Latest news with #USForestService
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Two dead as firefighters ambushed in 'heinous' sniper attack
At least two people have died after firefighters were ambushed in a "heinous" sniper attack during a job. The victims, thought both to be fire service personnel, were attacked at Canfield Mountain just north of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, as assailants hid in rugged terrain. Police dashed to the scene and were instructed to fire back at the thugs, who were using high-powered rifles in ugly scenes, for which a motive has not yet been identified. Idaho's Governor Brad Little said: "This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters. I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more." Armed police and other highly trained units have arrived on scene in Idaho. The FBI and US Forest Service are also actively involved in the response. #BREAKING: Heavily armored and highly trained police units have arrived on scene in Idaho. The FBI, DHS, and U.S. Forest Service are also actively involved in the response. Firefighters were ambushed by sniper fire while responding to a blaze in a northern Idaho mountain community Sunday, killing at least two people. The horror unleashed barrages of gunfire over several hours in an attack the governor called a "heinous" assault. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said crews responded to a fire at Canfield Mountain just north of Coeur d'Alene around 1:30 p.m., and gunshots were reported about a half hour later. Sheriff Bob Norris said officials believe the two people killed were fire personnel. He didn't know if anyone else was shot. 'We don't know how many suspects are up there, and we don't know how many casualties there are," Norris told reporters at a news conference. "We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Here's how a BYU graduate's research is helping to optimize wildfire modeling
Wind has already played a big role in Utah's wildfire season, combining with heat and low relative humidity to send the flames of the Forsyth Fire toward Pine Valley in Washington County, where it destroyed 18 structures, including 13 primary or secondary homes. While Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has called on his constituents to pray for rain amid worsening drought conditions across the state, a Brigham Young University graduate's research could help make a widely used wildfire tool faster and more accurate when needed most. Jane Housley, who earned a graduate degree in mathematics from BYU, partnered with the U.S. Forest Service's Missoula Fire Sciences Lab with the goal of improving WindNinja, a simulation tool created by the agency and used in real-time by fire crews and analysts to predict how wind will move through terrain during a fire. 'One of the really, really cool things about studying math is you kind of get to end up working on all sorts of different types of problems using your math knowledge,' Housley said. 'I really have become passionate about the project, but it's kind of cool that it just started out as something where somebody just thought, 'Oh, it might be helpful to have a math person on this,' even though I didn't really have any background in wildfire studies.' While WindNinja is a helpful software, it's not perfect. Housley said it struggles to model what's called a 'cavity zone.' 'That's the area directly behind a mountain or ridge where wind tends to swirl backward and create eddies.' Housley said. Eddies are important because they can dramatically alter how and where a wildfire spreads. When using WindNinja, Housley said users have to choose between speed and accuracy. She was tasked with optimizing the software to achieve both of those traits. Her solution? Implementing her math prowess — with a modern twist of AI-powered machine learning — to bridge the gap. To lay the groundwork, she used a mathematical approach inspired by airflow around buildings. Decades-old architectural research showed how wind wraps around square structures in cities, and Housley repurposed that math to approximate how wind might similarly move across complex natural terrain. She then went to work on an algorithm that approximates hills and peaks as 'rectangular buildings,' then applied formulas to predict where cavity zones should appear. 'Instead of thinking of a mountain like this rugged terrain, can we think of it like tons of small skyscrapers all bunched together? And that was kind of the approach we took there,' Housley said. This led to a model that clearly outlines problem areas where wind flow is likely to become turbulent. For the second part of the project, her solution was 'to train a neural network, which ended up working really, really well,' Housley said. Housley built a custom U-net convolutional neural network (a type of AI often used in image recognition) and trained it on nearly 6,000 wind simulation images provided by the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab. Each data pair included terrain, vegetation type, wind direction and outputs from both WindNinja solvers. This enabled the neural network to produce a pipeline seven times faster than industry-leading models, while retaining high accuracy. The results speak for themselves: The model cut one type of error by 75%. It sliced the average error in half. On a test that measures how close two wind maps look — kind of like comparing photos — it scored 0.77 out of 1, a big jump from 0.60. Best of all, it did it in just 0.07 seconds per simulation. 'WindNinja is used in real-time by firefighters when they're trying to predict the path of a fire ... to try and figure out the optimal place to go and defend the forest or the community. In a situation like that, minutes and even seconds are everything,' Housley said. 'Being able to improve the speed by seven times, you know, gives us minutes and even hours back in that front.' With this success, Housley said she only sees the role of AI and machine learning growing when it comes to wildfire modeling. 'We've kind of seen that machine learning is a really valuable thing to test out in wildfire modeling. I think it's going to kind of change the landscape of how wildfire modeling operates in the future,' Housley said.
Straits Times
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Trump administration to end protection for 23.5 million hectares of national forests
Untouched landscapes in the US include Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in North America. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER MILLER/NYTIMES The Trump administration said on June 23 that it would open up some 23.5 million hectares of backcountry in national forests to road construction and development, removing protection that had been in place for a quarter-century. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the plan to repeal the 2001 'roadless rule' that had preserved the wild nature of nearly one-third of the land in national forests in the United States. Ms Rollins said the regulation was outdated. 'Once again, President (Donald) Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common-sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,' Ms Rollins said in a statement. She said the repeal 'opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation's forests'. Environmental groups said the plan could destroy some of America's untouched landscapes, and promised to challenge it in court. The unspoiled land in question includes Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in North America; Reddish Knob in the Shenandoah mountains, one of the highest points in Virginia; and millions of hectares of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho. 'Most Americans value these pristine backcountry areas for their sense of wildness, for the clean water they provide, for the fishing and hunting and wildlife habitat,' said Mr Chris Wood, chief executive of Trout Unlimited, an environmental group. When then President Bill Clinton used executive authority to protect the forests in 2001, it was hailed by conservationists as the most significant step since former president Theodore Roosevelt laid the foundation for the national forest system. It blocked logging, road building, mining and drilling on 23.5 million hectares of the remaining undeveloped national forest lands. Mr Wood, who served as a senior policy adviser to the chief of the US Forest Service when the rule was developed, recalled that it had wide public support. 'I don't think the timber industry wants to get into these areas,' he said. 'They're wildly controversial and they're too expensive to access. I believe when they take this to rule-making, they will realise how wildly unpopular getting rid of that rule is and how little gain there is to be had from it.' The announcement comes as the Trump administration is moving to significantly increase logging in the US. Mr Trump has called on Cabinet secretaries to bypass endangered species laws and other environmental protection measures to boost the domestic supply of timber. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘The stakes are life and death': The US is not prepared for wildfire season after sweeping DOGE cuts, report says
As summer temperatures begin to rise and another dangerous wildfire season looms, a new report warns the U.S. is underprepared due to sweeping budget and staffing cuts under the Trump administration. Federal agencies are grappling with reduced workforces, diminished resources, and weakened emergency infrastructure just as extreme summer heat and drought are taking hold of many states out West. Experts and current firefighters say the situation is dire. 'If this turns out to be a major fire year, it's going to be a s*** show,' Dr. Hugh Safford, a fire ecologist and former U.S. Forest Service (USFS) official, told The Guardian. Safford spent more than two decades working for the service before retiring in 2021. Five federal firefighters echoed the same concern to the outlet, speaking anonymously due to restrictions, all answering 'no' when asked if their agencies were ready. Already, wildfires have destroyed homes in Oregon, and more than 8.5 million acres have burned across Canada. Climate forecasters predict above-average fire potential this year across California, Montana, Texas, and much of the Pacific Northwest. But despite these warnings, there have been major staffing cuts. USFS Chief Tom Schultz told a Senate committee the agency is 'well-positioned,' citing the hiring of 11,000 firefighters—900 fewer than last year—and 37 incident management teams, down from 42, The Guardian reported. But lawmakers and fire experts disagree. 'The reality is on the ground, we have lost workers whose jobs are absolutely essential,' Senator Patty Murray said in response, citing a loss of 7,500 USFS employees, including maintenance staff, administrators, and qualified on-call firefighters. 'The stakes are life and death here – and this raises serious alarms about this agency being ready for this critical fire season,' she added. Cutbacks have strained fire operations. Some crews lack access to supplies, paychecks have been delayed or halved, and workers are filling roles far beyond their scope—mowing lawns, managing campsites, or doing their own plumbing. 'Those agencies were already understaffed,' Lenya N. Quinn-Davidson, director of the University of California's Fire Network, said. 'Now they are skeletal.' The Trump administration has pushed an early retirement program that 4,800 USFS workers have joined, including 1,400 with critical 'red card' fire qualifications. Schultz admitted there was no strategic analysis of who left or what skills were lost. Now, the Department of Agriculture is scrambling to re-enlist those workers for the fire season. 'I don't expect many to return,' said one fire planner. 'The loss of experience is immense.' Another complication came when an executive order was issued last week, giving agencies 90 days to consolidate all federal firefighters under a new Department of the Interior agency. Firefighters have concerns that the rushed implementation could create more chaos during peak fire season. 'It seems like a joke if you can't even pay my guys or get them insurance,' an USFS squad leader said. 'I like the idea of a firefighter-led agency. But I don't have faith in these people putting it together.' Grants that support wildfire mitigation on local, state, tribal, and private lands were halved this year and are set to be eliminated next year. Nearly $100 million intended to support rural and volunteer fire departments was withheld, The Guardian reported. 'The administration's budget for Forest Service research is $0—for the world's most important forest research organization,' Safford said. The administration also rolled back climate science initiatives and scaled down weather forecasting capacity. NOAA and National Weather Service layoffs have hampered early warning systems in fire-prone areas. So states are stepping in to compensate. California issued $72 million in fire mitigation grants last month. Colorado allocated $7 million this spring. 'Forest fires aren't going to take four years off just because of who's in the White House,' Governor Jared Polis told Politico. Schultz acknowledged a shift is underway to push more responsibility onto states and local governments. That shift, Quinn-Davidson said, underscores the importance of empowering communities to lead on fire prevention. 'The more we can empower people at the local level, the more resilient we'll be in the face of disaster,' Quinn-Davidson said. But with the season already underway, many fear the consequences of federal disinvestment may soon be felt. As one firefighter put it: 'I'm not seeing our interests being represented. That could be catastrophic.'
The Star
19-06-2025
- General
- The Star
Weed manager of the year: One man's quest to save the Sonoran Desert
When Don Pike takes his daily walk, he laces up his brown hiking boots, grabs his walking stick and bucket hat and heads outside. Ten feet (3m) later, he carefully slips past barbed wire and enters the Tonto National Forest in Arizona, the United States. Unlike other parts of the Tonto, where the ground between native plants and trees is covered with dry grasses, the earth is pale, crusty and barren, like it's meant to be. That's because Pike has been pulling weeds. 'You won't find any of them in this area here because I've removed them,' said Pike, 84, a retiree from Maine who installed floor-to-ceiling windows in his living room to better see his beloved desert. Pike estimates that he's cleared invasive plants from roughly 222ha of desert near his home. Pike is at war with buffel grass and fountain grass, two invasive species that are spreading in the Sonoran Desert, choking native plants, increasing the risk and intensity of wildfires and threatening a vibrant ecosystem. He began hunting the thick grasses, which were introduced to the area by landscapers, almost 15 years ago. Since then, he estimates that he and his team of volunteers have cleared 550 acres (222ha) of the roughly 14,000 acres (5,665ha) they oversee. In 2024, that earned him the title of Arizona's Weed Manager of the Year. Work by volunteers like Pike has always been an important supplement to managing federal lands, according to US government workers who say their programmes have been underfunded for years. A cactus blooms in the Tonto National Forest. But since the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency began mass firings of federal workers, volunteers like Pike have become more vital than ever. 'It's going to be important for the federal agencies, the Forest Service in particular, to find ways to engage people,' Pike said on his back porch in March. 'There's a lot of people that want to get involved. Particularly retirees who have a lot of skills.' In February, at least 2,000 employees had been eliminated from the US Forest Service, which is responsible for lands across the country that, together, rival the size of Texas. Forests like the Tonto are at risk as climate change increases the chances of wildfires and as invasive species spread. But citizen scientists like Pike are working to reduce fire and heat risks, clear hundreds of acres of invasives and capture data on threatened cactuses, helping to save what otherwise might be lost. Parking and shade structures (right) at a trailhead in an area where abundant red brome, an invasive species of grass, raises the wildfire risk, in the Tonto National Forest. Bringing in reinforcements Patti Fenner was an invasive weeds specialist for the US Forest Service in 2011 when she gave a presentation to a retirees group that included Pike. After the talk, Fenner and Pike took a hike and she pointed out how invasive grasses had begun overtaking native plants. That first outing led to a decades-long obsession, and when Fenner retired three years later and founded Friends of the Tonto, a volunteer group with about 70 members that assists the national forest, Pike became one of the first members. Fenner had worked in the forest since college, doing a variety of jobs. She liked the US Forest Service-style of land management because it demanded compromise from all parties. Unlike national parks, US Forest Service land is used by multiple interests, including logging, mining and ranching in addition to recreation. Fenner holds a blade of invasive red brome grass, which raises the risk of wildfire. But maintaining an ecological balance is also key, and when Fenner became the forest's first noxious weed manager in 2003, it felt like a Sisyphean task to clear three million acres (1.2 million hectares) of rapidly multiplying invasive species. Pike decided to concentrate on a smaller scale, homing in on what's known as the wildland urban interface, or the space where developments like his neighbourhood creep up on wilderness areas like the Tonto. A former engineer, he created a map to track the progress he made with his team of volunteers, pinning a green flag where invasives were cleared. The flag turns yellow after two years as a reminder to clear the area again. While his system is effective in his relatively small section, it's an unlikely fix for an entire forest. 'In the direction that we're headed, the desert will become a grassland,' Pike said. Fenner became the Tonto National Forest's first noxious weed manager in 2003. Lightning-strike fires have always been possible in the desert, but excess vegetation like red brome, a grass that dries into short haylike tufts, has contributed to bigger and more frequent wildfires in the Tonto. One of the first huge wildfires came in 2005, when the Cave Creek Complex fire burned 243,000 acres (98,340ha). Then, in the summer of 2020, Pike watched the sky turn orange as the Bush fire burned 193,000 acres (78,104ha), killing roughly 80,000 saguaros, the distinctive cactuses with cartoonish curved arms. Invasive plants grew back quickly, outcompeting the native saguaros and paloverde, the state tree with flowers like tiny yellow bells. A dying saguaro cactus that was scorched by a fire in the Tonto National Forest. So, Friends of the Tonto started a second monitoring programme for the saguaros. In late 2023, Pike created another map with more than 9,900 tiny saguaros. On this one, green signals good health and black means the cactus is dead. He's trained about 40 people to find additional saguaros and monitor the ones already in the database. The future of the forest The main office at Tonto has been closed for years because the US Forest Service had trouble staffing it, even before the recent hiring freeze and terminations, largely because the pay was low, Fenner said. Other offices within the forest used to stay open on weekends during the busy season, but that also ended years ago because of a lack of employees. 'If you're trying to get ahold of somebody there's no one to talk to,' Fenner said of the forest staff. 'It's like nobody's home.' Ongoing budget and staffing issues at the Tonto have limited the scope of volunteer work, which is based on an agreement with the US Forest Service that spells out the terms of the relationship. The US Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment. Pike has been struggling to contact federal employees who can help him apply for grants. In 2024, he helped win a US$105,000 (RM444,255) grant from the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Management to hire a contractor to apply herbicide and organise a youth group to cull invasive plants in the forest. A detail of the epidermis of a fire-scorched saguaro cactus. 'It's not going to get better, it's going to get worse,' Pike said of communication with forest managers. He wants to secure more grants to better manage the invasive plants, but without support from forest officials, he said, 'I can't logically expand the area that I'm covering.' Still, they are tackling the impossible, weed by weed. At the top of a hill overlooking the Tonto called Sears-Kay, which features ruins almost 1,000 years old, Fenner spotted buffel grass in late March. She tried to pull it with her bare hands but it was rooted too firmly. So she called Pike, and he encouraged her to go back with a shovel. She went on a walk and pulled the plant the next day. – ©2025 The New York Times Company
