A new report from the U.S. Forest Service and the Nature Conservancy reiterates the ways in which management policies are failing our forests. Equally important, it reiterates ways in which management policies are failing taxpayers.
According to the study, more than 9 million acres of forestland in Washington and Oregon are in need of selective logging and burning — actions that would make the remaining trees more resistant to wildfire, disease and drought. Examining forests in Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and Southwest Oregon across federal, state, tribal and private ownerships, the study found that about 40 percent of those forests are experiencing conditions outside of their normal historical range. The most common problem was identified as overstocked stands of trees, with areas too densely packed by small trees.
“There’s a huge interest in the health of our forests today,” Ryan Haugo, The Nature Conservancy’s senior forest ecologist and lead author of the report, told The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review. “People want to protect those values that we depend on forests for — clean water, fish and wildlife, recreation and timber.”
The health and the status of forests is crucial to the health of the environment throughout the Northwest. Forests long have helped define the quality of life in Washington and Oregon, providing a profound impact for many economical and recreational aspects of the area. The recent study is not the first time the U.S. Forest Service and the Nature Conservancy have questioned the effectiveness of forest management policies. Last spring, one study concluded that, “investing in proactive forest management activities can save up to three times the cost of future fires, reduce high-severity fire by up to 75 percent, and bring added benefits for people, water and wildlife.”