Murphy Woodhouse
Mountain West News Bureau Boise ReporterHey everyone! I’m Murphy Woodhouse, Boise State Public Radio’s Mountain West News Bureau reporter.
I grew up in Pocatello, got my undergraduate journalism degree at the University of Montana and now I’m back home in the West after a long stretch on both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border. Most recently I was at the Phoenix NPR affiliate KJZZ’s office in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, Mexico, where I reported for nearly five years.
Outside of work, I’m learning to be a good uncle and looking forward to getting to know every piece of singletrack near Boise. Trail tips? Story tips? Know a secret the public ought to hear? Drop me a line! Si prefiere hablar en español, ¡no se preocupe!
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The latest edition of the State of the Rockies poll again shows widespread support for public lands, conservation and concern about environmental issues like habitat loss and climate change.
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It made national headlines in October 2022 when Forest Service burn boss Ricky Snodgrass was arrested while overseeing a prescribed fire in rural Oregon. Now, a year and a half later, Snodgrass has been indicted on a misdemeanor reckless burning charge. The union he’s a member of is hopeful that he won’t be found guilty, but a representative says the case has still had impacts.
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Many people are aware that snowpacks - especially in the late spring - can be a key indicator for the sort of wildfire season that could be coming. Less well known is that wildfires themselves can impact snowpacks, as new research is showing. Past burns can speed melting by as much as 57 percent, and lead to snow packs disappearing up to three weeks faster.
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Recent reports from Climate Central show that winter’s coldest and warmest temperatures are on the rise, with some particularly dramatic results seen in cities in our region. But even within that broad trend, extreme cold is still very much a possibility.
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2023 was a strange fire season. It was both the slowest in the US in a quarter century, but also saw one of the deadliest blazes in the country’s history in Hawaii. Unprecedented wildfires in Canada also blanketed much of America in smoke for weeks.
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In recent years, there have been a number of wildfires that resulted in the loss of numerous structures, and in some cases many lives. A new paper argues that thinking about these incidents as “wildfires that involved houses” has a lot of counterproductive policy implications.
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While many aren’t aware of the risks, flooding is a major concern in the wake of wildfires. But because most homeowners insurance policies don’t cover flood damage, residents near recent burns can be vulnerable to major, uncovered losses.
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For now a third time, Congress has extended temporary pay increases for federal wildland firefighters with a continuing resolution. This time they go through just early March.
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A piece of legislation that seeks to improve access to public lands and address a number of other recreation issues has been unanimously voted out of a U.S. House committee. That bodes well for ultimate passage, as a similar bill has already cleared the same hurdle in the Senate.
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Prescribed fires can be an effective way to reduce the risk of severe wildfires. But they of course also give off smoke, and researchers are trying to better understand that public health tradeoff. A new paper finds that prescribed fire can reduce overall smoke exposure, but that those benefits can diminish as the level of prescribed fire increases.