As 2000 progresses rapidly to being the worst forest fire season in recent history, U.S. Forest Chief Mike Dombeck, the custodian of 192 million acres of public forest land, continues to push policies that will make matters worse. In a scene reminiscent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the chief has initiated a host of major initiatives all aimed at reducing access to the forest and active forest management. The inevitable result will be more catastrophes.
Consider these facts:
The General Accounting Office concluded that 65 million acres, one third of the entire National Forest System, are at high risk to catastrophic wildfire or insect and disease infestation.
One in three acres of our National Forest System is dead or dying.
In 1999, 6 million acres of public land burned to the ground. That's an area 1.5 miles wide stretching from Washington to Los Angeles ... and back.
In the Tahoe Basin National Forest, which surrounds Lake Tahoe, bark beetles and disease have ravaged overstocked stands, killing more than 80 percent of the trees. The Forest Service, bowing to pressure from extreme environmental groups, refuses to salvage the dead and dying timber. The area is a tinderbox that will explode and threaten residents and the famous water clarity of the lake.
When Congress created the National Forest System, it did not intend to make these forests museums, where people might visit but not touch. The mandate was to manage these forests to produce multiple benefits to society. Congress recognized then, as it does now, that this requires proactive management. But the Forest Service is moving in the opposite direction, toward no management. Total tree growth on the national forests exceeds removals by 600 percent. Tree death exceeds removals by 200 percent. This is the formula for the disasters we are seeing today. Fires have already consumed more than 6.5 million acres this year. For U.S. forest fires, 2000 will surely be one of the worst years in history. Yet this didn't have to be. The Forest Service and others were warned this would happen.
In June 1996 U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., the only forester in Congress, warned his colleagues and the agency that the national forests were in crisis. Taylor wrote, "The forest health decline is real and getting worse. This year we've already seen three times the normal wildlife devastation in the West."
He went on to note the increased severity of insect infestations, increased tree mortality, the reduction in management and the resulting build-up of fuel for fires. He commissioned a forest health science panel made up of the top forest scientists in the country. Among other things, the panel concluded that "Very many of the forests are growing in small diameter, overly crowded conditions and different species mixtures compared to previous forests. Without proactive intervention, these forests will not provide high quality timber or forests which are resistant to catastrophic outbreaks of insects, disease and fires. These catastrophes reduce habitat diversity and utilizable timber and add large amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. Proactive intervention to change these conditions is rarely being done."
Environmental groups denounced Taylor and labeled the report as propaganda. Others in the Forest Service and other agencies echoed Taylor's concerns but to no avail.
Chief Dombeck and the administration continue on a politically correct course of museum management based on a policy of appeasing environmental preservation groups. Unfortunately, Taylor's prophecy of disaster has come true.
It's time to recognize the facts and stop wasting valuable natural resources in the name of political concerns. It's time to stop the criminal mismanagement of the national forests. America can and must do better.
Science calls for the removal of dead and dying trees to prevent uncontrollable wildfires. Science calls for the creation of breaks in disease and insect-infected areas to prevent spread. Science calls for strategic thinning of trees to improve growth and help wildfire thrive. It's time to engage in common-sense management of America's forests.
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