Latest U.S. Forest Service Stories
By Don Thompson Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Union Pacific Railroad Co. has agreed to pay $102 million for a huge California wildfire sparked by its workers in what federal officials described Tuesday as a precedent- setting case. U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said the settlement marks the U.S. Forest Service's largest damage recovery for a wildfire. The company, based in Omaha, Neb., agreed to settle after a federal judge in Sacramento ruled against it in February, Union Pacific...
The Mill Hollow fire burning in Duchesne County continues to expand, jumping from 533 to 668 acres on Friday. U.S. Forest Service information officer Venetia Gempler said additional crews were added to manage the blaze, which is being fanned by winds and fueled by bug-killed deadfall in the area. The fire, ignited by a single lightening strike, has been burning since June 23. The Mill Hollow fire is under a fire management procedure that controls a naturally ignited fire while allowing it...
By LEE BERGQUIST National forest planners are proposing to close motorized access to 55% of the roads in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. The plan is designed to protect the ecology of the sprawling northern forest, but some motor sports enthusiasts and outdoorsmen say they will lose access to many remote areas. "I don't know if hunters or fishermen realize the impact that this will have on their form of recreation," said John Schnorr, executive director of the Wisconsin Off-Highway...
By Talia Sampson, Ventura County Star, Calif. Jul. 18--A federal judge has blocked a U.S. Forest Service plan to have commercial loggers remove trees burned on 1,000 acres in Los Padres National Forest during the 2006 Day fire. U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu ruled last week that the Forest Service could not move ahead with the project as planned without more environmental review of the potential effects, but it could take steps to allow some foresting, such as salvaging trees in an...
By Geoff Liesik For the Deseret News ROOSEVELT -- A wildland firefighter was injured Wednesday while working on the Mill Hollow fire in Duchesne County. U.S. Forest Service fire information officer Venetia Gempler, in a press release, said the man was injured in a fall. He was transported by helicopter to University Hospital. Fire officials did not release the man's name or condition. The Mill Hollow fire has been burning since June 23 in the south unit of the Ashley National Forest about...
By Chris Bowman, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jul. 18--If every cloud has a silver lining, what good can be said of the big brown dome of wildfire smoke that capped much of California these past few weeks? Plenty, say ecologists who study the effects of fire on the landscape. While the siege of lightning-sparked fires continues to inundate parts of Northern California with hazardously smoky air, the blazes also consumed more than 1,400 square miles of dangerously overgrown forests and oak...
By Lee Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 18--National forest planners are proposing to close motorized access to 55% of the roads in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. The plan is designed to protect the ecology of the sprawling northern forest, but some motor sports enthusiasts and outdoorsmen say they will lose access to many remote areas. "I don't know if hunters or fishermen realize the impact that this will have on their form of recreation," said John Schnorr,...
Amy Gannon, hatchet in hand, sliced a slab of bark from a lodgepole pine tree near Wolf Creek, Mont., and quickly spotted a mountain pine beetle larva no bigger than her pinky fingernail. "This tree's done for," said Gannon, an entomologist with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. As wildfires roar through tinder-dry forests in California, the mountain pine beetle is silently killing even more trees -- hundreds of thousands of acres of towering trees,...
By Karl Puckett Amy Gannon, hatchet in hand, sliced a slab of bark from a lodgepole pine tree near Wolf Creek, Mont., and quickly spotted a mountain pine beetle larva no bigger than her pinkie fingernail. "This tree's done for," said Gannon, an entomologist with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. As wildfires roar through tinder-dry forests in California, the mountain pine beetle is silently killing even more trees -- hundreds of thousands of acres of towering...
By Erik Robinson, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash. Jul. 15--A forest fire south of Mount Adams ballooned to more than 8,000 acres Monday. An expert said several circumstances give this fire an unusual opportunity to continue to grow. Regional fire managers dispatched hundreds of wildland firefighters to the area 11 miles northeast of Trout Lake on Monday. A small tent village of firefighters sprouted on the grounds of the Trout Lake School, while state highway authorities warned motorists...
