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☆ Wildfire smoke hits New York again: 'We are truly the first generation to feel the real effects of climate change,' Gov. Hochul says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A screenshot of a map from AirNow.Gov shows air quality and smoke plumes on June 28, 2023, at 11:30 a.m. The AirNow Fire and Smoke map is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Forest Service. Kathy Hochul tweeted Wednesday afternoon that air quality health advisories were in effect for the state. City administrators will be working to alert residents of the hazardous air conditions on public transit and via cell phone alert systems. But Hochul advised residents to look up their zip codes on AirNow.gov for localized air quality readings.

Persons: Kathy Hochul, Hochul Organizations: U.S . Environmental Protection Agency, U.S . Forest Service, New York Gov, Western Locations: Canada, New York, U.S . Forest Service ., York, Western New York, Central New York, Eastern Lake Ontario

Prescribed burns aren’t always welcomed by communities, however. They generate smoke and sometimes spread out of control. In New Mexico last year, a prescribed fire by the Forest Service blew into a 340,000-acre inferno that destroyed hundreds of homes and became the largest in state history. It prompted Forest Service Chief Randy Moore to suspend all the agency’s planned burns for 90 days. Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal/Zuma

Persons: aren’t, Randy Moore, Eddie Moore, Zuma Organizations: Forest Service Locations: New Mexico, Albuquerque

☆ Opinion | I Pledged $1 Million to Plant New Trees. I Wish I Could Invest the Money in Saving Old Ones.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Roger Worthington | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Most of that money went to reforestation projects on national forest land carried out by a nonprofit I began. The agency manages its lands for multiple uses, including timber harvesting, and has allowed the cutting of carbon-rich, old-growth forests whose destruction contributes to global warming. But overcome, I suppose, by pie-in-the-sky do-gooderism, I pledged the money anyway. Over the next few years, over 650,000 trees were planted. Today, with a balance of over $250,000 remaining, we’re on track to exceed the target of one million trees.

Organizations: U.S . Forest Service, Forest Service

☆ Fact Check-Clips show fire-fighting helicopters, not Canadian wildfires being intentionally started
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Footage of helicopters using flame-throwing torches to light fires has been misrepresented online, with social media posts claiming the clips show that the 2023 Canadian wildfires are being lit deliberately. This clip shows footage published on June 2, 2023 by the British Columbia (BC) Fire System (youtu.be/tTKSmdrfzqU?t=9), (youtu.be/tTKSmdrfzqU?t=15). According to the description of the video, it depicts a planned ignition on the Donnie Creek wildfire with a Heli-torch. There is also no evidence that aerial ignition caused the Canada wildfires, contrary to what these social media posts say. Footage shows planned fires ignited from helicopters, which are used to combat wildfires not deliberately light them.

Persons: ”, Read Organizations: U.S . Forest Service, Heli, Reuters, Facebook, Yukon, Nations, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Locations: U.S, British Columbia, Canada, Quebec, Atlantic Canada

☆ Fact Check-Viral video of satellite images is not evidence that Quebec fires were orchestrated attacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Satellite images captured fires in Quebec spreading rapidly throughout June 2 and experts have attributed these fires to documented weather conditions. A YouTube video pulled out multiple hours of footage from a website showing satellite imagery of Quebec, from June 1 to the end of June 2 (here). Moreover, wildfire experts contacted by Reuters said that given the combination of various weather conditions, this fire activity witnessed on June 2 was not unexpected. It features a green marker at the bottom that speeds through multiple hours of satellite footage when pressing play. A video depicting satellite images of Quebec shows existing fires quickly growing on June 2 due to documented weather conditions.

Persons: ”, Gilbert Sebenste, SOPFEU, James Randerson, Chris Stockdale, Stockdale, Mathieu Bourbonnais, it’s, Read Organizations: ” Reuters, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Reuters, College Of DuPage, College of DuPage, Earth, UC Irvine, Natural Resources, Canadian Forest Service, Weather, University of British Locations: Quebec, Canada, TikTok, Illinois, Natural Resources Canada, University of British Columbia

☆ Canada’s Ability to Prevent Forest Fires Lags Behind the Need
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Vjosa Isai | Ian Austen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Canada’s capacity to prevent wildfires has been shrinking for decades because of budget cuts, a loss of some of the country’s forest service staff, and onerous rules for fire prevention, turning some of its forests into a tinderbox. As residents braced for what could be the worst wildfire season on record, and one that is far from over, the air slowly cleared over the Northeastern United States on Friday, but hundreds of wildfires continued to burn across Canada. Thanks to some rain and cloud cover near wildfire areas, with scattered rains expected in parts of southern Ontario on Sunday, Steven Flisfeder, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, predicted that the weekend could bring better air quality in Toronto, the country’s largest city. “That’s going to help flush out the contaminants from the air a little bit,” he said. More than 1,100 firefighters from around the world have been dispatched across Canada to help combat the country’s raging fire season, officials said, including groups from France, Chile, Costa Rica, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Persons: Steven Flisfeder, “ That’s Organizations: Northeastern Locations: Northeastern United States, Canada, Ontario, Toronto, France, Chile, Costa Rica, United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa

☆ Nova Scotia: Why are wildfires raging in Canada's eastern province?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Nia Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Smoke rises from a wildfire in Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 28, 2023 in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. HOW UNUSUAL ARE WILDFIRES IN NOVA SCOTIA? Atlantic Canada received low snowfall this winter, followed by an exceptionally dry spring. Weather forecasts show a period of cooler, wetter air is moving into Atlantic Canada on Friday, providing much-needed relief. The Weather Network's longer-term forecast expects Nova Scotia temperatures to be slightly warmer than normal for the rest of the summer.

Persons: Bill Blair, Michael Carter, Ellen Whitman, Whitman, Nia Williams, Michael Perry Organizations: REUTERS, Public Safety, Atlantic Canada, Halifax, Weather Network, Canadian Forest Service, Atlantic, Thomson Locations: Hammonds Plains , Nova Scotia, Canada, Nova Scotia, Nova, Acadian, Nova Scotia's, Halifax, Hurricane, Atlantic Canada, North America

☆ Explainer: Why are wildfires raging in Canada's eastern Nova Scotia province?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Nia Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

☆ In New Mexico, an unlikely wildfire thinning alliance
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Andrew Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Near Taos in northern New Mexico, Vicente Fernandez, a mayordomo, or forest caretaker, cut saplings and seedlings crowding a mature fir tree. In an about-face, the Forest Service is now paying local woodcutters or leñeros $300 an acre to cut these trees for personal use or sale. Some environmentalists oppose Taos County's so called Mayordomo Program, and other thinning, saying it is a waste of time, harms forests and is often a guise for logging. "The Forest Service believes in helping communities to wisely use the forests," the agency said in a statement. "We cannot fireproof forests, we can fireproof communities," said Horning, who has lived in northern New Mexico for 30 years.

☆ Biden administration grants Mountain Valley Pipeline permit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 16 (Reuters) - The Biden administration has approved a permit to allow the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline to run through the Jefferson National Forest straddling Virginia and West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin said on Tuesday. Manchin, a conservative Democrat of West Virgina, has introduced a bill to speed fossil fuel and renewable energy projects that calls on the administration to approve Equitrans Midstream Corp's (ETRN.N) $6.6 billion Mountain Valley pipeline. The Biden administration has supported Manchin's bill as it would help renewable energy companies reap the benefit of billions of dollars of tax credits contained in last year's Inflation Reduction Act. The Mountain Valley Pipeline has been opposed by environmental activists, but won the backing of Biden administration officials, including Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. The Forest Service is part of USDA.

☆ New Mexico rivers rage, fields dry after slow federal fire aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Andrew Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

REUTERS/Andrew HayACEQUIA DE LA SIERRA, New Mexico, May 2 (Reuters) - Rivers are roaring in northern New Mexico after a big snowpack. The problem is blocking water flowing from a 12,000-foot (3,660-meter) Sangre de Cristo mountain peak into the Mora Valley through earthen channels known as acequias. Sanchez, a mayordomo or water caretaker, had hoped to have Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding to clear the ditches after the agency was given $3.95 billion to compensate communities for the 40-mile-long blaze. FEMA and other federal support has reached only a handful of the dozens of acequias that requested aid in November, said local irrigation leader Paula Garcia. "I don't think they're up to the job," said Roybal-Mack, a Mora Valley native.

☆ California's fire season under way weeks after heavy rain and snow
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Reuters) - Barely five weeks after the last bout of heavy rain and snow in California's historically wet winter, firefighters on Friday battled the state's first large wildfire of the year in rugged foothills east of Los Angeles. The blaze posed no immediate threat to populated areas as it burned steep terrain deep in the forest, agency spokesperson Lyn Sieliet said. Still, it marked the first blaze of the 2023 season measuring 100 acres or more, signaling the potential for extreme wildfire activity this summer and fall. Forecasters said a warming trend hastened a spring thaw following a spate of Pacific storms that pummeled California with torrential rains and mountain snow from late December until late March. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Take a look inside the largest house in the US — a Vanderbilt's 130-year-old private mansion with 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Libertina Brandt | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

According to the property's website, the Biltmore House was built in the late 1800s by George Vanderbilt and features 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. George Vanderbilt, a prominent businessman from the late 19th and early 20th century, began constructing the Biltmore House in 1889. Vanderbilt opened the Biltmore House in 1895. The Biltmore Estate, which now spans a total of 8,000 acres, is covered with gardens designed by American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The main house, America's largest, includes 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.

[1/3] Apache Stronghold, a Native American group hoping to protect their sacred land from a Cooper mine in Arizona, gather outside the 9th Circuit Appeal Court in Pasadena, California,U.S., March 21, 2023. REUTERS/Mike BlakeMarch 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Forest Service plans to re-publish an environmental report before July that will set in motion a land swap between the U.S. government and Rio Tinto (RIO.L)(RIO.AX), allowing the mining giant to develop the controversial Resolution Copper project in Arizona. Joan Pepin, an attorney for the Forest Service, told an en banc hearing of the 9th U.S. It doesn't settle any rights to land and it doesn't create any land rights," Pepin told the court. The Apache Stronghold held a ceremony outside the Pasadena, California, courthouse on Tuesday to protest Rio's plans for the copper mine.

☆ Mapping California’s ‘Zombie’ Forests
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Elena Shao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

NEVADA Sacramento Stable conifer forests San Francisco Mismatch Less than five percent of conifer forests historically occurred in current climate. Sacramento Stable conifer forests Mismatch San Francisco Less than five percent of conifer forests historically occurred in current climate. San Jose Fresno CALIFORNIA Pacific Ocean NEVADA Bakersfield Area of detail CALIF. 50 MILES Reno NEVADA Sacramento Severe mismatch Stable conifer forests Less than one percent of conifer forests historically occurred in current climate. Note: The data looks at changes in conifer forests across the Sierra Nevada between the 1930s and the 2010s. They found that during that time period, the Sierra Nevada’s conifer forests had, on average, shifted about 112 feet higher in elevation.

☆ Are Butterflies Wildlife? Depends Where You Live.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

The creatures are simply left out of state conservation statues, or their situation is ambiguous. “State agencies are really at the forefront of conservation for wildlife,” said Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society, a nonprofit group that advocates for insect conservation. Sometimes, aquatic insects come under the purview of state wildlife agencies. But across the states without insect authority, officials are often reluctant to broach adding it, Mr. Winton said. Seven of the states without insect conservation authority are in the West, which has felt the effects of climate change intensely.

☆ Meet the GOP leaders in charge of critical House environmental committees
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Westerman, a representative for Arkansas's fourth congressional district, has a background in engineering and is a licensed forester. He's also introduced legislation to plant 1 trillion trees globally by 2050 in order to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of House Committee on Energy and CommerceRep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) during a House Energy and Commerce Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on April 2, 2019 in Washington, DC. "We'll be focusing on promoting innovative technologies to facilitate our clean energy transition," Lucas told CNBC. Lucas said the committee would also conduct "robust oversight" of the spending being distributed to advance the country's clean energy sector.

☆ A mailman, a NASA scientist and a park ranger: Some government employees shrug off TikTok bans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Jean-Pierre, who’s from Morristown, New Jersey, has attracted 215,500 followers on the video app where most days he posts from his mail truck during his lunch break. As of last month, all federal workers are banned from having TikTok on their work phones. In some places, using a personal device isn’t enough to get around TikTok restrictions. There’s no telling precisely how many federal workers use TikTok, but certain hashtags show the breadth of its popularity. The public relations staff at some federal agencies said they had no plans to interfere with what federal workers did on their own.

☆ I film skiers doing tricks. Here's how I taught myself to shoot and landed gigs that let me travel the world.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Stasia Stockwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Gavin Rudy films professional skiers performing tricks. I primarily make ski films — action-sports movies that feature professional skiers doing tricks on mountains and in urban settings. I also liked making videos as a hobby, so I put the two together and started filming my friends doing ski tricks. Even though camera technology has come a long way since I started, I'm not always inspired by the newest technology. Gavin RudyI usually take on jobs filming professional skiers for wider brand projects.

A second hiker has disappeared on California’s Mount Baldy, the same mountain where actor Julian Sands vanished on Jan. 13, officials said Monday. Jin Chung, 75, failed to return from a hike and meet two others as planned Sunday, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Helicopters and drones with infrared devices were used to try to find Sands over the weekend; high winds prevented aircraft from being used Monday, the sheriff’s department said. He was supposed to return and meet them at 2 p.m., the sheriff’s department said. His family, in a statement released by the sheriff's department, thanked the searchers who are looking for him.

These projects add to $440 million in wildfire mitigation efforts that launched last year using funds from Biden's $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law. Together, these resources will help protect up to 45 million acres in the western U.S., said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. This includes 134 high-risk areas of land where a wildfire could pose a serious risk to communities and infrastructure. The USDA’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy, published in January 2022, identified 250 of these high-risk “firesheds” across the western states. The USDA’s work will focus on 11 landscapes, areas that were selected based on wildfire risks to nearby communities and buildings.

Doug Ducey has agreed to dismantle a makeshift border wall that triggered a lawsuit by the federal government and rankled environmentalists. The agreement comes one week after federal officials filed a lawsuit against Ducey’s administration saying the border project was illegally built on federal land. Protesters spent weeks camping in freezing temperatures along the border wall, and had vowed to stay there until the containers were removed. Karamargin said the assurance from federal officials paved the way for Ducey to agree to remove the shipping containers. The shipping container project cost Arizona at least $82 million, Karamargin said.

☆ Photos show the hundreds of shipping containers stacked to form a haphazard 'border wall' between Arizona and Mexico that sparked a federal feud
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Doug Ducey's makeshift border wall has sparked a federal feud. The miles-long wall consists of empty shipping containers lined up along the southern border of the US. The wall of containers runs through federal land and conservation areas and is expected to cost nearly $100 million. Federal officials with the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Reclamation demanded in October that Ducey stop building the impromptu wall. Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, the government sued Ducey and the state on Wednesday for placing the wall on federal land.

After a two-week standoff between protesters and construction crews building a border wall made of shipping containers, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Arizona, accusing it of trespassing on federal land. "Arizona has unlawfully and without authority failed to remove the shipping containers from lands owned by the United States or over which the United States holds easements, thereby damaging the United States," the complaint reads. In August, Ducey issued an executive order directing the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to fill gaps in the existing border wall in Yuma County using shipping containers. Important waterways are being damaged or altered by the placement of shipping containers on land that serves as important habitats and crossings, including for endangered species, he said. "Under the Clean Water Act, they have created a dam with those shipping containers and it just looks like a junkyard now."

☆ DOJ sues Arizona for placing shipping containers at the border
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Taylor Romine | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The federal government is suing Arizona for placing shipping containers at the border as a temporary wall, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Doug Ducey, a Republican, issued an executive order telling the state’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to use shipping containers to fill in gaps along the border, and did so without official permits or authorization, CNN previously reported. The federal government has been battling with the state ever since to get the containers removed, according to the lawsuit. “Not only has Arizona refused to halt its trespasses and remove the shipping containers from federal lands, but it has indicated that it will continue to trespass on federal lands and install additional shipping containers,” the lawsuit states. “Arizona stands ready to cooperate with the federal government on construction of a border wall and always has been,” the letter from Ducey’s office said.

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