Politics, Fires and Trails

[hikryrdg <hikryrdg@evansville.net>]

>>
>>Fire or chain saw cleanups inevitable
>>Source: The Spokesman Review
>>Publication date: 2000-08-17
>>
>>Late-summer fires and smoke were a part of our
>>region's ecosystem long before white settlers arrived
>>and started plowing the grasslands and chopping down
>>the forests to build their cities.
>>Modern nature lovers who gripe about smoke as if a
>>pristine world would spare them from breathing the
>>stuff need perspective - and need to be careful what
>>they ask for. By demanding freedom from smoke, they
>>might make smoke more likely.
>>
>>Fire is nature's way to clear underbrush, insects and
>>disease from forests - and, by the way, from
>>grasslands as well.
>>
>>The fires that now rage across the Inland Northwest's
>>national forests are, primarily, the result of an
>>unusually dry summer. In that respect, they are
>>similar to fires that cleared and renewed our region's
>>forests for thousands of years. It ought to be noted
>>that some of this summer's fires are in wilderness
>>areas where logging has never been allowed. Surely, we
>>all recall the 1994 fires that swept through
>>Yellowstone National Park, likewise shielded from
>>logging.
>>
>>But it also is a fact - documented by forestry
>>research following the 1994 fire season - that the
>>past century's forest management practices have made
>>modern conflagrations worse.
>>
>>After logging operations, some forests have been
>>densely replanted with species that aren't as
>>resistant to healthy, brush-clearing fires as were the
>>native trees such as white pine.
>>
>>Protests rooted in ideology, not forestry, have
>>attacked attempts to spray tree-killing insects or log
>>trees that are infested, diseased and dying.
>>
>>When forest fire crews extinguish a blaze, they plant
>>the seeds for larger conflagrations. A century of fire
>>suppression has left national forests filled with
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>>brush, dead branches, small trees - tinder for
>>firestorms of unnatural intensity.
>>
>>As a result, foresters now favor prescribed burns to
>>prevent disaster. And yet, when fires do occur, what
>>happens? Out come the fire crews. This is
>>understandable, given the desire to protect cities,
>>homes, timber and Bambi. But the contradiction speaks
>>for itself.
>>
>>Foresters face a difficult choice: Let fire cleanse
>>and renew the forests while rural homes burn and skies
>>fill with smoke. Or, suppress fires and clear forests
>>with chain saws, instead.
>>
>>Loud voices oppose either choice. On federal forests,
>>where management policy is subject to political
>>interference, this leads to the worst of all worlds:
>>Fires are suppressed, insects and disease run rampant,
>>and thinning operations are opposed. The result?
>>Firestorms - worse than the wildfires that are
>>nature's norm.
>>
>>After the 1994 fires, researchers warned that national
>>forests are a tinderbox. Already, some compare this
>>fire season to 1910, when massive fires swept across
>>Idaho and Montana. But forest conditions in 1910 had
>>not been altered by a century in which managers erred
>>and politics made the errors worse. Pray for rain.
>>And, for common sense.
>>
>>Publication date: 2000-08-17
>>
>>
>>
>>Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 19:43:03 -0700 (PDT)
>>Subject: Environmental Politics Have Been a Disaster for Our National
>>Forests; Guest Editorial 8/21 Salt Lake Tribune
>>
>>Environmental Politics Have Been a Disaster for Our
>>National Forests
>> Monday, August 21, 2000
>>
>>
>>BY ANNE M. HAYES
>>
>>
>>    Back on March 15, President Clinton traveled to
>>California's Sequoia National Forest to declare
>>328,000 acres as a national monument and cast himself
>>as the "savior" of these noble forests.
>>    But the truth about the state of our national
>>forests is another story, and unfortunately it is
>>being told in a very graphic and destructive fashion
>>as the latest summer heat wave is sending major
>>wildfires in 10 Western states out of control.
>>    The Sequoia National Forest, for example, was
>>never in jeopardy -- until now. In all of 1997, the
>>last year for which the Forest Service has tallied its
>>records, timber was cut on only a total of 1300 acres
>>in the entire forest. But already this summer, over
>>63,000 acres of the Sequoia National Forest have gone
>>up in smoke. In fact, the government's poor record of
>>federal land management in the name of "saving" these
>>forests from the chain saw may ultimately be
>>responsible for destroying all of them.
>>    Years of federal mismanagement to appease
>>environmental interests -- mainly,
>>   refusing to cut or clear any trees at all -- have
>>left the national forests in a state where overcrowded
>>and dead and dying trees have created a disastrous and
>>precarious situation. Trees and debris have created
>>fuel ladders that threaten even healthy trees; that
>>is, an older, healthy forest can withstand and survive
>>a fire if the fire merely clears low-lying brush and
>>grasses but leaves the crowns of larger trees intact.
>>    But the same is not true when dead and dying trees
>>are not cleared. Fires that would normally stay close
>
>>to the ground can "climb" up these trees and reach the
>>crowns of healthy trees, consuming them. Second, fires
>>that burn too hot can leave land barren by destroying
>>the organic materials necessary for forest
>>regeneration. Finally, when the fuel load is too high,
>>fires are hard or impossible to control -- just ask
>>the land managers in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
>>    These fires don't just "burn out." They rage so
>>hot and so large that they can "leap" across vast
>>expanses of land and burn whole landscapes.
>>    For all the direct costs of such fires -- lost
>>forests, evacuated communities, lost houses -- there
>>is a tremendous cost on our environment. Burning trees
>>release tremendous amounts of toxins and particulate
>>matter into the air, and the smoke and ash can travel
>>for many miles, affecting the air quality of
>>communities hundreds of miles away.
>>    The fires destroy habitat for wildlife, including
>>the habitats of threatened and endangered species such
>>as spotted owls and salmon. Forest fires can create
>>unstable soil conditions, leading to mudslides and
>>other sediment runoff that affect our streams and
>>rivers, and, ultimately, the coast. In other words:
>>unhealthy forests are bad environmental policy. And
>>the Western States are suffering the brunt of this
>>damage.
>>    The Western states contain 70 percent of this
>>nation's national forests. Just last year, 735,000
>>acres of California forest land went up in smoke. And
>>the numbers are mounting again this year. So what has
>>this administration done about this pressing
>>environmental problem? Worse than nothing. It has
>>implemented a "hands off" policy.
>>    According to the General Accounting Office, some
>>39 million acres in the Western states have been at
>>risk of catastrophic wildfire. And despite the fact
>>that the Forest Service has been aware of this problem
>>for years, the GAO concluded: "To date, we have not
>>seen the strong leadership or the marshalling of funds
>>and resources within the agency that would indicate to
>>us that the Forest Service feels a sense of urgency
>>and assigns a high priority to reducing the threat of
>>catastrophic wildfire."
>>    In short, the topic is not getting serious
>>attention because restoring forest health -- through
>>selective thinning and other active management
>>techniques -- does not conform to the environmental
>>extremist agenda of "preserving" every single tree.
>>    Make no mistake -- the effects of these policies
>>on our forests will last for decades.
>>    Land and lives will continue to be damaged unless
>>the federal government starts to manage our national
>>forests based on science and sense, not sound bites
>>and photo-ops. True conservation and environmental
>>politics are two different things. We cannot afford to
>>confuse them any longer, or our real environment --
>>the one real people actually live in -- will pay the
>>price.
>>    _________
>>
>>   Anne M. Hayes is an attorney with the Pacific Legal
>>Foundation, a public interest law firm with
>>headquarters in Sacramento, Calif. She can be reached
>>at amh@pacificlegal.org Website:
<http://www.pacificlegal.org/>www.pacificlegal.org
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