BigHornRam
Well-known member
Guest Opinion
Blackfoot Clearwater plan based on shaky assumptions
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008
By GEORGE WUERTHNER
The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Proposal has gotten a lot of positive press, including most recently in a guest column in the Missoulian on Dec. 1. The plan appears to be a publicly funded gift (of trees and tax dollars) to the Pyramid Lumber Company to garner timber industry support for wilderness. To rationalize this expenditure of public resources, the plan is predicated on questionable assumptions about forest health, fire suppression and the effectiveness of thinning as a fire hazard reduction mechanism
The BCSP also proposes the designation of 87,000 acres of wilderness additions to the Bob Marshall and Mission Mountains wildernesses, and the closure and full restoration of old roads n both actions worthy of support. The 87,000 acres proposed as wilderness would be an important bull trout, grizzly, lynx, wolf and elk migration corridor, not to mention home to many other species.
Despite my misgivings about the plan, I believe those involved in the proposal are a very committed and honorable group of public servants and citizens. Nevertheless, in the rush to garner consensus, proponents may have deluded themselves into thinking the BCSP is a good thing for Montana and the public by ignoring and/or glossing over some potential problems.
BCSP proponents assert that the forests around Seeley Lake are suffering from fire exclusion, hence they are more dense than would otherwise be “natural,” and thus a fire hazard. The preferred “solution” is to have Pyramid Lumber log the forest.
Yet, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that a 50-year period of time between 1940s and 1988 (ending with Yellowstone in 1988) was a time of cooler and moister climatic conditions in the northern Rockies compared to the preceding decades, as well as the last few decades.
Cool, moist weather would have limited the spread of fires, and also contributed to higher tree seedling survival n both of which would naturally lead to denser forest stands, more residual biomass and fewer large fires. So the current condition of the forest may be completely within the expected natural range of variability given the dominant climate regime during those years.
Even if the fuel accumulations are more a natural outcome of favorable climatic conditions than fire suppression, proponents might still argue that they need to log to reduce the fire hazard. There are two problems with this line of thinking.
First, most large fires are climatic/weather driven events, not fuels driven. Extended drought, high winds, high temperatures and low humidity enable fires to burn through all fuel loadings. Many of the large Western fires in recent years were in forests that had been previously logged and/or thinned, with little apparent effect on fire spread or severity. In fact, logging can increase fire severity and spread by increasing solar radiation to forest floor and increasing penetration of wind, both of which contribute to drying fuels.
Second, there is a growing body of research that finds mechanical thinning alone (logging) is seldom effective at stopping or even reducing fire intensity under severe fire conditions.
Even if fuels reduction were the goal, it can be accomplished without the environmental impacts that come with logging. The National Park Service does a superb job of fuels management n without logging n throughout the West.
And if community protection of Seeley Lake is the ultimate goal, than reduction in the flammability of homes themselves by mandatory metal roofs, keeping gutters free of debris and other strategies have proven far more effective at reducing structure losses than thinning projects.
One of the biggest problems in the plan is that it fails to consider the cumulative impacts associated with logging. Logging is never benign.
Logging roads and skid trails are vectors for the spread of weeds. Logging roads cut slopes, severing down slope water flow, and capturing water on roadbeds, which then runs off with greater volume and erosive power. Logging roads are a major cause of sedimentation in streams. Logging equipment compacts soil, decreasing water infiltration and reducing soil productivity by eliminating space for soil microbes from bacteria to nematodes. Logging alters stand structure, age, species composition and removes biomass important for future productivity of the forest.
One of the ways proponents make the plan work financially is by advocating a big taxpayer’s subsidy of $12 million that includes a direct payment to Pyramid Lumber to facilitate its purchase of a biomass burner. Even with such a subsidy, with timber prices at record lows, it’s questionable whether this proposal can really fly without even more public subsidy.
The bottom line is that we don’t need to log to designate wilderness, reduce fuels, reduce flammability of the community and/or do forest restoration. We can accomplish all these goals without suffering the negative impacts of logging and still create jobs.
George Wuerthner is an ecologist, wilderness advocate, author and photographer with 34 published books including “Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy.”
Blackfoot Clearwater plan based on shaky assumptions
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008
By GEORGE WUERTHNER
The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Proposal has gotten a lot of positive press, including most recently in a guest column in the Missoulian on Dec. 1. The plan appears to be a publicly funded gift (of trees and tax dollars) to the Pyramid Lumber Company to garner timber industry support for wilderness. To rationalize this expenditure of public resources, the plan is predicated on questionable assumptions about forest health, fire suppression and the effectiveness of thinning as a fire hazard reduction mechanism
The BCSP also proposes the designation of 87,000 acres of wilderness additions to the Bob Marshall and Mission Mountains wildernesses, and the closure and full restoration of old roads n both actions worthy of support. The 87,000 acres proposed as wilderness would be an important bull trout, grizzly, lynx, wolf and elk migration corridor, not to mention home to many other species.
Despite my misgivings about the plan, I believe those involved in the proposal are a very committed and honorable group of public servants and citizens. Nevertheless, in the rush to garner consensus, proponents may have deluded themselves into thinking the BCSP is a good thing for Montana and the public by ignoring and/or glossing over some potential problems.
BCSP proponents assert that the forests around Seeley Lake are suffering from fire exclusion, hence they are more dense than would otherwise be “natural,” and thus a fire hazard. The preferred “solution” is to have Pyramid Lumber log the forest.
Yet, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that a 50-year period of time between 1940s and 1988 (ending with Yellowstone in 1988) was a time of cooler and moister climatic conditions in the northern Rockies compared to the preceding decades, as well as the last few decades.
Cool, moist weather would have limited the spread of fires, and also contributed to higher tree seedling survival n both of which would naturally lead to denser forest stands, more residual biomass and fewer large fires. So the current condition of the forest may be completely within the expected natural range of variability given the dominant climate regime during those years.
Even if the fuel accumulations are more a natural outcome of favorable climatic conditions than fire suppression, proponents might still argue that they need to log to reduce the fire hazard. There are two problems with this line of thinking.
First, most large fires are climatic/weather driven events, not fuels driven. Extended drought, high winds, high temperatures and low humidity enable fires to burn through all fuel loadings. Many of the large Western fires in recent years were in forests that had been previously logged and/or thinned, with little apparent effect on fire spread or severity. In fact, logging can increase fire severity and spread by increasing solar radiation to forest floor and increasing penetration of wind, both of which contribute to drying fuels.
Second, there is a growing body of research that finds mechanical thinning alone (logging) is seldom effective at stopping or even reducing fire intensity under severe fire conditions.
Even if fuels reduction were the goal, it can be accomplished without the environmental impacts that come with logging. The National Park Service does a superb job of fuels management n without logging n throughout the West.
And if community protection of Seeley Lake is the ultimate goal, than reduction in the flammability of homes themselves by mandatory metal roofs, keeping gutters free of debris and other strategies have proven far more effective at reducing structure losses than thinning projects.
One of the biggest problems in the plan is that it fails to consider the cumulative impacts associated with logging. Logging is never benign.
Logging roads and skid trails are vectors for the spread of weeds. Logging roads cut slopes, severing down slope water flow, and capturing water on roadbeds, which then runs off with greater volume and erosive power. Logging roads are a major cause of sedimentation in streams. Logging equipment compacts soil, decreasing water infiltration and reducing soil productivity by eliminating space for soil microbes from bacteria to nematodes. Logging alters stand structure, age, species composition and removes biomass important for future productivity of the forest.
One of the ways proponents make the plan work financially is by advocating a big taxpayer’s subsidy of $12 million that includes a direct payment to Pyramid Lumber to facilitate its purchase of a biomass burner. Even with such a subsidy, with timber prices at record lows, it’s questionable whether this proposal can really fly without even more public subsidy.
The bottom line is that we don’t need to log to designate wilderness, reduce fuels, reduce flammability of the community and/or do forest restoration. We can accomplish all these goals without suffering the negative impacts of logging and still create jobs.
George Wuerthner is an ecologist, wilderness advocate, author and photographer with 34 published books including “Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy.”
