The Lands Council’s Reducing Forest Fuel Loads Through BioChar Conversion program is up and running. This program will convert post timber harvest residual woody debris to BioChar to be left onsite on the forest floor, promoting forest health through moisture retention and sequestering carbon as a climate change mitigation tool. The Oregon Kiln is our technological choice due to its portability.
Organizers for the Lands Council and Avista’s eighth annual Reforest Spokane Day set a lofty goal Saturday: plant about 3,000 small plants and 250 trees at two sites in three hours.
But that didn’t appear unrealistic once around 400 volunteers turned out to help.
“It’s a great thing to do,” said volunteer Cathy Walter, 52, who volunteers outside with her husband, Jeff, each month. “Last month we cleaned the river. This month we’re planting trees.”
The first planting site was on a slope at the southeast corner of First Avenue and Washington Street. Avista crews removed juniper bushes and installed a rock retaining wall. The slope is adjacent to where professional landscapers are installing two new street trees in sidewalk grates.
Once landscapers plotted spots for each plant, the volunteers dug holes and placed five ponderosa pines, several serviceberry trees and 3,000 mostly native small plants and grasses. Then they mulched and watered the new ground cover.
Lewis and Clark High School juniors Lauren Stone and Addy Somes volunteered to help plant through their environmental science course. They had to take pictures of the work they did and explain how it helped the environment.
The community engagement aspect of the course was a big incentive to take it, they said.
“A lot of other classes didn’t have that,” Somes said.
Volunteers plant a hillside at Washington Street and First Avenue as part of the Lands Council and Avista Reforest Spokane Day, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, in Spokane, Wash. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
Across town, the other half of the volunteers planted about 250 ponderosa pines along the Centennial Trail near the pedestrian Iron Bridge, just east of Gonzaga University.
Brenna Huang, 17, an LC student, said she’s been volunteering with the Lands Council for about four years and Reforest Spokane is one of her favorite events.
“Climate is really important,” she said. “I just want to do what I can to help, and I really enjoy working outdoors.”
In the past, the Lands Council has planted in areas on the outskirts of Spokane near rivers and streams, but the focus has turned toward the heart of the city this year as a part of a new urban forestry initiative.
City Council passed an ordinance in the spring to cover 30% of Spokane in tree canopy by 2030. With more than 89,000 trees within city limits, the current canopy estimate is 23%.
City Council member Lori Kinnear said the council could vote as soon as December to set up requirements for street trees during construction and incentives for planting them, like lower stormwater fees on water bills.
Studies have shown that planting trees can mitigate polluted stormwater reaching the river, make shade to reduce temperatures in the urban core and create animal habitat, said Chelsea Updegrove, Lands Council development director and urban canopy coordinator. Plus, trees can “change our landscape so we have a more beautiful downtown,” she said.
The idea started when Avista began tearing up sidewalks for routine maintenance and went to the city with a proposition to plant more street trees. Then the city approached the Lands Council about making it a community effort, Updegrove said.
Avista funded the event and, along with the city and Selkirk Developers, donated plant materials. Theongoing maintenance of the plants at Washington Street and First Avenue will be a volunteer effort.
“We’re here to celebrate our shared values,” Updegrove said.
Natural Resources Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), lead Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, introduced legislation today to repeal all three Trump administration final rule changes to the Endangered Species Act, which taken together will fundamentally change the way we protect threatened and endangered species.
The Trump administration finalized changes rolling back the Endangered Species Act on Monday. Regulators will now be allowed to factor in economic considerations when granting “endangered” status, species classified as “threatened” will see their protections weakened, and scientists will be limited in setting climate change-related protections
Director Susewind,
We respectfully urge you to change your position authorizing the lethal removal of wolves from the OPT Pack for preying on livestock in Ferry County. This producer and these allotments have been historically problematic. It is time to take a different approach. The area in question has been the site of multiple livestock wolf conflicts in the last three years and the producer in question has been the responsible party that resulted in wolves being removed from the Wedge Pack in 2012, the Profanity Peak Pack in 2016, the Sherman Pack in 2017, the Sherman and Togo Packs in 2018 and now the OPT Pack in 2019. Science works with variables and constants. It would seem the constant here is the producer. Listed as non lethal wolf deterrents in the July 23, 2019 Wolf Update: “WDFW-contracted range riders were in the area for two days before pausing activity during lethal removal efforts. The WDFW-contracted range riders did not resume riding because the livestock producer prefers that contracted range riders not work with their cattle at this time. The producer is continuing to remove or secure livestock carcasses (when discovered) to avoid attracting wolves to the rest of the herd, and remove sick and injured livestock (when discovered) from the grazing area until they are healed. WDFW and county staff are continuing to coordinate patrols of the grazing area to increase human presence and use Fox lights at salting and watering locations to deter wolves. Other livestock producers with cattle on federal grazing allotments in the OPT pack territory have deployed range riders.”1 1https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/at-risk/species-recovery/gray-wolf/updates/opt-pack-update-7-23-19 The parenthetical “(when discovered),” raises questions. Last winter cattle were discovered in January, which indicates the producer has not been able to keep track of his livestock. But what raises more questions is the 2 use of range riding as the primary non lethal deterrent. First, this area would never be categorized as “range.” Rangeland is defined as an open region for the grazing of livestock. This area is far from open. The effectiveness of this tool needs to be assessed. Second, the producer that is losing the livestock is quoted in the Capital Press (23 July 2019) stating; “…range riders “sound romantic,” but they can’t guard cattle on a rugged range that stretches 30 miles,” effectively attesting the ineffectiveness of the practice. 3 Mr. McIrvin’s historic disdain for wolves is evident in his statements to the press: “Wolves have never been compatible with raising livestock.” From that, the rancher in Stevens County concludes that wolves should be done away with,…4 “Wolves do what wolves do,” McIrvin said. “They have always been killers.”5 McIrvin says killing the wolves is the only solution. He believes the calf carcass should have been laced with poison to get the "culprits."6 "Until somebody gets serious about opening season on these wolves, I don't know that there is any answer," he said.7 “Our ancestors knew what had to happen — you get poison and you kill the wolves.”8 Are we destined to employ the same “solution” year after year in the face of a recurrent problem? It is evident at this point grazing in an area of prime wolf habitat is folly. Livestock will continue to fall prey to wolves. Will the State continue to kill wolves in the same area for the same producer year after year? The answer should be a resounding, “No!” We need to find effective collaborative solutions. We cannot kill our way out of the problem in the Profanity area. The name OPT, Old Profanity Territory, should make that evident. Will the next pack be the OOPT Pack? Let’s not let that be the case.
Mr. McIrvin is also quoted in the Seattle Times in July of 2017, regarding range riders stating, “We call them cattle coroners; all they can help you do is find the dead ones.” When the rancher has this outlook, why are 9 range riders considered a non-lethal deterrent on this terrain? Landscape evaluations need to be conducted in partnership with the United States Forest Service to determine the suitability of allotments for grazing, not just vegetatively, but evaluations that assess the risk of predation on grazing livestock. This can only be completed in a joint partnership between the two agencies. The time has come. Wolves are here to stay. We need to work collaboratively to mitigate risk to livestock and livelihoods. We actively participated in the CNF Land Management Plan Revision process. Following the Objectors Resolution Meeting, Reviewing Officer Allen Rowley instructed the USFS staff on the CNF to re-evaluate how they determined grazing suitability. He also ended his letter with the following statement: “I would like to acknowledge there were a number of conversations during the objection resolution meeting (i.e. wolf management, stubble height management, social/economic) that do not translate directly in Forest Plan direction or decisions. There are issues I would like to encourage continued conversation around at the local level. For example, the Forest can use the existing flexibility in adjusting livestock grazing to reduce conflicts with wolves; and share these actions with the public.”10 The Forest is being directed to be part of the solution. We strongly urge you take advantage of this situation to find a lasting solution to this problem. We recommend a change in position that removes the lethal order on the OPT Pack until evaluations on the suitability of the area for public lands grazing can be assessed. There are some areas where we should not be grazing livestock and where we should allow wildlife to thrive. If additional range is needed for relocation, we have opened conversations that may well help solve that problem.
Recently Gone From Lower 48 States, Caribou Need Protection to Return
SANDPOINT, Idaho— Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to finalize endangered species protection and designate critical habitat for Southern Mountain caribou.
“The last wild caribou in the lower 48 states have disappeared, but the Trump administration is still delaying the protection they desperately need to thrive in the United States again,” said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If we’re going to get our beloved reindeer back, they need the strong protection of the Endangered Species Act.”
The southern Selkirk herd of caribou, which formerly occupied southern British Columbia, Idaho and Washington, has been protected as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1983.
In 2014 the Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the herd is actually part of a larger population known as the Southern Mountain caribou, which includes a number of herds in Canada, and proposed protecting them as threatened.
The Service, however, never finalized protection for Southern Mountain caribou. The agency also failed to reconsider designating protected critical habitat for the caribou after the groups involved in today’s action successfully challenged a previous designation that only included a small fraction of the caribou’s former range in the United States.
Late last year Canada brought the last animals from the southern Selkirk herd into captivity, marking the loss of all caribou from the lower 48 states.
“It is a tragedy that Southern Mountain caribou have been wiped out from the lower 48,” said Jason Rylander, senior counsel at Defenders of Wildlife. “The Trump administration has the power to return Southern Mountain caribou to their original stomping grounds by securing protections for this imperiled species and its habitat. We must act now before it is too late.”
The conservation groups are represented by attorneys from the Center for Biological Diversity and Advocates for the West.
Background
Caribou once had a broad range across the lower 48, including the northern Rockies in Washington, Idaho and Montana, the upper Midwest and the Northeast.
By 1983, when they were protected under the Endangered Species Act, caribou were limited to just the northern Rockies and declining fast. In the 1990s the Fish and Wildlife Service augmented the southern Selkirk herd with caribou from Canada, which helped the population grow to more than 100 animals. But the effort was abandoned without explanation, allowing the Selkirk herd to languish and decline.
In 2011, following a petition and litigation from conservation groups, the Service proposed designating more than 375,000 acres of critical habitat for caribou in Idaho and Washington. In 2012, however, the Service finalized a designation that included only about 30,000 acres. This massive cut in critical habitat was successfully challenged by the groups, but the Service has yet to issue a new critical habitat designation.
Mountain caribou are an “ecotype” of the more widespread woodland caribou. They are uniquely adapted to life in the very snowy mountains of British Columbia and the northernmost areas of the northern Rockies in the lower 48 states.
Caribou hooves are the size of dinner plates and act like snowshoes. The animals can survive all winter eating arboreal lichens found on the branches of old-growth trees only accessible in winter. Development and roads are increasingly fragmenting their habitat.
Adding insult to injury, the increased power and popularity of snowmobiles has allowed more people to infringe on the caribou’s alpine habitat. Snowmobiles disturb the caribou while also compacting trails that provides predators access to caribou during winter.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Advocates for the West protects and defends our public lands, wildlife, watersheds and air through litigation and negotiation. www.advocateswest.org
The Lands Council has working to protect wild forests, rare wildlife, and rivers in the Inland Northwest for over 35 years. www.landscouncil.org
Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. For more information, visit Newsroom.Defenders.org and follow us on Twitter@DefendersNews.
