WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2024 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today unveiled a new program to support American wood processing facilities. USDA Rural Development is partnering with USDA Forest Service to provide funding through the new Timber Production Expansion Guaranteed Loan Program (TPEP). The program will support the processing and utilization of wood products from National Forest System lands to improve forest health and reduce the risk posed by wildfires, insects, and disease and the detrimental impacts they have on communities and critical infrastructure.

Conservationists are teaming up with the U.S. Forest Service and logging companies to clear scorched land and make room for new reforestation projects.

A year after a forest wildfire, the U.S. Forest Service assesses the damage but research shows that's not enough time to map restoration.

Instead of focusing on disagreements, Moore urged stakeholders in federal forest management to focus on a common culprit: Wildfires that threaten their environmental and economic value. “Unless we address the overcrowding we have out there, we are not going to be able to address health and resiliency,” he said.

With cooler temperatures and more moisture in the air, preparations for next year’s wildfires have begun, and this means planned fires. Both the Roslyn fire department and the Colville National Forest began pile burns last week.

Seed the North will collect seeds and use drone technology to drop them over areas disturbed by both natural disaster and industry.

Private forestland owners in Oregon’s Wasco County are encouraged to reduce the risk of wildfire and improve their forest health with help from the NRCS. The restoration effort, called the Central Wasco County All-Lands Project, is funded by the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Initiative, a partnership between NRCS and the Forest Service. The overall goal is to reduce the risk of wildfires on both public and private lands.