Latest news with #forestmanagement
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
USDA says repealing ‘roadless' protections will prevent wildfires. A new study disagrees
The Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fire in Gila National Forest pictured at night in May 2012. A new study awaiting peer review from the Wilderness Society undercuts the United States Agriculture Department Secretary's claim that repealing the "Roadless Rule" will prevent wildfires. (Photo courtesy Gila National Forest) One big reason the United States Agriculture Department Secretary says she wants to strip protections for 58 million acres of federal forestland is to prevent wildfires, but a new study suggests allowing roads and logging into currently protected areas will do the opposite. A study from national environmentalist group The Wilderness Society concluded that more roads results in more wildfires, and said 'roadless' areas that comprise roughly 30% of the nation's federal forestland see far fewer wildfire starts. 'Building roads into roadless areas is likely to result in more fires. These fires will, on average, be smaller than fires farther from roads, but there will be more of them, and some of them will grow to become large fires,' lead author Greg Aplet concluded in a two-page summary of the study findings. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins unveiled her agency's plans earlier this week during the Western Governors' Association annual meeting in Santa Fe to repeal the 'Roadless Rule,' protections implemented in 2011 aimed at preserving wild forests. She said the rule hampers forest management and wildfire prevention and also said repealing the ban would get more 'logs on trucks' as the Trump administration seeks to rekindle a nationwide logging industry in federal forests. USDA Secretary in Santa Fe announces agency intends to repeal Clinton-era 'roadless' rule The Wilderness Society study, completed last month, is still undergoing peer review, according to the organization. Its authors, who submitted it for publication in the Fire Ecology journal, looked at three decades of wildfire ignition data across all national forests to determine whether higher wildfire frequency was found within 50 meters of roads. The authors determined that wildfire-ignition density was more than three times lower in areas protected as 'Inventoried Roadless Areas.' Specifically, those areas saw 1.9 fires per 1,000 hectares, which is about 4 square miles. The highest wildfire-ignition density occurred in areas within 50 meters on either side of a road, the authors found, where there were 7.4 fires per 1,000 hectares. The authors did the same analysis by region, and found wildfire density along roads in the Southwest ranked the highest in the country. Roughly 13 wildfires per 1,000 hectares occurred in this region, compared with roughly 3 wildfires per 1,000 hectares in 'roadless areas.' A Source New Mexico analysis of wildfire ignitions in the Gila National Forest had similar findings. Since 2014, the earliest year ignition data from the National Interagency Wildfire Center is readily available, roughly 1,400 wildfires have ignited within Gila boundaries, according to Source's analysis. Of them, about 15% ignited within 'roadless' areas with strict prohibitions against road construction or reconstruction, which comprise 20% of the forest area. Particularly in the southern part of the Gila, wildfire starts over the last decade appear to cluster alongside roads, according to Source's map below: The biggest fire in the Gila's recorded history and also the second-biggest fire in New Mexico history, the 320,000-acre Black Fire, did not start in a 'roadless' area, according to the Source New Mexico analysis. The Trout Fire, which is currently burning in the Gila, also did not start in the 'roadless' area. On Tuesday, United States Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz issued a statement applauding Rollins' move to repeal the 'Roadless Rule.' 'This decision would unlock 30% of the National Forest System, enabling common-sense forest management practices to strengthen the health and productivity of America's forests,' he wrote. He characterized wildfires burning in 'roadless' areas as increasingly destructive, thanks to overgrown and unmanaged forests that need to be thinned and accessible. 'The forests we know today are not the same as the forests of 2001. They are dangerously overstocked and increasingly threatened by drought, insect-born disease, and wildfire. It's time to turn the page on the Roadless Rule and return land management decisions where they belong – with local Forest Service experts who best understand their forests and communities,' he wrote. By the #s: Nearly a quarter of the Gila is protected as 'roadless.' Those protections could be nixed Even though the study found that wildfires tend to grow larger if they ignite in 'roadless areas,' doing so isn't necessarily problematic, Aplet, the study's lead author, told Source New Mexico on Thursday. By definition, 'roadless' areas don't have structures or other high value assets at risk, so often little reason exists to fully suppress wildfires that burn in wild forests, he said. Forest managers at the Gila in particular possess skill at allowing good fires to burn in the wilderness, Aplet said. 'The managers on the Gila at least, have allowed fires to burn on the Gila more than most national forests, and so those forests are less altered than areas that have been logged or other national forests that haven't been similarly managed,' Aplet said. 'And so when fires do burn on the Gila wilderness and 'roadless' areas, they have a better effect than they do on other lands.' Aplet said the study began back in President Donald Trump's first term, when Utah leaders were considering seeking a statewide exemption to 'Roadless Rule' protections, alleging that 'roadless' areas were a fire threat. 'This didn't sound right to us, so we looked into the numbers,' Aplet said. The state stopped pursuing the waiver, so Aplet's work stopped, but Trump's re-election prompted authors to take up the issue again, he said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration repeals Clinton-era rule in effort to reduce wildfires
SANTA FE, N.M. - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans on Monday to reverse a Clinton-era policy in an effort to reduce wildfires caused by a lack of forest management. The policy change was announced at the annual Western Governors Association meeting in New Mexico where Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was joined by six other state executives who had mixed reactions to the news. Western states will be disproportionately impacted by the repeal of the so-called 'roadless rule' established in 2001 by President Bill Clinton to block road building, mining and logging on 58 million acres of undeveloped national forest lands. Around 30% of the National Forest System falls under the rule, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But this number jumps to 50% in Utah, 45% in Idaho and 40% in Montana, Rollins said. 'This misguided rule prohibits the Forest Service from thinning and cutting trees to prevent wildfires and when fires start, the rule limits our firefighters access to quickly put them out,' Rollins said. Since implementation of the rule began, the area burned by wildfires each year has more than doubled from around 3 million acres to over 6 million acres, Rollins said. Her agency is currently monitoring 19 large fires across western states, Rollins said, including the Forsyth Fire in Pine Valley, Utah, which Cox visited on Sunday after it destroyed 13 homes. Rollins attributed this increase to the 'roadless rule' while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said the increase in wildfires has been caused by warming weather. 'Climate change is the biggest problem in fueling these damaging fires,' Grisham said to some applause. 'We can do climate mitigation and force health resilience and recovery.' Cox called the announcement 'really big news' for the state of Utah, which, unlike Colorado and Idaho, is not exempt from the restriction. For years, Utah has tried to do more to manage its national forests, including entering into a 'shared stewardship' agreement with the Trump administration, which was renewed under President Joe Biden, to treat thousands of acres of national forest lands. 'Utah has been really such a great model for this,' Rollins said. The work of periodically clearing underbrush and thinning trees was controversial where Utah tried it, Cox said, but doing so has resulted in saving 'an entire subdivision' of 50 homes in at least one instance of a wildfire in Utah. Managing forests actually results in cleaner watersheds and more wildlife, according to Cox, who called for additional federal funding for shared stewardship projects to clean out national forest lands. 'A good forest is like a garden,' Cox said. 'You actually have to tend it and take care of it, and if we do this the right way we can prevent fires and improve production.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration repeals Clinton-era rule in effort to reduce wildfires
SANTA FE, N.M. - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans on Monday to reverse a Clinton-era policy in an effort to reduce wildfires caused by a lack of forest management. The policy change was announced at the annual Western Governors Association meeting in New Mexico where Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was joined by six other state executives who had mixed reactions to the news. Western states will be disproportionately impacted by the repeal of the so-called 'roadless rule' established in 2001 by President Bill Clinton to block road building, mining and logging on 58 million acres of undeveloped national forest lands. Around 30% of the National Forest System falls under the rule, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But this number jumps to 50% in Utah, 45% in Idaho and 40% in Montana, Rollins said. 'This misguided rule prohibits the Forest Service from thinning and cutting trees to prevent wildfires and when fires start, the rule limits our firefighters access to quickly put them out,' Rollins said. Since implementation of the rule began, the area burned by wildfires each year has more than doubled from around 3 million acres to over 6 million acres, Rollins said. Her agency is currently monitoring 19 large fires across western states, Rollins said, including the Forsyth Fire in Pine Valley, Utah, which Cox visited on Sunday after it destroyed 13 homes. Rollins attributed this increase to the 'roadless rule' while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said the increase in wildfires has been caused by warming weather. 'Climate change is the biggest problem in fueling these damaging fires,' Grisham said to some applause. 'We can do climate mitigation and force health resilience and recovery.' Cox called the announcement 'really big news' for the state of Utah, which, unlike Colorado and Idaho, is not exempt from the restriction. For years, Utah has tried to do more to manage its national forests, including entering into a 'shared stewardship' agreement with the Trump administration, which was renewed under President Joe Biden, to treat thousands of acres of national forest lands. 'Utah has been really such a great model for this,' Rollins said. The work of periodically clearing underbrush and thinning trees was controversial where Utah tried it, Cox said, but doing so has resulted in saving 'an entire subdivision' of 50 homes in at least one instance of a wildfire in Utah. Managing forests actually results in cleaner watersheds and more wildlife, according to Cox, who called for additional federal funding for shared stewardship projects to clean out national forest lands. 'A good forest is like a garden,' Cox said. 'You actually have to tend it and take care of it, and if we do this the right way we can prevent fires and improve production.'
E&E News
4 days ago
- Politics
- E&E News
Trump administration to kill roadless forest protections
The Trump administration said Monday it plans to repeal protections for nearly 60 million acres of designated roadless areas shut off to logging in national forests. In announcing the plan, which is certain to attract legal challenges, the Agriculture Department said the regulations first implemented in the early 2000s 'go against the mandate of the USDA Forest Service to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands.' Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the change at a conference of Western governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Advertisement 'This move opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation's forests,' Rollins said. 'It is abundantly clear that properly managing our forests preserves them from devastating fires and allows future generations of Americans to enjoy and reap the benefits of this great land.'
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Trump administration to rescind policy protecting undeveloped forests
June 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture will rescind a Clinton-era policy that banned logging, roads and mining in undeveloped forests, the agency said on Monday. The change will allow nearly 59 million acres of federal forest lands to be better managed for fire risk, the USDA said.
