Logging cited as
remedy for fires
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Logging, forest thinning and controlled
burns were the methods suggested to decrease the danger of wildfires in
Idaho and throughout the West during a conference Thursday in Boise.
The conference, titled The Fires Next Time,
was sponsored by the Andrus Center for Public Policy and The Idaho
Statesman. The one-day event was held at Boise State University.
Following last summer’s wildfires, in
which 2.2 million acres burned in Idaho and Montana, Western policy makers
and public lands managers are calling for reform in forest and range land
management. The lands must be made more resistant to fires, conference
panelists agreed.
Three panels, one each representing
scientists, activists and policy makers, discussed fires and public lands
management issues during the one-day conference.
"The reality is, Americans would
rather not have destructive wildfires in the first place," Texas
forester James Hull said. "We’re all going to fail if we don’t
work together. We’d better all get behind [revised management efforts]
and make sure we don’t fail."
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said the forest
fuel load must be reduced, and suggested logging, thinning and controlled
burns as the solutions.
"All three of those are tools that
must be utilized," he said.
Gary Wolfe, president of the Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation, pointed out, however, that fires aren’t always bad. Elk
and deer habitat will be greatly improved as a result of this summer’s
fires, he said.
"The reality is, the long-term impact
on big game animals is going to be positive," he said.
University of Idaho professor of forest
resources Leon Neuenschwander also pointed out some advantages of
wildfires.
"From an ecological standpoint, they
must occur across these Western landscapes," he said. "If we
suppressed all fires, we would see a tremendous decline in our
biodiversity."
Kempthorne, on the other hand, said nothing
but destruction and mayhem resulted from the fires. He painted a picture
of lush, green forests, now charred and blackened.
"Tell me, what have we gained from
these fires? What have we gained?" he asked rhetorically.
Addressing the issue of logging and
thinning, Neuenschwander said those methods can be effective fire
retardants, but must be used where they’ll do the most good: in the West’s
forest/urban interfaces.
"Fuel treatments on federal lands will
not solve the problem," he said. "We had large fires in the
past, and we’re going to have large fires in the future."
In order to implement new forest management
policies, Congress recently approved $1.6 billion as part of the 2001
Interior Appropriations Bill.
"But if we continue to experience
devastating wildfires with no fuel reduction, appropriating more money
will be a hard sell on Capitol Hill," Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho,
said via satellite. "We need to show that federal agencies are
accountable and are working with local people. It’s not enough to just
inform local governments of what’s going on in a top-down
approach."
