POLICY STORIES
THE FOREST SERVICE IS USING THE THREAT OF WILDFIRES TO MEET TIMBER TARGETS
The agency has sought to minimize environmental oversight and used authorities critics say incentivize the logging of older trees
Columbia Insight
February 6, 2025
DIVIDE AND CONQUER: TRUMP’S PLAN TO STOP LOGGERS AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS FROM TALKING
Administration seeks to eliminate forest collaborative programs intended to ease tensions between conservationists, timber industry, USFS
Columbia Insight
August 7, 2025
A FUEL BREAK PROJECT NEAR MOUNT HOOD COULD REMOVE OLD-GROWTH, CRITICS SAY
Lack of hi-res data is at the core of a challenge to a logging project conservationists say could cause unnecessary damage
Columbia Insight
February 13, 2025
EXCLUSIVE: SKAMANIA COUNTY COMMISSIONER WANTS MILE-WIDE FUEL BREAKS IN GIFFORD PINCHOT
The plan to widen cuts along roads in the national forest would redirect federal timber revenue to county coffers
Columbia Insight
May 4, 2026
“LEGACY” FORESTS. “RESTORATION” LOGGING. THE NEW JARGON OF CONSERVATION IS AWASH IN AMBIGUITY. AND POLITICS.
Among enviros, government agencies and logging interests, a war of words is raging over the future of our forests
Columbia Insight
October 10th, 2024
CATCHING FIRE: The Karuk indigenous tradition of burning forests is culturally and ecologically vital—and the Forest Service is starting to see the wisdom.
YES! Magazine
Spring 2017
SCIENCE STORIES
HOW HOT IS TOO HOT?
Faced with widespread tree die-offs, scientists are racing to determine the upper thermal limit of the world’s trees.
Earth Island Journal
Spring 2024
CLIMATE CHANGE IS KILLING THIS PNW TREE. IN EUROPE THEY WANT TO PLANT IT
Western redcedars are declining at home, but they’re climate change winners in Central Europe’s changing climate
Columbia Insight
January 15, 2026
EVEN TREES NEED FRIENDS
A study finds trees’ ability to migrate as the climate warms could depend on beneficial fungi
Sierra Magazine
March 3, 2025
WHAT IS BLUE CARBON AND WHY IS IT SO VALUABLE?
The Pacific Northwest’s once-prevalent tidal forests are mostly gone. But what remains stores an important secret
Columbia Insight
November 7, 2024
PACIFIC NORTHWEST LICHENS ARE GOING MISSING. SCIENTISTS WANT TO KNOW WHY
As the state of Washington updates its list of rare lichens, experts suspect a variety of factors are to blame for missing species
Columbia Insight
August 1, 2024
HOTTER TEMPERATURES ARE CAUSING TREES TO HAVE HEAT STROKES
How climate-change-driven drying of the air is leading to tree deaths the world over
Sierra Magazine
July 29, 2024
CAN REDWOODS AND SEQUOIAS PRODUCE OFFSPRING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST?
If not, new efforts to migrate the species to the region might need continued human management
Columbia Insight
March 21, 2024
WHAT IS ‘ASSISTED MIGRATION’ AND WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
As heat and drought continue to kill trees, humans are stepping in to help shift growing ranges. Not everyone agrees on what type of help is needed
Columbia Insight
December 28, 2023
AS TREE SPECIES FACE DECLINE, ‘ASSISTED MIGRATION’ GRAINS POPULARITY IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST
As native trees in the Pacific Northwest die off due to climate changes, the US Forest Service and others are turning to a strategy called “assisted migration.”
The Associated Press/Columbia Insight
December 28, 2023
EXTREME HEAT REPRESENTS A NEW THREAT TO TREES AND PLANTS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A growing number of scientists are investigating what they say is an overlooked threat to the world’s plants
The Associated Press/Columbia Insight
December 21, 2020
CLIMATE CHANGE IS HASTENING THE DEMISE OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST FORESTS
A drought-driven “mortality event” is the largest ever recorded in the region
The Associated Press/Columbia Insight
November 16, 2023
OAK TREES AT RISK IN COLUMBIA GORGE
Once abundant, Oregon white oak populations in the East Cascades face numerous obstacles, the legacy of fire suppression among them
Columbia Insight
July 6, 2023
DOUGLAS FIR IN ‘DECLINE SPIRAL’ IN SOUTHWESTERN OREGON
Linked to drought and insects, dieback of Oregon’s most commercially valuable forestry product likely to worsen with warmer, drier future
Columbia Insight
April 13, 2023
NEW STUDY SOUNDS ALARM,PROVIDES HOPE FOR WESTERN REDCEDARS
First peer-reviewed research links cedar death to climate, details which trees are dying, which are surviving and how the species might be saved
Columbia Insight
Feb 23, 2023
MASSIVE DIE-OFF HITS FIR TREES ACROSS PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Labeled “Firmageddon,” by researchers, the drought-driven “mortality event” is the largest ever recorded in the region
Columbia Insight
Nov 23, 2022
THE FOREST SERVICE IS EXPERIMENTING WITH RELOCATING TREE SPECIES TO SAVE THEM FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
‘Assisted migration’ has come to the Pacific Northwest, but experts don’t agree if it’s a good thing or a radical response to a warming world
Columbia Insight
Sep. 15, 2022
PAC NW’S ‘TREES OF LIFE’ ARE DYING. NOW WE KNOW WHY:
Drought and climate change are wreaking havoc on an icon of Pacific Northwest forests. How long do the western redcedars have?
Columbia Insight
Aug. 18, 2022
Nathan Gilles 