Firefighting costs burn through Forest Service budget The U.S. Forest Service has busted its budget for firefighting barely halfway through the fire season and is about to siphon money from other programs that include fixing potholed roads and renovating deteriorating campgrounds. The agency is even yanking $30 million from efforts to reduce the buildup of flammable tinder in forests, which is designed to reduce the risk of big wildfires that crews have to fight, according to a letter from Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell to field offices. In the letter last week, Kimbell suspended all spending on contracts and projects except in emergency or critical circumstances....
Douglas fir stops growing because it can't pull water any higher A fundamental reason why trees can grow only so tall, and then no higher, has been discovered: they run out of water. One of the tallest tree species on Earth, the towering Douglas-fir finally stops growing because it is unable to pull water any higher, a new study concludes. Although the research was done on this tree (which is not a true fir, despite its name), the findings are likely to apply to the mighty redwood too and the team is now extending its research to other species. This limit on height is somewhere above 350 feet, or taller than a 35-story building, and is a tradeoff between efficiency and safety in transporting water to the uppermost leaves. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by a team of scientists from Oregon State University and the USDA Forest Service."....
Yellowstone continues to recuperate from 1988 fires If there is a place where heaven and hell meet, it's here. Twenty years ago this summer, a series of wildfires burned 36 percent of America's first national park, scorching huge swaths of pristine forest and killing scores of wild animals. Today, there is new life at Yellowstone National Park, as trees have taken root among the burnt logs that still litter the earth. The 1988 wildfires were not the ecological disaster many feared at the time. They did, however, force federal officials to tighten a policy allowing some fires to burn and develop new strategies to battle the "mega-fires" of today. "The philosophy was, in these large natural areas, fire should be allowed to play its role," said Dick Bahr, a fire science and ecology specialist for the National Park Service. "What happened in '88 in Yellowstone was probably a passing of the threshold with what the political and social world was comfortable with. It was perceived that we were burning up their national park and there would be nothing left of it." For nearly a century, Yellowstone managers were quick to douse wildfires. That changed in 1972, when ecologists, citing years of research, persuaded the park to adopt a policy allowing lightning-sparked fires to burn as long as they didn't threaten lives or park facilities. They maintained fire was a natural event that promoted healthy forests....
State negotiations shed light on federal talks As Plum Creek Timber repositions itself as a real estate company, it is working with the state of Montana to expand its logging road easements, so it can bring improved access and underground utilities to land that it can later subdivide into rural communities. The state negotiations may shed some light on private talks held between Plum Creek and the U.S. Forest Service. Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton says the state has upgraded Plum Creek's traditional 40-foot right-of-way deeds across state lands to 60-foot right of ways. The state is adding additional "all-lawful-purposes" rights to easements originally granted for natural resource uses such as logging. And the state is negotiating with the Forest Service over cost-sharing agreements with the Forest Service, for the use and maintenance of roads that cross both state and federal lands. Some environmental watchdogs argue the state is not doing enough to notify the public about the long-term fiscal and environmental implications of the agreements. They say the state and county governments could end up subsidizing services such as fire and police protection to far-off subdivisions at taxpayer expense....