Western forests burn; millions of acres destroyed:
Government policies blamed for destruction
Wildfires tore through the American West this summer and fall, making 2000
the worst season for fires in recent memory. The devastation was not unpredicted
or unexpected; the fire fuel load in the forests was inordinately high and federal
government agencies were ill-prepared to prevent or fight the resulting blazes.
Two of the fires were set by the US Park Service, one near Los Alamos, New
Mexico, and one north of the Grand Canyon. The Los Alamos fired burned out of
control for several days in May, destroying 235 homes and more than 45,000 acres
in the Santa Fe National Forest and adjacent private lands.1
The prescribed burn near Los Alamos was set to prevent the very catastrophe
it ignited. A subsequent report2 found that government officials failed to follow
guidelines for implementing prescribed burns, failure that led directly to the
conflagration.
The Santa Fe National Forest fire was the beginning of a long season that saw
nearly seven million acres destroyed as a combination of weather conditions
and government policies coincided to provide an excess of fuel and a shortage
of firefighters and equipment. Writing in Environment & Climate News, Robert
Nelson said: "The federal government is likely to spend $1 billion for
fire fighting ... and that cost does not reflect the major environmental damage
to the forests themselves, air pollution in western cities, and lost tourism
business."3
History
Wild fires are natural phenomena that help thin forests and provide for renewed
growth. Wildfires are started by lightening, by carelessness, by accident, and
on purpose. The federal government has influenced the fuel build-up that feeds
the hottest and most damaging fires through road-building policies, the Smokey
the Bear campaign to prevent forest fires, and logging restrictions.
In the 1930s, the government promoted road-building in the forests to provide
jobs, and the roads served the lumber industry in the post-World War II building
boom. Logging helped reduce the fuel load, and logging roads made it easier
for firefighters to reach any burns that occurred. By the late 1950s, annual
loss to forest fires was less than five million acres.4 The recent increase
in lost acreage is accredited to a reversal of the government road-building
and road repair projects, changes directly attributed to the anti-logging campaigns
of environmental and animal rights organizations.
Besieged by environmental and animal rights organizations, many politicians
"vote green" to rack up points with the voters. As a result, Congress
often leans towards regulatory programs that appease these groups. In addition,
the current administration favors the arguments of activists over the application
of science when man and the environment clash. As a result, campaigns to protect
the spotted owl and old growth forest, halt roadbuilding, and abandon existing
roads have dramatically reduced logging on public lands and left a legacy of
dry, dead brush and trees to burn. Some observers estimate that nearly 40 million
acres of government-owned forest and parkland is at risk, especially in years
when weather phenomena guarantee changes in rainfall patterns.
Doug Leisz, a former regional forester and deputy chief of the US Forest Service,
sent a tough letter5 to President Clinton to outline his concerns. Leisz said
that, under the Administrations "reinventing government" plan,
- field organizations of the Forest Service have been decimated;
- fire fighting capabilities have been reduced to dangerously low levels;
- forces for protection of individual forests is at 50 percent of 1995 strength;
- fire prevention personnel and initial fire attack forces are "at the
lowest level I can recall"; and
- the staff at the Washington office of the Forest Service has been increased
by 300 people who don't fight fire.
Leisz also cited curtailment of logging as a major contributor to the fuel
load in the forests.
"Forests are dynamic," Leisz wrote. "They continue to produce
new biomass each year, are subject to wind and snow breakage and losses from
insect infestations and disease. These fuels continue to accumulate and build,
just waiting to oxidize. A fire, in the dry, hot period we are now experiencing,
lets this fuel carry fire up into the tree tops, resulting in crown fires incinerating
large and small trees alike."
Leisz continued: "The loss of resources associated with catastrophic fires
is enormous. Precious old-growth is destroyed, public recreation opportunities
eliminated for many years, fish and wildlife habitat severely damaged, flood
damage likely, and enough wood destroyed to build hundreds of thousands of homes
for people who own part of this forest legacy but can't afford their own home."
Bruce Vincent, Montana native and president of Alliance for America, fought
the fires near his home near the Kootenai National Forest. He summed up the
fire season this way:6 "Along with the trees, the soils in the forest are
being incinerated and, come the rains of fall, we will get to watch blackened
ash slide off the mountains and run into our streams. ... In many places, it
will take eons to restore the forest that we are sacrificing to the altar of
fire.
"Habitat for grizzly bears, elk, moose, lynx, bull trout, and humans is
being torched. ... While I write this, I have family and friends in the mountains
fighting to keep at bay these catastrophic fires; family and friends living
in shelters because of evacuations; and family and friends choking down the
soot of modern forest management at its absolute worst. We are not allowed to
thin the forest, but we are called on to fight the flames."
Notes
1, 2. Bandelier National Monument Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire Investigation
Report delivered to the Secretary of Interior, Bruce Babbitt on May 18, 2000.
Guidelines included evaluation of conditions adjacent to the burn area; a plan
for suppressing the fire; checking the three-to-five day wind forecast; implementation
of safety procedures to protect firefighters and the public; and review of the
plan before implementation.
3. Environment & Climate News, November 2000: "Forest fires
scorch seven million acres" by Robert H. Nelson, professor at the School
of Public Affairs of the University of Maryland and senior fellow of the Competitive
Enterprise Institute. He wrote A Burning Issue: A Case for Abolishing the US
Forest Service.
4. Environment & Climate News, October 2000: "Wildfires threaten
homes and children" by Tom Randall.
5. Letter from consulting forester Douglas R. Leisz, a 32-year-career
employee with the US Forest Service. Leisz's career include time in the field
and as a regional forester and deputy and associate chief. The letter is dated
August 24,2000.
6. Environment & Climate News, November 2000: "On the fire line"
by Bruce Vincent.
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