The AFRC reported that in September, President Trump announced the nomination of Ryan W. Bounds to serve as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. If confirmed, Bounds will fill a vacancy created when Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain assumed senior status.
Bounds is an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, where he prosecutes criminal cases involving fraud and environmental crimes on behalf of the United States. Bounds was previously special assistant to President George W. Bush for justice and immigration policy and during the Bush Administration, was chief of staff and deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy. Bounds is also a native of Hermiston, Oregon.
Bounds would likely continue in the conservative legal tradition of Judge O’Scannlain. However, his prospects for confirmation are uncertain.
Founder and principal architect of the Portland-based architectural firm, Lever Architecture, Thomas Robinson spoke recently to Auburn students and community members on his involvement with using cross-laminated timber (CLT).
Robinson and Lever Architecture just received a permit to build the first mass timber high-rise in the United States. “We have people who are interested in our work coming from Europe, and I’m actually going to be speaking in Germany at the end of this year,” Robinson said.
The new building, referred to as Framework, will be 12 stories tall and located in Portland, Oregon. The building’s client is a community development bank. “They wanted a building that related to their goals of economic justice and sustainability,” Robinson said.
Where will the next big forest fire ignite? It could be Colorado. The Associated Press reported that there are 834 million dead trees standing in Colorado’s 24.4 million forested acres. That means roughly one in every 14 standing trees in the state’s forests is dead, with the total up 30 percent in seven years, the State Forest Service said in its annual report on forest health.
State Forester Mike Lester said it’s definitely something to be alarmed about. Infestations of mountain pine beetles and spruce beetles are the main cause of the die-off. And although beetles are native to the state, they have caused far more damage than normal over the past 20 years, attacking more than 7,900 square miles of forest, or more than 20 percent of total forested land.
Among other steps, the state is working with federal and local governments and with private landowners to thin out forests that are too dense and fire-prone and to replant hillsides stripped bare by fires.
Good news for burning forests. The Office of Management and Budget included $576.5 million in wildfire funding in their supplemental budget request to Congress and recommended that active forest management and forestry reform be part of the solution to curb wildfire borrowing.
“I want to thank the Trump administration for their request for funds to cover the costs of this fire season, as well as their call for Congress to reform our broken federal forest policy that hinders them from implementing much needed forest management,” Walden said.
Website ucdavis.edu reported that remote sensing technology has detected what could be a win for both spotted owls and forestry management, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station, and the University of Washington.
A study published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, noted that scientists found that cover in tall trees is the key habitat requirement for spotted owls — not total canopy cover. It also indicated that spotted owls largely avoid cover created by stands of shorter trees.
“This could fundamentally resolve the management problem because it would allow for reducing small-tree density, through fire and thinning,” said lead author Malcolm North, a research forest ecologist with UC Davis’ John Muir Institute of the Environment and the USDA Pacific Southwest Research Station. “We’ve been losing the large trees, particularly in these extreme wildfire and high drought-mortality events. This is a way to protect more large-tree habitat, which is what the owls want, in a way that makes the forest more resilient to these increasing stressors that are becoming more intense with climate change.” For more information visit: www.ucdavis.edu/news/win-win-spotted-owls-and-forest-management.
On the Cover
Photo taken by Lindsay R. Mohlere at the Iron Triangle operation in John Day, Oregon
Father and Son Carry on Family Tradition
Father and son find themselves switching hats between equipment and tasks
Firebreak Column
Congress heating up forest management and wildfire funding
Riding the Cutting Edge
Iron Triangle Logging, example of leader in innovation and business savvy
From Crisis to Clean Up
Wolfpack Wood Recycling called in to assist when spillway issues occur at Orville Dam
Logging Tire Choice Impacts Bottom Line
Tires impact performance in the forest, but not every setup is ideal for every forest setting
Tech Review
Portable Grinders and Chippers
Guest Column
Community forests shaping the name of change
DEPARTMENTS
