Latest News

The Council of Western State Foresters (CWSF) and the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC) assist with multiple forestry-related grant programs in the Western region. The Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), Community Wildfire Defense Grants (CWDG), and Landscape Scale Restoration (LSR) are three main grant opportunities that CWSF/WFLC staff help program managers and applicants learn about program updates and apply for the grant programs.

The Sandstone Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) Fuels and Forest Health Project is located on the Medicine Bow – Routt National Forest in southeast Wyoming. The project resides on the western slope of the Sierra Madre Range in one of the headwaters of the Colorado River.

A Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) agreement between the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection and the Tongass National Forest is intended to help conduct timber sales on remote Alaskan islands.

The North Prong Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) Projects are located on the High Desert Bureau of Land Management (BLM) District in southeast Wyoming.

The July 2024 Wellington Fire, near Breckenridge, Colorado, was quickly contained thanks to prior Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) fuel reduction efforts by the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) in partnership with the White River National Forest, Summit County Open Space, and Town of Breckenridge, highlighting the importance of such mitigation work in preventing wildfire spread.

The North Dakota Forest Service (NDFS) and the Dakota Prairie Grassland (DPG) Woodlands & Grasslands Sustainability Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) Agreement provides a framework for the cooperative effort to perform forest, rangeland, and watershed restoration services on and off National Forest System (NFS) lands. The agreement covers the entirety of the DPG, and the first project underway is fuels reduction within the 7000-acre ponderosa pine stand located on mixed ownership in Slope County.

This month, we are pleased to feature Valerie Hipkins, Station Director for the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest Research Stations.

WFLC connected with Thérèse d’Auria Ryley from Coalitions and Collaboratives Inc. to answer commonly asked questions about the Community Navigators Initiative. This blog post is intended to help answer these questions and share resources of interest.

The transition of the CWSF Executive Committee and WFLC Executive Board occurred in late September following the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) Annual Meeting.

In August, the Wyoming State Forestry Division, USDA Forest Service, and partners gathered together to celebrate the closing of the Munger Mountain Phase III (MM3), also known as Chimney Draw, conservation easement.

A Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) Master Agreement was signed between California Natural Resources Agency and the Forest Service Region 5 in January 2016.

This month, we are pleased to feature Chad VanOrmer, Regional Forester for the USDA Forest Service Alaska Region.

Nearly 120 attendees gathered in Kalispell, MT, June 11-13, for the 2024 Forest Legacy Program (FLP) Summit. The 2024 FLP Summit was hosted by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, with invaluable support from a planning team composed of representatives from state and federal agencies.