Secretarial Order Addresses Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Lands and Oceans

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept 14, 2009) – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today launched the Department of the Interior’s first-ever coordinated strategy to address current and future impacts of climate change on America’s land, water, ocean, fish, wildlife, and cultural resources.

“Across the country, Americans are experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change, from growing pressure on water supplies to more intense droughts and fires to rampant bark beetle infestations,” said Salazar.  “Because Interior manages one-fifth of our nation’s landmass and 1.7 billion acres on the Outer Continental Shelf, it is imperative that we tackle these impacts of a failed and outdated energy policy.  This secretarial order is another milestone in our continuing effort to change how Interior does business to respond to the energy and climate challenges of our time.”

The secretarial order signed today at Interior’s command center establishes a framework through which Interior bureaus will coordinate climate change science and resource management strategies.  Under the framework: Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: BLM, climate change impact, forest, national, regional climate change, resource management strategies

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will revise the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Translocation of Desert Tortoises by the U.S. Army onto BLM-managed lands.  The revision will allow BLM to address several issues raised about the EA during the public comment period, which ended August 31, 2009.

The Army’s Fort Irwin National Training Center has requested authorization from the BLM to move desert tortoises from its expanded training facility approximately 50 miles north of Barstow onto public lands managed by the BLM’s Barstow and Ridgecrest field offices.  Desert tortoises would be moved south and west of the current Fort Irwin boundary onto various public lands in the Superior-Cronese Desert Wildlife Management Area.

As a result of the legislative expansion of Fort Irwin in 2001, the base is converting approximately 70,000 acres known as the Western Expansion Area into useable military-training lands.  The Army is required to translocate tortoises from this expansion area before military training may take place on these lands.  To facilitate fulfillment of this requirement, the BLM is evaluating the suitability of the public lands involved for translocation of the tortoises from the Army expansion areas to BLM-managed lands.

Once the revision of the EA is complete, BLM will seek public comment and review.  No schedule has been set for the revision process.

–BLM–

Technorati Tags: BLM, national, Wildlife

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Washington (Sept 11, 2009) – EPA has announced plans to place additional limitations on the use of three organophosphate pesticides — chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion — to protect endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Anticipated changes to product labels include the addition of pesticide buffer zones; application limitations based on wind speed, soil moisture and weather conditions; and fish mortality incident reporting requirements. New, enforceable labels could be available as early as the 2010 spring growing season. Read the rest of this entry »

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78 projects in 20 States and the District of Columbia will receive a total of $89 million to address problems caused by fire, insects, invasive species and disease

WASHINGTON, September 9, 2009 — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for forest health protection projects. These 78 projects will receive almost $89 million and are located on forested lands in 30 states. This funding will be used to restore forest health conditions on Federal, State, and private forest and rangelands recovering from fires, forest insects and disease outbreaks. These conditions weaken affected lands and threaten the benefits these lands provide, including clean water, clean air, habitat for wildlife, resistance to wildfire, and recreational opportunities for the public. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: forest, Forest Service, Recreation

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PORTLAND, Ore. (September 4, 2009). A total of 239.5 million board feet of softwood logs and 80.2 million board feet of softwood lumber was exported from Washington, Oregon, northern California, and Alaska in April, May, and June of this year, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station.

“The volume of softwood log exports was up 65.2 percent from the first-quarter volume of 145 million board feet, while the volume of softwood lumber exports was up 17.9 percent from 68 million board feet,” said Debra Warren, an economist with the station.

Warren compiled the statistics from the U.S. International Trade Commission and authors Production, Prices, Employment, and Trade in Northwest Forest Industries, an annual publication that provides current information on the region’s lumber and plywood production and prices and employment in the forest industries. The 2009 edition of the report, which will include data from all quarters of this year, will be published in 2010.

Other highlights of the second quarter include: Read the rest of this entry »

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