Oregon: Logging is the true source of our wildfire problems

Some of the largest, most destructive fires in America were caused by
logging, such as the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin that burned a million
acres and killed 1,200 people. Many of the recent fires in Lane County
were started by logging, and then spread through slash and flammable
tree plantations. History, not science, refutes the claim that logging
helps to prevent forest fires. The forests of the West are far more
vulnerable to fire due to a century of industrial logging and fire
suppression. Logging has removed most of the older, fire-resistant
trees from the forests.

Fire suppression has encouraged many smaller
and more flammable trees, brush and dense plantations to fill the
holes. Logging has set the forests of the West up to burn big and hot.
More logging will not fix this. Logging is commonly defined as
merchantable trees being yarded out of the woods by heavy machinery or
helicopters. The best processes to reduce forest fire spread and
severity rarely require logging. Instead, crews on foot use chain
saws, brush cutters and matches to cut small unmerchantable trees and
brush, stack them into piles, then burn them when conditions are
right. When this is done along both sides of forest roads, fire
defensible zones are created where an “average” fire will die down due
to a lack of fuel. Pumper trucks can access these zones in front of a
fire to wet and cool the soil. These kinds of projects can be seen
along the eastern stretch of Highway 126 near Sisters. They fostered
truly local jobs instead of helicopter logging, which sends more
timber to distant mills at a net loss to taxpayers. Because real fuel
reduction processes rarely involve logging, they shouldn’t be lumped
in with so-called “thinnings” and other timber grabs by
environmentalists.These projects should not have to be sweetened with
more logging. They should be federally funded and prioritized to
address forest roads and at-risk public infrastructure. After decades
of federal forest plundering by agency and industry with little regard
for residual forest condition, it’s time to pay the piper. –Roy Keene
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/opinion/5620141-47/story.csp

— Posted to http://forestpolicyresearch.com via gmail to posterous and
also to forestpolicyresearch@yahoogroups.com

Posted via email from Deane’s posterous