more common on the West Coast, could become a national phenomenon.
Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Congress is currently engaged in discussions regarding two bills aimed at better preparing the nation for severe wildfire emergencies. The first one, known as the Wildfire Smoke Emergency Declaration Act, would grant the President the authority to declare a smoke emergency and provide emergency assistance to affected communities under specific circumstances. The second bill, called the Smoke and Heat Ready Communities Act, would empower the Environmental Protection Agency to offer grants to air pollution control agencies. These grants would support the development and implementation of programs that assist local communities in detecting, preparing for, communicating about, and mitigating the environmental and public health impacts of wildfire smoke.
It is crucial for these bills to be carefully considered and swiftly enacted to ensure the nation is adequately equipped to handle the increasing threat of severe wildfires and their associated smoke. By taking proactive measures, we can better protect our communities and minimize the devastating consequences of these natural disasters.
Commonsense Wildfire Solutions Start With Active Forest Management
The Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing promoting solutions to address the catastrophic wildfires that plague American forests. Subcommittee Chairman Tom Tiffany issued the following statement in response:
"America desperately needs solutions to the catastrophic wildfire and forest health crisis decimating our federal lands and forests year after year. The four forestry bills the Federal Lands Subcommittee held a hearing on today will cut red tape, put an end to frivolous litigation, address the Biden border crisis by cutting off illegal marijuana cultivation from cartels on our federal lands, and save lives and land through wildfire prevention. Republicans remain committed to advancing real, concrete, and scientific solutions to better manage our federal forests."
The Subcommittee on Federal Lands had a hearing on four bills:
H.R. 200 (Rep. Rosendale), “Forest Information Reform (FIR) Act”
H.R. 1473 (Rep. Peters), “Targeting and Offsetting Existing Illegal Contaminants Act”
H.R. 1567 (Rep. Tiffany), “Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions (ACRES) Act”
H.R. 1586 (Rep. LaMalfa), “Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 2023”
BACKGROUND
Congressman Tom Tiffany (WI) and Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR) at the 76th Annual Great Lakes Timber Association Logging Expo in Green Bay.
Due to burdensome regulation, frivolous litigation and unnecessary red tape, national forests and public lands face historically devastating fire seasons yearly.
Forest Information Reform Act: The Cottonwood Environmental Law Center v. U.S. Forest Service decision has caused unnecessary and burdensome bureaucratic hurdles, ultimately resulting in the weaponization of the legal system by environmental activists. Delays on land management projects due to this decision have had devastating impacts, including the Hermits Peak Fire in New Mexico, the largest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history. The Forest Information Reform Act will create a permanent solution to problems created by the Cottonwood decision.
Targeting and Offsetting Illegal Containments Act: Illegal cannabis cultivation sites result in significant environmental degradation, harm to wildlife, increased crime and catastrophic wildfires. The Targeting and Offsetting Illegal Containments Act aims to eliminate the environmental destruction from illegal cannabis growing operations in federal forests.
Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions (ACRES) Act: The three worst wildfire seasons on record all occurred in the last decade, with each burning more than 10 million acres. Unfortunately, the Forest Service only treats approximately 2 million acres a year, largely due to inaccurate reporting and a lack of transparency. The Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions (ACRES) Act provides a way to hold federal land management agencies accountable, to see the work they are doing to reduce the amount of fuel for wildfires on our public lands and determine the effectiveness of the fuel reduction work.
Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 2023: As America faces a wildfire crisis and rapidly intensifying fire seasons, it's increasingly important for firefighters to have the tools they need to effectively fight wildfires. Serial litigation is threatening the use of fire retardant, in use since the 1950s and approved by the EPA, a critical tool for those putting their lives on the line to fight fires. The Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 2023 ensures the brave men and women protecting public lands can retain access to this important tool in their firefighting arsenal.
SOURCE: WWW.NATURALRESOURCES.HOUSE.GOV
MEDIA CONTACT: REBEKAH HOSHIKO (202) 225-2761
USDA: Science Says Thinned Forests Are Healthy Forests
Overgrown forests are one of the key contributing factors to the current wildfire crisis in the West. The new Forest Service strategy on Confronting the Wildfire Crisis outlines the agency’s plan for increasing fuels and forest health treatments to create healthier forests and reduce the risk to communities.
Overgrown forests like the that on the left are a key contributor to the current wildfire crisis in the West. Such forests experienced extensive tree mortality during a recent drought. The thinned forest to the right, with gaps between pockets of trees, mimics historical forest conditions and experienced far less tree mortality during the same drought. USDA Forest Service photos by Adam Watts.
Forest Service science shows that thinning and fuels treatments work. Historically, many western forests were far less dense and extremely variable. Trees often grew in clusters of two to 20, interspersed with several small gaps. Pacific Southwest Research Station Research Ecologist Eric Knapp studies the ecology of western forests in relation to disturbance, particularly fire. He’s especially interested in landscape changes that have occurred in the absence of fire, including how resilient these forests are to drought or wildfire later. As part of this research, he evaluates the results of forest management alternatives designed to reverse some of these changes, including mechanical thinning and prescribed fire.
Ten years ago, Knapp and his colleagues began a study on the Stanislaus-Tuolumne Experimental Forest in California. They thinned some areas in the standard way, with trees spaced relatively evenly. They also thinned other areas with a new prescription designed to restore variability, mimicking historical forest conditions. Finally, they left other units unthinned. Half of all the units were later treated with prescribed fire. Since then, he and his team have been measuring the trees, understory vegetation, and small mammal populations to evaluate how the different treatments perform over time.
What they found was that during a recent severe drought that killed over 147 million trees statewide, the two thinned treatments came through relatively unscathed, experiencing far less tree mortality than the adjacent unthinned areas. By reducing competition, the remaining trees had greater access to sunlight, water and the nutrients found in soils. They also found that the addition of prescribed fire is key to a more vibrant and diverse understory plant community, similar to what these forests once contained.
Knapp and his colleagues have shared these findings through field tours for land managers and other stakeholders representing a diversity of interests.
“It has been gratifying to see that many have found the ‘high variability’ thinning idea with prescribed fire to be an example worthy of scaling up to improve forest resilience and habitat value,” he said.
Knapp is convinced that there are few better ways to improve understanding and acceptance of forest management than experiencing the various treatment options in person, but he believes that a virtual tour might be the next best thing. He’s now collaborating with Penn State University to develop a virtual reality field tour of the study area. Linking high resolution 360-degree imagery with audio commentary, the virtual tour allows users to explore the stands with a computer mouse.
The increased number of trees and accumulated fuels makes the forest shown in the left photo more vulnerable to drought and wildfire. The photo to the right shows the same forest after thinning and prescribed fire. This forest is more resilient to drought, wildfire and other disturbances. Left photo: USDA Forest Service photos by Adam Watts. Right photo: Courtesy photo from University of Nevada Reno.
“While there’s no substitute for actually being there, we’re hoping this virtual tour will make the forest more accessible to audiences that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity,” he said. An updated virtual tour should be available in a few months.
Forest thinning is seen by some as incompatible with healthy forests, but the forests of the past prove thinned forests can be both biodiverse and resilient in the face of drought and wildfire. Soon we’ll all be able to see the proof for ourselves.
Joyce El Kouarti, Office of Communication, USDA
Source: Science says thinned forests are healthy forests | US Forest Service (usda.gov)
Chair Abigail Spanberger Statement Following 2020 Wildfires Hearing
9/24/2020 - WASHINGTON- House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry Chair Abigail Spanberger of Virginia delivered the following statement on today's hearing on 2020 wildfires, response and recovery.
"How we come together to help our Western states respond to, recover from, and rebuild stronger can be a defining act in these times. In addition to our important conversation today, there is much work to be done beyond the jurisdiction of this Subcommittee; including: support for community and home rebuilding, for rural development, for health care services, other emergency management and response needs in the areas devastated by wildfires, taking meaningful actions to reduce our carbon footprint across all sectors of the economy, and building a more resilient and sustainable economy
"There is also clearly more work that needs to be done by this Subcommittee and this Committee on both questions of climate solutions in the agricultural and forestry sectors. I stand ready to continue this work. As I said at the top of this hearing, we should not have to wait for the ash of the wildfires to reach the Capitol’s steps to take action.
"I look forward to our continued work together as a Subcommittee, Committee, Congress, and Nation to support these efforts. I would like to thank USDA staff and our witness here today for their commitment to addressing this grand challenge."
1301 Longworth House Office Building | 202-225-2171 | agriculture.house.gov | @HouseAgDems
BLM Proposes Expedited Review of Timber Salvage Projects
Proposal would allow agency to address threat posed by catastrophic wildfires to forest health and public safety across millions of acres in the West
The Bureau of Land Management today announced a proposal to establish a new categorical exclusion (CX) under the National Environmental Policy Act, which would streamline the agency’s review of routine timber salvage projects and operations. This proposal would contribute to rural economies, accelerate reestablishment of native resilient forest tree species and reduce future wildfire fuel loads, while diminishing hazards to wildland firefighters, the public and infrastructure from dead and dying trees.
“The Trump Administration takes the threat of wildfire seriously. At Interior, we are doing everything we can within the law to aggressively prepare for wildfire season,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior Katharine MacGregor. “This proposed measure would significantly cut back on the time it takes to allow commercial timber operators into a landscape devastated by wildfire to remove marketable trees while also reducing or eliminating hazard trees that pose a danger to firefighters and infrastructure. Fostering timber jobs while reducing wildfire risks is a win-win.”
“We have to give our land managers the tools they need to reduce fuel loads and the threat of catastrophic wildfires in an environmentally sustainable manner. This proposal will allow us to increase the health and resilience of the landscape for both wildlife and people,” said William Perry Pendley, BLM Deputy Director for Policy and Programs.
The proposed CXs is part of a larger national wildfire reduction strategy guided by President Trump’s Executive Order 13855 – Promoting Active Management of America’s Forests, Rangelands, and Other Federal Lands to Improve Conditions and Reduce Wildfire Risk, as well as Secretary’s Order 3372 – Reducing Wildfire Risks on Department of the Interior Land through Active Management. The two orders direct Department of the Interior (DOI) to implement policies to improve forest and rangeland management practices by reducing hazardous fuel loads, mitigating fire risk and ensuring the safety and stability of local communities through active management on forests and rangelands.
From 2000 to 2017, wildfires burned an average of 6.8 million acres annually in the U.S. For BLM-managed forests, fire has affected an average of 279,630 acres annually from 2009 to 2018. The threat of wildfires is accelerated by the presence of dead and dying timber. Insect and disease survey data collected in 2015 by the Forest Health Protection Program of the U.S. Forest Service identified 70 different mortality-causing insects and diseases across 5.2 million acres in the conterminous United States. The BLM assembled data from the U.S. Forest Service Aerial Detection Survey from 2008 to 2017 and found nearly two million acres of forest mortality were observed over that period on BLM lands.
Given the threat of wildfires across millions of acres of forests – and the threat this poses to native wildlife and the lives and livelihoods of people and communities across the West – the BLM has identified that establishing a new CX for the actions is necessary to expedite the removal of dead and dying timber to reduce fuel loads and the threat of catastrophic wildfires.
NEPA requires Federal agencies to consider the potential environmental consequences of their decisions before deciding whether and how to proceed. The appropriate use of CXs allows NEPA compliance, in the absence of extraordinary circumstances that merit further consideration, to be concluded without preparing either an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement.
The proposal would affect only routine timber salvage projects smaller than 5,000 acres that normally do not require more extensive environmental analysis. While wildfire affects hundreds of thousands of acres of BLM-managed lands each year, current BLM regulations only allow for use of a salvage harvest CX that may not exceed 250 acres. This additional CX will increase the agency’s flexibility to respond to disturbances across larger areas.
The BLM has completed a review of scientific literature and previously analyzed and implemented actions and found no evidence that salvage harvest at the levels proposed would have a negative effect on forest health. To the contrary, removing dead and dying trees can accelerate forest succession and benefit native wildlife species that rely on successional habitat, while reducing the potential for catastrophic wildfires
The BLM is opening a public comment period on the proposed CX that closes 30 days after the proposal publishes in the Federal Register. The BLM will provide additional information about when and how to comment when the proposed rule is published.
For more information on the BLM’s forest management activities, visit https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/forests-and-woodlands
Background
The Department of the Interior has implemented an aggressive strategy to more effectively manage, treat, and prevent wildfires, reducing wildfire risks on more than 1.4 million acres of Federal lands in 2019. This was the largest fuel load reduction in a decade. More information is available online.
What They are Saying
“In recent years, catastrophic wildfires have devastated the communities of the Sierra Nevada. Frivolous lawsuits and failed public land management policies have intensified these deadly blazes. The result is mortal danger to our citizens and devastation of our local economies as dead timber is left to burn.” said U.S. Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-04). “Scientific land management can restore resilience to our forests, health for our economy and most important, safety for our communities. I applaud Secretary Bernhardt, Deputy Secretary MacGregor and BLM Acting Director Pendley for recognizing that the current process is badly broken and taking actions that will save lives, restore our forests and watersheds and boost our local economies.”
“I appreciate the Trump administration increasing the tools in our toolbox to improve our forest management. In 2017, wildfires consumed over one million acres in Montana, threatened livelihoods, and destroyed wildlife habitats. Fire season is getting longer and more severe,” said Congressman Greg Gianforte (MT-At Large.) “Today’s announcement from the Bureau of Land Management boosts common-sense, smart fire prevention measures, rehabilitation efforts, and timber jobs in Montana. By removing dead and dying timber on the front end, we can reduce the likelihood and severity of wildfires on our public lands.”
“Members of the American Loggers Council support the BLM's proposed expedited review of timber salvage projects. While the use of the proposed categorical exclusion will allow land managers to reduce fuel loads caused by insect, disease and wildland fires in order to accomplish forest restoration work in a timely manner, it also allows commercial timber harvests to take place before the dead, diseased and dying timber has lost its commercial value generating not only revenue for the BLM, but also supporting rural infrastructure and jobs in timber dependent communities,” said Daniel J. Dructor, Executive Vice President, American Loggers Council.
“The frustration of not being able to salvage timber from dead and dying trees before wildfires can occur and before the timber becomes unmerchantable, is always painful,” noted Eric Carleson, Executive Director, Associated California Loggers. “But at a time when wildfires in California have destroyed an unprecedented number of acres, loss of salvage timber is a two-fold tragedy. Rural communities and firefighters alike are threatened by dead trees, and by wildfires that could have been prevented with streamlined salvage rules in place. Unmerchantable timber is a liability. This proposed Categorical Exclusion is the right solution at exactly the right time.”
"Current NEPA requirements delay any meaningful actions to remove hazardous snags and fuels left after wildfires. The resulting hazards pose long term risks to the public, elevate the dangers faced by firefighters and cause future fires to burn even more severely. This new CX authority will help land managers reduce those risks. We have seen countless wildfires sweep over the same burned landscapes that were not treated. These recurring incidents are far more damaging to the ecosystem than the first. This new CX authority will permit land managers prompt action to remove hazardous snags and fuels along roadways and create fuel to protect the land when the next fire comes," said Javier Goirigolzarri, Executive Director, Communities for Healthy Forests, Inc.
“A welcomed, commonsense change to more effectively allow BLM to respond to the forest health crisis in the West. This new proposal will provide BLM the opportunity to be a better neighbor to private and state forest lands and offer more protection for the environment,” said Idaho state Representative Judy Boyle, Chairman of the Western Legislative Forest Task Force & Co-chair of the federal lands committee on federalism.
“Timber salvage after a wildfire is a race against the clock. This CE will greatly improve the department’s ability to salvage timber after a wildfire. Removing the timber while it still has value allows for post-fire restoration to occur expediently and at a significantly reduced cost. This helps rural communities and environments rebuild after a catastrophic wildfire,” said Shaun Crook, 2nd Vice President, California Farm Bureau Federation.
“We need regulations that will allow more large scale, aggressive fuels management to improve forest health. In addition to improving safety and wildlife management, active managing fuels is the key to managing water yield and quality. Current scientific studies illustrate that those benefits may be the most important contribution of active fuels management,” stated Bill Mulligan, Idaho Forester, Trinity Consulting.
“We have been hit hard with wildfires in southwestern Oregon for the last ten years; those fires have caused economic and health hardships for the counties and citizens. Leaving dead and dying timber to fuel future fires is both dangerous for the forest and a waste of economic resources. Speeding up salvage operations by cutting bureaucratic red tape is a good first step in bringing sound forest management back to the BLM-managed timberlands,” said Douglas County Oregon County Commissioner and President of the Association of O&C Counties Tim Freeman.
“It is vital that the Bureau of Land Management turn their minds to the enormous timber salvage harvesting task that lies ahead to reduce fuel loads and the threat of catastrophic wildfires across millions of acres of forests,” said Dan Johnson, Idaho State Senator. “Communities and forests will benefit greatly by an expedited review of timber salvage operations that are part of a sustainable forest management program.”
“I applaud the Bureau of Land Management for their proposal to establish new categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act that will give resource managers the ability to streamline review of routine timber salvage projects”, said Julia Altemus, executive director of the Montana Wood Products Association. “This proposal is consistent with other federal efforts to address the need to streamline salvage opportunities and will help align cross-boundary federal and state responses to rehabilitate landscapes after wildfire and mitigates insect and disease outbreaks and spread.”
Contact: BLM_Press@blm.gov
