NAFSR and the National Forests

The National Association of Forest Service Retirees (NAFSR) with its almost 500 members is pleased be part of Evergreen magazine, and Publisher Jim Petersen's effort to advance public understanding and support for science based forest management, which is also a major part of NAFSR's mission. We want the forests to have the best chance to be around for our grand children and their children to use and cherish.

Our membership includes natural resource professionals with over 15,000 years of professional training and hands on experience in the field and laboratory. Many of our members are recognized World wide for their accomplishments in professional forestry.

In our first discussion we focus on the National Forests, and what we consider serious misconceptions about their management and protection. Since miss information often takes on a life of its own and can influence national policy and management direction. We would like to offer our views by challenging some of the commonly circulated mythology about forests and forest management.

Our public forests are burning, and dying from massive attacks of insects and disease. The mortality, which covers millions of acres, is having a devastating affect on rural communities, wildlife, water quality, water flows, air quality, recreation, and natural resource sustainability. Some of this loss can be traced to policy decisions about caring for the public forests made with the best of intentions, but often based upon less than credible information.

We recognize that in today's complex World it is difficult for people not involved in forest management to understand the complexity of forest systems. The misconceptions to be discussed over simplify forest issues, and do not tell, "the rest of the story," which is critical to development of solid forest management policies and direction.

The Balance of Nature Myth: The popularly imagined forest often consists of visions of continuous forest cover of large trees that live for centuries. The vision ignores the reality of constant change in forests responding to the dynamics of climate, forest biological characteristics, weather and the influences of human and animal activity. Forests are never static, but always responding to the impact of the influences mentioned.

Long Term Care for the Aged, Sacrifice the Young: Many people advocate the eternal protection of "old growth" trees by not allowing any human management activity in these forests, or, at the most, only minimal human activity such as removing small trees and underbrush. This thinking is in contradiction to good biological science and proven forest management practices.

To give old growth trees the best chance of existing for the longest time, the forest must be protected from abnormal risks of massive fires, epidemics of disease and insect activity as well as the impact of climate variations.  In today's world this often means the manipulation of vegetation to reduce competition for water, soil nutrients and sunlight as well as reduce fire risk. Improving survival chances for old trees may require logging activities for thinning of competing trees, use of prescribed fire or a combination of treatment options. To not actively manage the stands with old growth is to increase the changes of an early demise for the oldsters.

Forests are Burning Today because of Aggressive Fire Suppression in the Past: The terrible 1910 fires in Idaho and Montana killed many people and burned some 3 million acres of forests. The fires generated public demand for wildfire control, and federal, state and local governments as well as the forest industry responded. However, the efforts were only partially successful and large fires remained a challenge. Even today with the advantage of high tech equipment, improved firefighting techniques, remote sensing and superior communications unwanted fire burning the land is still a major resource protection problem.

Often overlooked by many people advocating fires should have been allowed to burn in the old days, is an understanding of the limited ability of our predecessors to control fire. There was a lack of trained firefighters, little or no road access and fire communications depended upon a few phone lines or the use of messengers on foot or horseback.  Firefighters had no good way of knowing what the future would bring in the way of fire weather, or where a free burning fire would end up. So the prudent action was to put the fire out.

Until the late 20th Century radio communications, fire behavior science, fire effects to the land, and fire weather forecasting were not at a technical or operational level to allow firefighters the ability to make knowledgeable decisions about using fire as a management tool.  Even today, with our science and technology the decision to allow a fire to burn is risky, and not a decision made without serious risk analysis.

Fires are More Destructive than in the Past:  There is some truth in this statement if destruction is defined as including damage to infrastructure, homes, businesses, economics, vital resources such as water, soils, recreation sites, timber and wildlife habitat. However, a review of fire history in the United States shows massive and devastating fires covering hundreds of thousands of acres were hardly a rare event on America's landscape in years gone by. The damage then was severe if it was your property or livelihood destroyed

Selective Logging is the Answer:  Selective logging is one of a variety of tools for forest management, but not a panacea by any stretch of the imagination. Selective logging has both pluses and minuses as a tool, and it is not appropriate for some forest conditions. How to best manage a timber stand is a complicated question involving consideration of a number of biological, geological, climatic, economical, social, legal and forest management factors.

Only Protect Human Communities From Fire:  This statement, when examined in the context of human existence, makes little sense. It is doubtful many people would want to live in an area surrounded by dead trees. By suggesting this approach to fire is to declare, natural beauty, wildlife habitat, recreation, clean water, wood, carbon storage and other forest values inconsequential.   Certainly protecting communities is important, but the critical importance of forest ecosystems to people's daily well-being and quality of life cannot be ignored.

The Nation spends billions of dollars annually for wildlife and fishery habitat restoration and protection as well to save forests, natural beauty, recreation and old growth trees. It makes absolutely no sense to allow such investments to burn in wildfires and taxpayer dollars go up in smoke.

Big Trees Don't Burn:  Large trees are more fire resistant than smaller ones, but they do die from crown fires and from ground fires that smolder at the base of the tree killing the roots and the tree's living tissue from fire's heat.

Prescribed Fire is the Solution:  Prescribed fire is an important forest management and protection tool, but not the total solution.   Prescribed fire is expensive, risky, and requires a high degree of fire knowledge to be done successfully. It also has the drawback of releasing carbon dioxide to add to the "Greenhouse" problem. The use of prescribed fire is a valid forest management tool even with its drawbacks, but it is only one of a number of forest management treatment options.

Logging Destroys Forests: Logging does not destroy forests. With today's scientific knowledge, modern low impact logging equipment and the ability to utilize most of a tree's components for marketable products, including clean energy material, logging helps save forests.

Logging is a critical tool to help forests avoid catastrophic events such as wildfire, insects and disease epidemics and increase the forest's ability to survive climatic changes At one time the timber industry needed the forests for survival, today the forests need the industry for the same reason.

In our opinion it is not a stretch to say that the future of our Nation's well-being and economic success is tied to the care given to the public's forests. The National Forests were created over a hundred years ago with the primary purpose of assuring the public of a continuing supply of sustainable natural resources, water and wood fiber being at the top of the resource lists.

In 1960 the Congress passed the Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act to codify the National Forests were to be managed for recreation, range, watershed, timber wildlife and fisheries, but "not in derogation of the purposes for which the National Forests were established" in the Organic Act of 1897.

We believe these priceless, irreplaceable and critically important 190 million acres of national forest lands that provide us with sustainable resources deserve the best stewardship possible. Decisions about their use and management should be based upon on solid information from the best forest management science available.

John.F. Marker, NAFSR Northwest Director, September 09