The Sept. 16 story reported “Group seeks forest changes: Saving Skamania County seeks more sustainable and predictable timber harvests.” Having battered about the backcountry of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for more than 20 years, mostly as a Search and Rescue volunteer, I have watched the condition of this treasure deteriorate to catastrophic levels through poor management. Heartbreaking stretches of densely overcrowded timber and standing bug-killed dead; conditions where wildfires are simply unstoppable (last year’s Carlton Complex fires were burning an astonishing 3.8 acres per second).
I have seen neither elk nor spotted owls in those overcrowded stands on mismanaged lands.
I do know that none working with Saving Skamania County advocates mowing the forest primeval, but they know the well-intentioned have “loved” this treasured forest into a crisis requiring immediate action.
About a third (37 percent) is forever protected in wilderness/monument areas. Another third (26 percent) is late-successional reserves, subject to limited management activities. The final third (37 percent) are matrix lands (plantations), and are in the worst condition. Thinning 2 percent of that one-third per year would begin the return to forest health and support Skamania County with a reasonable, reliable source of income for local government and schools. We must be better stewards of these treasured lands.
