Whatcom County makes no forest conservation recommendation, seeks clarity from DNR

By Lauren Gallup
The Whatcom County council approved 5-2 to send a letter to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, saying that are not ready to issue specific recommendations on Phase II of the department's carbon project. Image captured by Lauren Gallup.
The Whatcom County Council made no specific recommendations on which county timberlands to conserve for the next phase of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ carbon offset project. In the letter, the council affirmed its commitment to work with the department, and instead of offering recommendations, asked the DNR to provide more information about the Read More

The Fight For Legacy Forests, Part Seven: Where Timber Goes, And The People Behind The Industry

By Lauren Gallup
Logs delivered from forested land across Washington State waits to begin its journey to wood product at the Sierra Pacific Industries Mill in Centraila, Washington on April 7, 2022.
Washington is the second largest producer of timber in the United States, according to the state department of commerce, and it is the third largest manufacturing industry in the state. In the seventh story of the Fight for Legacy Forests series, NWPB’s Lauren Gallup visits a timber mill in Centralia to find out what people working in the timber industry think of Read More

Western Members Of Congress Call For Investigation Into Slashed Spotted Owl Protections By Interior

By Monica Samayoa
A northern spotted owl. CREDIT: Todd Sonflieth/OPB
Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer joined with colleagues from Washington, California and Arizona Tuesday in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Interior. In it, they requested an immediate federal review into the previous administration’s decision to remove 3.4 million acres of the Northern spotted owl’s critical habitat in Read More

Timber Tax Cuts Cost Rural Northwest Towns Billions. Polluted Water Drove Up The Price

By NWPB News
An aerial view of clear-cuts near the south fork of Gordon Creek, one of two water sources for Corbett, Oregon. CREDIT: Google Earth
In rainy Oregon, communities tap a network of streams and creeks to supply millions of residents with cold, clean water. The problem is that the land surrounding drinking water streams is, in many cases, owned not by the towns or the residents who drink the water, but by private timber companies that are now logging more intensively than ever, cutting trees on a more rapid Read More

Despite What The Logging Industry Says, Cutting Down Trees Isn’t Stopping Catastrophic Wildfires

By NWPB News
Oregon State University researcher Chris Dunn next to a Douglas fir, which burned in Oregon’s September 2020 fires and was later cut down by fire crews who considered it a safety hazard. CREDIT: Jes Burns/OPB
In the decades since government restrictions reduced logging on federal lands, the timber industry has promoted the idea that private lands are less prone to wildfires, saying that forests thick with trees fuel bigger, more destructive blazes. But an analysis by OPB and ProPublica shows last month’s fires burned as intensely on private forests with large-scale logging Read More
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