Jim Doran

With the frenzy over “economic stimulus” reaching a fevered pitch it is hard to write about something as naïve as the actual jobs that could, and many would say “should”, be created in this “new economy” here in the western states.  I will try.  

You may recall the movie released a few years ago called “A Beautiful Mind” about the imminent scientist and Nobel Prize winner John Nash.  He gained prominence by understanding what he called “The Governing Principles” of the topic under consideration.  Here are a few thoughts from my view on the governing principles regarding the economy and the possibilities we have in the inland northwest.

I would put it in other words, “What is the goal?”  We want the men and women working doing something productive, right?  “What can they do?”  What is one of our most aching needs in the expansive landscape that reaches from New Mexico to north Idaho?  The restoration of the western public forest is a very precise governing principle.  I call it the “deferred maintenance” that needs to be done.  It won’t do itself.  It will burn up, as we have seen, in a not so restorative manner.  We can, however, live in the forested landscape for the long term if we do what needs to be done.

This is not the realm of rocket science, as Dr. John Nash faced.  This is simple straightforward forest practices.  The knowledge of forestry is here and god knows we have the amazing technology to do the work that needs to be done and we have a community of people that want and need the work.  Can you imagine the positive reverberations through our community, our economy and our intimate personal lives that will occur when we take up this challenge to repair and restore the damages of the past?  That is the call to this “baby boomer” post 60’s generation and any of you younger folk who want to get on board with the rising tide.

What does this really mean?  When the economic policy of this great nation turns to what really needs to be done, we need to look at the restoration of the western forests.  Sure, let’s do bridges and highways and public buildings across the country; they need it.  But what will really build the future?  There is something proverbial about the forest.  As my sawmill-owning friend Duane Vaagen says, “They grow back.  The cash register fills itself back up.”  

This is a very compelling fact that cannot be refuted: Trees do grow back! If we do our work correctly, the tree resource is unending.  Let’s put our skilled woods-workers – and others who want to learn - back to work in the forest fixing what needs to be fixed. Let’s do this in an upfront and transparent manner so that everyone understands what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and what results we expect. I call this “community collaboration.”  This means thinning out the overstocked already logged and already roaded public forest stands.  This means tending to the restoration of the native forest and the repair of damaged landscapes and the deteriorating roads that are choking out our streams.  As a “governing principle” there is plenty of work to be done for the next generation on the deferred maintenance and forest restoration work that is needed on the public forest lands.”  This means real work for real people in real communities.

One of the first steps to make this happen will require a very precise direction of “stimulus” funding to Forest Service project level service contracts to get the fuels reduction and the woody biomass removal work done.  The long and short of it is that the “exclusion of fire” and other practices and semi-natural disasters like forest diseases have left us with an ungodly amount of kindling in the overstocked forests.  The slash piles and the very small trees that need to come out (the biomass component) do not have enough value to cover the costs of getting them out of the woods.  Let’s just be honest about it.  The only answer is to re-invest in the restoration of the forest.  The removal of this small woody material can then become the supply for “biomass” uses.  Once again, I believe that the technology exists for these systems.  It isn’t a matter of understanding the needs of the forest or the technologies to utilize the resources; it is a matter of social, public and political will.  Letting is burn costs more in the short and long term than tending to the problem up front.  I think it is an ethical issue.

When I was a kid one of my chores every morning was to fill up the hopper in the basement of our home with the little bricketts, as we called them that were made from the sawdust from the local mill.  Nearly every home in the upper Methow Valley was heated by these bricketts.  That was an everyday reality for us.  And nearly every winter the storms would knock down the power lines and they would hook the Town of Twisp into the mill for power.  These are new not concepts.  The technology has made them ever more possible today.

Apart from the current lack of social and political will, there are no technological or environmental reasons why we could not see the majority of public, commercial and private living and working spaces heated by wood wastes from the National Forests. When the “economic stimulus” money gets applied to the “service contracts” to do the deferred maintenance and, thus, the biomass removal from Forest Service projects, we will get the reliable supply of material that is needed to support the capital investments to make this concept become a reality.  When we create the opportunity the genius of America will make it work; but we have to commit.

I am a firm believer that through conversation and cooperation (what is meant by collaboration) we can create this world.  Does anyone have a better idea?