Daily Archives: November 12, 2018

The School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is building a new major all about trees. Eric North, a professor hired initially to design a new major for students interested in trees, is building coursework that centers around urban forestry and arboriculture for the forestry major. …The university hosted a forestry department as early as 1903, participating in the statewide push for tree planting after the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. The forestry degree has been intermittently abolished and reinstated at UNL since then and is now pending approval as a new regional and community forestry major. North said that he’s built new courses that cover different areas in new technologies, horticulture, entomology and water science for the major.

PARADISE, Calif. — Thousands of residents in the wooded town of Paradise did what they were told to do when the morning skies turned dark and an inferno raged across the hills: They got in their cars and fled. …tree-lined streets in the town swiftly became tunnels of fire, blocked by fallen power lines and burning timber. …By Sunday night, the Camp Fire had matched the deadliest in California history, the Griffith Park Fire of 1933, with 29 fatalities. Seven of the victims in Paradise died in their vehicles. …California was still battling three major fires on Sunday: the Camp Fire, which exploded across 111,000 acres and is still raging in the forests near Paradise, and two fires west of Los Angeles. …“We are really just in the middle of this protracted weather event and this fire siege,” Chief Ken Pimlott said.

New research is offering a way to potentially save money and resources on forest recovery after wildfire. After wildfire season ends each year, land managers start planning what comes next for the areas that burned.  Often, the strategy used to ensure the forests return is to salvage log and then replant. But a recent study suggests that in some areas, it might be just as effective to leave the forest alone. “If the burned patches aren’t too big, that is to say the seed sources aren’t too far away, then the forests do a good job of regenerating themselves,” said study contributor David Hibbs of Oregon State University.  The research provides a relatively clear picture of where forest managers could most benefit from spending the time and money needed to replant — at least in corner of the Pacific Northwest. 

President Donald Trump woke up in Paris on Saturday in the mood to make threats toward California as it deals with deadly wildfires in Northern California and hundreds of smoldering homes in Southern California. In an angry tweet, the president threatened to pull federal funding for the state if nothing is done to “remedy” the situation. …On Sunday, California Gov. Jerry Brown’s office fired back, calling the president’s tweet “inane and uninformed.” “Our focus is on the Californians impacted by these fires and the first responders and firefighters working around the clock to save lives and property — not on the president’s inane and uninformed tweets,” Evan Westrup, the governor’s press secretary, told ABC News. At least 25 people have been killed this week as flames from the wildfires engulfed their vehicles, homes and neighborhoods in Northern California, authorities said. 

PETROLIA, Calif., — The Petrolia-based Lost Coast League (LCL) today received the answer to its Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Complaint of Humboldt Redwood (HRC) logging plans on Rainbow Ridge in the Mattole River watershed. LCL faulted logging of previously un-entered forests and extensive use of herbicides. (See the Complaint here: http://bit.ly/2PiQUAU or for maps and other information visit LCL’s website: lostcoastleague.org). Lead Investigator Dr. Robert Hrubes, a founder of FSC, concluded “that two of the complainants’ allegations … are factually with merit with regard to non-conformance to the FSC U.S. National Forest Management Standard. Accordingly, two Corrective Action Requests are being raised … one pertaining to updating the HCVF [High Conservation Value Forest] assessment in the Mattole and one pertaining to chemical use …”

John Bailey

CORVALLIS, Ore. — John Bailey, an Oregon State University College of Forestry professor, told KATU the wildfire destruction that’s currently devastating parts of California could happen here.  “There are hundreds of those kinds of communities in the foothills of the Sierras, in the foothills of the Coast Range, in the foothills of the Cascades,” Bailey explained Friday, saying many of the fires in California were preventable. Bailey said it’s all about forest management, which involves properly thinning out trees in certain areas, removing fine fuels or kindling around them and conducting controlled burns to help prevent massive, powerful wildfires. …Bailey said he drove through Paradise with his family this year on the way home from spring break.  “You could see that it was just, it was a disaster waiting to happen,” he explained, saying that around the town he saw “an overgrown forest with lots of fuel.”