Press Releases

Forest Management Helps Tame Wildfire, Even in High Winds

April 15, 2022: The Wabash Springs fire ignited on the Black Hills National Forest, near Custer, South Dakota, last week. The area was relatively dry and was experiencing high winds (estimated between 40 and 60 mph).

“Everybody just came together almost like it was clock work” said U.S. Forest Service Public Affairs Officer Scott Jacobsen. “The fuels treatment and the thinning that’s been done in and around that area for the last 8-10 years certainly made a difference.” (Quoted here).

“The firefighters did not sit back on this and used a dozer to connect forest roads and get a line around the fire quickly – undoubtedly helped by good roads access and thinned stand conditions,” said Ben Wudtke, Executive Director of the Intermountain Forest Association.

A picture containing outdoor, sky, nature Description automatically generated “Forest management played a critical role in reducing the fuel loads and forest density, creating stand conditions that exhibited textbook resilience to wildfire,” Wudtke added. “I walked a good portion of the burn area and flew over the entire fire with a drone. Based on what I saw, I could count the number of dead trees taller than breast height on one hand.”

Wudtke said this was the second fire the Black Hills had seen in recent months that ignited during critical fire weather conditions but was kept at bay through a combination of forest management and quick actions from firefighters.

For more information, contact Bill Imbergamo, Executive Director, at 703-629-6877 or bill@fedforest.org

About the FFRC: FFRC is a national coalition of wood products companies, local governments, conservation groups united by concern for the National Forests. FFRC supports improving the management of the federal lands to support healthy forests and vibrant rural communities.

FFRC Supports No Timber From Tyrants Act

Washington, DC: April 7, 2022 – Federal Forest Resource Coalition Executive Director Bill Imbergamo issued the following statement on the introduction of the No Timber From Tyrants Act”:

“The American people are facing significant challenges from inflation, including a staggering increase in housing costs. Our National Forests can help meet the needs of our domestic lumber and panel markets, and they can do so sustainably. In fact, right now, the National Forests are badly under managed, which contributes to both the ongoing forest health and wildfire crisis and to unsustainably high housing costs. Under current Forest Plans, we can double the amount of harvest, and do it sustainably.

The No Timber From Tyrants Act doesn’t open a single new acre of National Forest to harvest, and doesn’t waive any environmental laws. We can meet domestic timber market needs from National Forests and BLM lands without compromising our environmental standards or helping support international aggression.”

For more information, contact Bill Imbergamo, Executive Director, at 703-629-6877 or bill@fedforest.org

Press Statement by the Federal Forest Resource Coalition on Fiscal Year 2023 Forest Service and BLM Budgets:

March 10, 2022: The Federal Forest Resource Coalition this week submitted testimony in support of improved management of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management forests and called for increased timber outputs to restore forest health, reduce fire danger, and supply wood products for the American people.

“The National Forests are a conservation success story, but unless we invest in their management, they face an uncertain future,” FFRC Executive Director Bill Imbergamo said. “The Forest Service recently acknowledged that there is a forest health and wildfire crisis on our National Forests. The Infrastructure bill has provided significant new resources to the Forest Service, but the annual spending bill must ensure that the base program – which funds timber sales, restoration treatments, and road maintenance –be increased.”

“Forest restoration work is expensive – the Forest Service estimates that treating at risk acres and protecting communities will take $50 billion over a decade. Using value from forest products – through timber sales and Stewardship contracts – can help defray these costs, while generating wood products Americans need and employment in rural communities.”

FFRC’s testimony calls for 25 percent increases in both Forest Products and Road Maintenance funding. “These investments will produce benefits for every American by providing safe access to millions of acres of public land, as well as affordable wood products.”

“If Congress would adequately fund these programs, timber outputs from National Forests could easily replace imports from places like Russia – which

has no environmental standards and seems to enjoy invading it’s neighbors. We can produce those products right here in America, using our own resources, and following strict environmental standards. More than half the National Forest system is off limits to management – and the other half is badly under managed. We can do better, but only if Congress supports these investments.”

For more information, contact Bill Imbergamo, Executive Director, at 703-629-6877 or bill@fedforest.org

Federal Forest Resource Coalition
1901 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 303
Washington, DC 20006

Press Statement by the Federal Forest Resource Coalition on “Climate Forests” Campaign to Ban the Harvest of Mature Trees on Public Lands:

February 22, 2022: For the first time in more than two decades, Big Green has decided to take on “big timber” issues on the National Forests, announcing a campaign designed to pressure the Biden Administration to “protect mature trees and forests on Federal lands,” claiming doing so is “critical” to combatting climate change.

The “Climate Forests Campaign” was announced on Tuesday by the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the League of Conservation voters; four groups whose total annual budgets exceed $450 million.

The groups, who are apparently not familiar with the carbon impacts of wildfire, claim that “older forests, store vast amounts of carbon” and that management “releases most of that carbon back into the atmosphere.” Wildfires on National Forest lands in California in 2020 released the C02 equivalent of emissions from about11 million cars. Wildfires in 2018 emitted enough carbon to charge over 17 trillion cell phones.

Fascinatingly, the groups claim that we shouldn’t cut “mature” or “old growth” trees on the National Forest System because standing forests account for “more than 95 percent of forest carbon,” with less than 4 percent of carbon stored in products (like lumber or panels).

“The National Forests have supplied over half a trillion board feet of timber to meet the needs of the American people since 1940. Yet miraculously, these forests, by these groups own account, still store massive amounts of carbon. Seems like a good idea to keep managing them to me,” said FFRC Executive Director Bill Imbergamo.

In what amounts to continued self-parody, the groups claim that older forests provide unique habitat for a variety of species, mentioning the Red Cockaded Woodpecker. The Red Cockaded Woodpecker strongly prefers mature Longleaf or Shortleaf pine forests, and the Forest Service’s timber sale program creates millions of acres of those forests through active management, including the sale of sawtimber. As you can see, Red Cockaded Woodpecker nesting clusters are thriving on the South’s National Forests.

The “green” groups clearly aren’t actually concerned about protecting old or big trees, as these trees have been going up in flames on the National Forests in droves since these groups jawboned the Clinton Administration into crashing the National Forest timber sale program in the early 1990’s. “The objective here is to muddy the waters and throw up one more roadblock to management. Half the National Forest System is off limits to management – either roadless, wilderness, or wild and scenic rivers. Harvest on the rest is strictly limited, and groups like this have ample opportunities to sue if they have site specific concerns,” Imbergamo said. “There’s no accident that they rolled out this strategy just a few weeks after Chief Moore announced an effort to step up management on our fire prone forests.”

“Adopting a ‘mature tree’ conservation policy isn’t meant to conserve big trees. It’s an effort to distract from what everyone knows needs to happen. The Biden Administration would be wise to listen to their own forest scientists and managers, and to keep managing the unreserved National Forests to provide benefits to all Americans.”

For more information, contact Bill Imbergamo, FFRC Executive Director, bill@fedforests.org; 703-629-6877