NOVEMBER 2014
Forest Service Exceeds Goals (Continued)
In Fiscal Year 2014, the Forest Service met or exceeded its restoration goals. Projects lessened the threat to communities by reducing hazardous fuels on 1.7 million acres in the wildland urban interface, sustained or restored watershed conditions on 2.9 million acres and resulted in 2.8 billion board feet of timber volume sold. The agency met its goals in a year where it lost staff time due to the government shutdown and when it continued to confront rising costs of fire-fighting that drain resources from forest restoration and management activities.
Chief Tidwell said that for Fiscal Year 2015 the Forest Service is positioned to accelerate efforts to restore forest health and reduce wildland fire threats to communities. Current bipartisan legislation supports the Obama Administration’s call for a change in how wildfire suppression is funded and that would free up more funding to implement projects to improve the resiliency of forests and rangelands. The agency’s 2015 budget request to Congress included more funding for key programs to allow the Forest Service to increase acres treated and timber harvests to 3.1 billion board feet. This adjustment will allow the Forest Service to continue to reduce wildland fire threats to communities while shrinking the agency's total budget request for 2015.
WPA Membership Drive Competition
This is the time of year when the
competiton for the membership drive
really starts to heat up. Just to make
things a little more interesting, the
winner of last year’s contest and
membership committee chairman,
Tyrone Konecny, put all of his winnings
back in the pot for this year.
A regular influx of new members helps maintain the strength of the WPA, as well as to build on our reputation of being "the friendliest Association in pallets."
New members can join and pay on the website. Here is the link:: www.westernpallet.org