<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

In Our View: Failing Our Forests

Current policies are inadequate; Congress must heed recommendations

The Columbian
Published:

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.”

That was before the Carlton Complex of fires in northern Washington burned 250,000 acres this summer, surpassing the 1902 Yacolt Burn as the largest wildfire in state history. The Carlton fires burned about 300 structures and brought about renewed calls for changes in how the federal government pays for fighting wildfires. For years, federal agencies have been forced to dip into fire-prevention funds to battle wildfires — creating a situation in which fewer fire-prevention measures lead to more intense fires, which further deplete the fire-prevention funds. That, combined with warmer temperatures and drier forests, has led to more frequent and more damaging fires. According to the New York Times, between 1991 and 1999, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior spent an average of $1.4 billion a year putting out fires; from 2002 to 2012, the cost had grown to $3.5 billion annually.

That is just one example of how wise forest management can be economically prudent, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, long has led the drumbeat in Congress for more effective forest management. In August, he again introduced a bill that would increase logging in Western Oregon’s federal forests — an action that would seem to be supported by the latest report regarding the health of the forests. Meanwhile, Washington’s Democratic senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, have pushed for increased funding for both firefighting and fire prevention on forestland.

Congress should heed suggestions for improving fire prevention and long-term management of the nation’s forests. Increasing funding now is an investment that will pay dividends with savings down the road.

Loading...