Forest Voice

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Forest Voices
Keep Up the Good Work
Hello Friends,
An open forum for Forest Council members
What We See
0 Forest Voice
© 1988-2002
ISSN 1069-2002
Native Forest Council
PO Box 2190
Eugene, OR 97402
541.688.2600
The intense deep cobalt blue of the lake makes me think of Crater
This is an Earth Day thank you, hug and general Lake. But this lake is not a perfect circle. It is more the shape of Fax 541.689.9835

b keep up the great work card from (getting to be long- an apostrophe. There is a trunk of an old pine lying in the water.
time) supporters of Native Forest Council’s work. It’s sad Move up the trail, look back, and we can still see the tree lying
to witness the vestiges of industrial exploitation of the earth’s there. It’s that big. The slope is steep, and as we climb you point
abundance so greatly diminish the quality of life we are passing out something perched on a dead snag. It looks like an eagle but
info@forestcouncil.org
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Forest Voice is sent free to

members of the Native
along to our children. We live not far from where Rachel Carson’s is too large. I’ve never seen a bird that large. The color appears Forest Council. The cost
life drew to a close nearly four decades ago, and I shudder at the dazzling white, but also blue, and it is the blue that holds my of U.S. membership is $35
annually. Bulk orders of the
ecosystem decline and loss since then. How would she assess attention. The head is white like a bald eagle, I think, but it takes Forest Voice are available for
the modern ethic for conservation, personal responsibility and off before we can get a better look. Then we see higher in the $25 per 100, plus shipping.
reverence for creation? I trust that NFC would score well, but as a sky other like birds circling. They look too large to be able to A complimentary copy is
society we have been tragically sleeping. We know that Republican, fly but they are floating in wide circles like buzzards who have available on request.
legislative and judicial control means increased pressure on spotted death. We look for other people to witness this sight but
our sacred public All rights to publication of
there is no one close
articles appearing in Forest
lands. We must work We must work tirelessly to protect our inheritance and enough to hear us. We Voice are reserved.
tirelessly to protect our
inheritance and
remember that no struggle to protect life on Earth is ever want to leave and find
people to bring back Publisher
remember that no over—The pressure to exploit and develop will be back to this spot. We don’t Timothy Hermach
struggle to protect
life on earth is ever
tomorrow. We know that NFC will be there too, carrying want this story to be
dismissed. We want to
Editor
Ed Dorsch
over—The pressure to our message: No More Logging on Federal Land! understand what it is
exploit and develop that we are witnessing. Managing Editor
will be back tomorrow. We know that NFC will be there, too, Then, as we watch to our right, moving across the sky, a group Wendy Martin
carrying our message: No More Logging on Federal Land! (Camp of Botticelli-like women, hair and clothing draping gracefully
fire allowances as needed!) Special Thanks
around their forms, each leans toward the other in exquisite
Scott Bateman
Please, please know that your good efforts are making a sympathy, each supports the other together ascending. Brett Campbell
difference. David Brower, quoted in Earth Island Journal, Summer Later I approach a roomful of people and I inquire if anyone Brett Cole
2002: “Don’t expect politicians to do your job for you. Politicians has seen the eagle, but I don’t mention the women. Elizabeth Feryl
are like weather vanes. Our job is to make the wind blow!” This weekend I read that a young woman, Beth O’Brien, fell Jim Flynn
-Barbie Lynch, Mark Keating, Celeste Keating, Takoma Park, MD to her death from a tree while protesting the Eagle Creek timber Funk/Levis & Associates:
Chris Berner, David Funk
sale. The sale was cancelled a few days before her fall but it was
Peddler’s Express
A Terrible Loss said the protesters couldn’t be reached because of the snow. The Trygve Steen
Dry and bitter cold, parties involved with the decision said that the cancellation had Sarah Wiltz
with flint hard rock nothing to do with the protesters. Our senator called the death Matt Wuerker
and treeless mountains, of the young woman a “waste.” No recognition for her sacrifice is
given here on the ground. Cover
the vistas of the Great Basin
The Bush Administration’s
echo like a moonscape, The sightings of the blue eagles and the young women response to summer forest
dazzling with abandoned beauty. occurred in a dream a day or two before reading of the death of fires is a call for increased
If the left behind and rejected places the young protester. commercial logging in
still astonish with God’s creation -Barb Emge, Eugene, OR national forests. Cover art
what were the rich valleys like by Matt Wuerker. See story,
page 11.
before we altered the land Native Voice
for ease and commerce. For Tim Hermach Submission Guidelines
There is a terrible loss We welcome unsolicited
In memory the reflection lies
we leave unspoken, submissions that address
upon a wasteland opening issues relevant to public
worse than our unrelenting devotion to war.
where the untrammeled heart lands protection and
We’ve silenced His voice in the rivers
will no longer contain this destruction. support the Native Forest
and paved over Her beauty. Council’s mission. If you
What grief must lay before us. Your life sifts through volumes of information, would like us to return your
-Don Hynes, Portland, OR grains of sand in the hour glass work, please include a SASE.
turning upon itself:
Inspired? Angry?
Support from New York High School “There’s no time to do it again, Impressed?
The Environmental Club of Centereach High School strives to Please write:
nutrients of fragile forest giants stacked 10,000 years,
recognize notable organizations that serve the community on Native Forest Council
a light switch of catastrophic change hinged on global warming.”
environmental issues. This year the Club members have decided PO Box 2190
to donate money from their fundraising efforts to Native Forest The crust of a military presence Eugene, OR 97402
Council so that you may continue your good work. Please accept brings forth this child of peace
our enclosed donation. We hope it will assist your organization whose anger no longer contains
in its continued efforts to protect our public lands, most any mercy for the source of our degradation.
particularly our treasured national forests.
-Sincerely, Elaine Maas, Environmental Club Advisor, So, mingling spirits in fire, you make your stand:
Centereach, New York We are coming.
Get out of the way.
Editors note: Centereach Environmental Club chose one local, regional We are in your face forever.
and national organization that focuses on each of the central elements WE WILL NOT COMPROMISE!
of the environment: land, air and water. The Club chose Native Forest -Lloyd Marbet, Boring, Oregon
Council as the national recipient of their donation because of our 2000 Secretary of State Green Party Candidate
mission to protect and preserve public lands. Chief petitioner of Campaign Finance Reform initiative

Patrick McDonnell. Reprinted with special permission of King Features Syndicate.

2 Forest Voice Fall 2002

 Native Forest
Council News and Views
The Native Forest Council is
a nonprofit, tax deductible Council Takes Stand Against Forest Fees Bush Opens Forests to Cutting
organization founded by On June 15, opponents of the Recreation Fee Demonstration pro- Thanks to the Bush administration’s recent amendments
a group of business and gram or “Fee Demo,” held a National Day of Action, organizing to the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (which left more than
professional people alarmed
by the willful destruction 30 protests in nine different states, including a mock coffin- a million acres of old growth forest open to cutting), this
of our national forests. We nailing in New Hampshire, simulated “sidewalk demonstration summer marked a dramatic increase in logging on
believe a sound economy fees” in San Francisco and a toilet paper drive in Colorado (to national forests in the Northwest. By limiting
and a sound environment offset one expense supposedly covered by fees). Native Forest public input, restricting legal challenges
need not be incompatible Council provided national media support and participated in and “streamlining” the Forest Service
and that current public land
Oregon demonstrations. Introduced as a three-year experiment, planning process, many of the plan’s
management practices are
devastating to both. Fee Demo has been extended through 2004 by two additional loopholes have been expanded, opening
riders. Today, fees are charged at 1,400 sites on national parks, more native forests to the chainsaw.
The mission of the Native forests and BLM lands, generating an estimated $180 million
Forest Council is to protect annually. At least four state governments have passed legisla- Hermach Featured as Inspirational Speaker
and preserve every acre tion to formally oppose Fee Demo, citing the fact that federal Council President Tim Hermach traveled more than 3,000 miles
of publicly owned land in
the United States.
agencies already receive taxpayer dollars, but use most of it to to address the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project (SABP)
subsidize mining, logging, grazing and drilling on public lands. in Asheville, North Carolina this June. The Biodiversity Project
The fees also hurt low-income families, promote destructive rec- seeks permanent protection for Southern Appalachia’s public
Board of Directors reational activities and continue the commercialization of our lands and sustainable management of private lands. Hermach
Allan Branscomb public lands. (See story, page 10.) also traveled around the East Coast speaking with journalists,
Larry Deckman
visiting with prominent Washington D.C. attorneys and
Sharon Duggan
Calvin Hecocta Bush Agency Withdraws Habitat Protections strategizing with other environmental activists about how to
George Hermach The Bush administration withdrew key protect and preserve our public lands.
Timothy Hermach habitat protections for 19 endangered
Mark Minnis populations of Northwest salmon and S. Dakota Exempt from Enviro Regulations
Nathan Tublitz
steelhead this May, which could open areas to In July, Senate majority leader Tom Daschle quietly inserted
Advisory Board greater development. The ruling removes the species’ language into a defense spending bill that would exempt his
Ed Begley, Jr. “critical habitat” designation under the Endangered home state of South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest from
Jeff DeBonis Species Act (ESA), and affects 150 watersheds, rivers, bays and environmental regulations and lawsuits in order to allow logging
Erika Finstad estuaries in four western states, including the Puget Sound and to prevent forest fires. While there has been little opposition
David Funk
the Columbia and Snake Rivers. from “Big Green” environmental organizations (Daschle is a
Rev. James Parks Morton
Lewis Seiler Sierra Club-backed Democrat), lawmakers in other high-risk
Fraser Shilling Tracking Our Disappearing Forests states are voicing their outrage that their states don’t have similar
This June, Native Forest Council began an unprecedented provisions. Both House and Senate Republicans plan to introduce
President research project to document the decline of our national forests. legislation that extends logging and lawsuit exemptions to public
Timothy Hermach
Drawing on resources from NASA and the University of Oregon, lands in every other state “at risk of catastrophic wildfire.”
Vice President the Council is compiling aerial photographs of all our national
Ed Dorsch forests. The photographs will demonstrate the impact of national Bush Fire Plan Opposite of What’s Needed
forest logging and, where available, will show before-and-after As of our press date, both houses of Congress are debating
Staff comparisons of how our national forests once looked from wildfire legislation. President Bush has proposed opening
Robert Maris
above. Once the project is complete, the maps will be ten million acres of federal land to logging and gutting
Wendy Martin
Michelle Page available in print, on the web and in larger the environmental review process as part of his “Forest
Debbie Shivers formats for the press, teachers, researchers Health Initiative.” But increasing logging to prevent wildfire
and conservation activists. contradicts the historical record of the past century, according to
Interns (See example, pages 8-9.) a September 17 article in the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper
Leah Greenstein
investigated government records to reveal that past logging has
Claire Tongry
Owl Population: “Worst Case Scenario” not only failed to reduce wildfire, but actually increased them.
Volunteers The spotted owl, a species that indicates forest health, is more “Partial cutting done historically typically aggravated the fire
John Borowski threatened today than it was in the 1970s and ‘80s, according to hazard and made things worse when the fire came along,” C.
Dana Furgerson a government biologist quoted in the Seattle Weekly. Populations Phillip Weatherspoon (an emeritus research forester with the
Jean Hanna
have declined 50% in ten years, a rate the federal government Forest Service) told the Times. See pages 11-15 for more on wildfires.
Forester called a “worst case scenario” just one decade ago. For the latest information on fire policy, go to www.forestcouncil.org.
Roy Keene

Regional Representatives
Rick Gorman
Berkeley, CA
310.647.1904 CONTENTS
Margaret Hays Young
Brooklyn, NY
718.789.0038
718.789.8157 fax

Wayne Norton
4 Red Rocks
Gainesville, FL Utah’s proposed Redrock Wilderness is a rugged, fragile desert of extremes. It’s
352.373.8733
also threatened by grazing, drilling and off road vehicles.
Jason Tamblyn
Duluth, GA
678.969.7013 7 Summer Siege
Public lands across the nation are being threatened by extractive industries and
the Bush administration’s corporate controlled agenda.

10 We Already Pay Taxes!

Native Forest Council joins with citizens to promote free access to public lands
and end the controversial “Fee Demo” program.

11 Cover Story: Forest Fires

Despite overwhelming evidence that commercial logging makes wildfires worse,
the Bush administration has called for public lands logging as the fire solution.

15 Solutions: Preventing Wildfire

Private homeowners could take simple steps to save public dollars and put fewer
firefighters at risk. Here’s what they could do and why they aren’t doing it.

Forest Voice Fall 2002 3

 Redrocks
“The Redrock
Wilderness is already
owned by all of the
people of the United
States and should be
considered a national
treasure like the Grand
Canyon or the Statue
of Liberty. The terrain
cannot bear much use
or development and
the treasures it holds
are too rare and special
to be exploited. These
lands and the wildlife
that inhabit them
deserve the protection
that permanent
wilderness designation
would offer.”

-Rep. Maurice Hinchel (D-NY)

A pictograph believed to have been left by the ancestral Pueblo people (Anasazi) is drawn on the red rock walls in the San Rafael Swell, a BLM area in
south central Utah between Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks. This pictograph is known as the Rain God. Photo by James Kay.

by Jenny Jackson

F
ew places on earth appeal equally to hikers, campers,
geologists, ecologists and archaeologists. But the plateaus,
canyons and rivers proposed for wilderness designation
in Utah fit the bill. There are nine million acres of Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) land proposed for wilderness. In Utah,
The nine million conservationists simply call it the Redrock Wilderness, and it
holds secrets about the birth of humanity, the earth’s adolescence
acres of BLM and the placidity only the desert can provide.
land proposed The Redrock Wilderness comprises two main regions of
Utah: the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range. Both areas
for wilderness are ecologically similar, but their geology (both past and present)
designation hold is very different.
These two regions connect eight of Utah’s nine national
secrets about the parks, monuments and recreation areas. The BLM lands that
birth of humanity, make up the Redrock Wilderness are just as beautiful and vital as
the areas already protected.
the Earth’s
adolescence and The Colorado Plateau
The Plateau is a large basin of 130,000 square miles filled with
the placidity only smaller plateaus and shaped by two of North America’s largest
the desert can rivers, the Colorado and the Green, and their tributaries. In
between plateaus, erosion has carved thousands of miles of
provide. canyons, a strange landscape of domes, towers, monuments,
temples, spires, hoodoos, monoliths and massive stone arches.
This is a land of alarming contradictions. Snow-capped
mountains loom over the desert and pools of water hide in
petrified sand dunes. The proposed Grand Staircase Wilderness
Area alone comprises six major ecosystems, from the Sonoran
Desert to alpine forests.
The Plateau began forming 570 million years ago and
continues evolving today. Seas have filled the plain and receded,
earthquakes have fractured the land and magma has erupted to
the surface. Unlike the Rockies and the Sierras, this region has
changed gradually. Contained within the strata of the rock are
dinosaur fossils, which are covered by remains of mammoths
and sloths and covered again by human artifacts spanning
thousands of years. The Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi), who
lived in the Four Corners region between 1 and 1300 AD,
left abundant ruins in the area, including well preserved cliff
dwellings and rock art.
The seemingly barren landscape holds a wide diversity of
native flora and fauna, from 2,000 year old bristlecone pine to
the rare Gila monster, one of only two venomous lizards in the
world. But much of it is threatened. It is estimated that 180 plant
species in the area are endangered, threatened or sensitive. Many
of these are endemic species. The Plateau is home to at least two
dozen endangered or sensitive wildlife species, including the
bald eagle, peregrine falcon and native fish. Big game animals
such as elk, bison, bighorn sheep and antelope fight for existence
as well.
Perhaps the most endangered member of the Plateau’s web
of life is the region’s cryptobiotic soil. Covering more than 75
percent of the Plateau’s surface, this brittle living crust contains
bacteria, lichens, mosses and other organisms essential to a
desert ecology. These help create a fertile and erosion resistant
surface that retains vital moisture in arid climates. Merely
walking on this fragile soil can destroy decades of growth and
amplify erosion in surrounding areas. It can take up to 250
years for cryptobiotic soil to regenerate. Off road vehicle (ORV)
use and extractive practices are degrading this essential desert
resource at an alarming rate.

Utah’s Basin and Range

The Redrock Basin and Range is geologically younger than the
Colorado Plateau. California’s San Andreas Fault helped form
the mountain ranges here 20 million years ago. These ranges rise
Great Salt Lake
up from salt flats, some of them high enough to draw moisture
that support streams, meadows and forests.
Dinosaur N.M. These mountains are rugged and remote, with canyons
Salt Lake City
slicing into them and sand dunes surrounding them. Upper
elevations support flowering meadows, bristlecone pine, spruce,
Douglas fir and aspen. The lower elevations give rise to pinion
pine, mountain mahogany and sagebrush. Finally, the salt flats
U TA H are covered in grasses and sage.
Due to overgrazing, plant life in the area is threatened. Many
endemic species are rare now, and in dire need of protection.
Arches N.P.
Great Basin Livestock has also driven native bighorn and antelope from
the area. The Gila monster, chuckwalla, desert tortoise and
Moab
Bonneville cutthroat are threatened. Cattle have destroyed
hundreds of miles of streams in the area, threatening riparian
life as well.
Finally, artifacts from the Desert Archaic and Freemont
Canyonlands N.P.
Indian cultures, some dating back 10,000 years, are being
Glen Canyon vandalized and poached, destroying important records of
Natural human history in the area.
Bridges N.P. We must protect these vital ecosystems and historic
Grand Staircase N.M.
artifacts before it’s too late. The Colorado Plateau, Basin and
Proposed Redrock Zion National Park Range regions must be made a part of the National Wilderness
Wilderness Preservation System. ■

4 Forest Voice Fall 2002

Citizens take over where BLM fails
by Wendy Martin
What is a
Wilderness?
F
ollowing the 1964 Wilderness Act, a federal land management
act required the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
to inventory all roadless areas for potential wilderness Congress established the
designation. Until Congress made a final decision, suitable lands Wilderness Act of 1964
were to be managed as Wilderness. But in Utah, the BLM seemed to preserve the nation’s
to have other goals in mind. In 1980, the agency completed a remaining wild lands for
plan that focused on commercial and industrial development. their natural, cultural and
Out of 23 million acres, the BLM designated only 2.5 million as scientific value. To qualify
potential wilderness. for wilderness designation,
When the BLM recommended only a fraction of what an area must be publicly
conservationists in Utah knew was eligible, citizens decided to owned land “retaining
take matters into their own hands. Forty citizen groups formed its primeval character
the Utah Wilderness Coalition (UWC) and began to develop an and influence, without
permanent improvements
Utah’s economy depends on tourism far more or human habitation.” Areas
than on oil development—In 2000, Utah’s are usually required to be
revenue from tourism was $4.25 billion, while at least 5,000 acres and
must provide opportunities
the production value of oil development was for solitude or primitive
only $640 million. recreation. The act also says,
“A wilderness, in contrast
alternative to the BLM’s proposal. Formed in 1985, the UWC has with those areas where man
grown to include 240 local, regional and national organizations and his own works dominate
and individuals. UWC’s proposal is the result of several years’ the landscape, is hereby
work in the field, mapping boundaries of proposed areas and recognized as an area where
documenting wilderness characteristics. Where the BLM reported the earth and its community
2.5 million eligible acres, the citizens charted 9.1 million. of life are untrammeled by
Three main threats stand in the way of wilderness designation man, where man himself
for all 9.1 million acres. First, to adhere to Bush’s National Energy is a visitor who does not
Plan, the BLM is “streamlining” the mining and drilling permit remain...” The Wilderness
process on existing claims and leases. Second, Utah county Act established the National
officials are using an obscure mining law from 1866 (intended Wilderness Preservation
by Civil War-era lawmakers to give prospectors easy access to System, which consists
their claims) to create roads and grant private interest groups the of federally owned areas
right-of-way over public land. Finally, extraction and a growing designated by Congress as
number of off-road vehicles are scarring delicate desert soils. And “wilderness areas.” Although
rather than strictly enforcing wilderness regulations, the BLM pre-established mining and
has focused on exploration and development. Hikers explore Utah’s Parunweap Canyon. Photo by James Kay.
grazing are permitted in a
Tourism—not resource extraction—is one of the largest and designated Wilderness, new
most important economic activities of Utah’s economy. And the
tourism industry is dependent on maintaining the wilderness
“Bureau of Livestock and Mining” logging, mining, grazing,
by Jenny Jackson road building and ORV use
quality of Redrock. According to the 2001 Utah Economic are not allowed.

Report to the Governor, 2000 revenue from tourism in Utah was
$4.25 billion, while the production value of oil development
was only $640 million. Mining-related employment (including
oil and gas development) was less than 1 percent of Utah’s
total non-agricultural jobs. Continuing to destroy Redrock’s
wilderness quality will cause far more harm to Utah’s economy
than the small amount of revenue generated from oil and gas
development.
Unlike the BLM, the general public seems to realize the
importance of Redrock. A recent poll of Utah residents conducted
by Wirthlin Worldwide revealed that seven of ten Utah residents
favor designating undeveloped BLM lands as wilderness. In 1995,
pro-wilderness speakers outnumbered their opponents at each
of five regional hearings to gauge public opinion on wilderness
designation. Of the more than 22,000 opinions received by
the Utah governor’s office during the hearings, more than 70
percent supported the citizen’s wilderness proposal.
Congress has also recognized the importance of Redrock.
In 1989, the citizen’s first proposal of 5.7 million acres was
introduced into Congress as America’s Redrock Wilderness
Act. After the citizen’s second inventory, an expanded bill that
encompassed 9.1 million acres was re-introduced into Congress
in 1999 and again in April 2001, with a record number of
cosponsors. America’s Redrock Wilderness Act is now in the
107th Congress. It now has 162 cosponsors in the House and
17 in the Senate, and has a good chance of passing. In the past
decade, Congress has voted down every compromising, anti-
wilderness proposal for Utah’s canyons and deserts. Redrock is
a fragile and stunning wilderness that must be preserved for all
future generations. Once it’s gone, we can never get it back. And
if the BLM won’t do its job, the public will. ■
Blooming Mule’s Ears on a sand dune near the San Rafael Reef in southern
Utah. Photo by James Kay.
W
ith the enactment of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the
National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) was
created “to secure for the American people of present
and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of
wilderness ... untrammeled by man, where man is a visitor who
does not remain.”
However, one stipulation that led to the passage of the act was
that the 300 million acres under Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) control would not be considered for preservation any time
soon. It was a critical clause. The Public Lands Series
The BLM is sometimes called the “Bureau of Livestock and
Mining.” It’s a title it often deserves. The agency was created With so many threats to
from the marriage of the General Land Office and the Grazing our natural treasures and
Service, and it wasn’t until 1976 that the agency had to consider so many problems to solve,
land as potential wilderness, not only as a means to commercial we feel it’s equally important
gain. That was the year that the BLM was ordered to assess its to celebrate and enjoy
holdings to determine which lands were eligible for the NWPS. the splendor of our public
The agency was slow to oblige. By the mid ‘90s, only lands. In every issue of the
California and Arizona had designated BLM wilderness. Most Forest Voice, we highlight a
lands were still being used for industrial extraction, and few special part of public lands
sections were even labeled Wilderness Study Areas (lands being in the U.S. These aren’t
considered for preservation, but not yet deemed suitable). the only areas we believe
The process has been especially slow in Utah. Of 22 million should be protected. Native
acres under BLM control, only 2.5 million were recommended Forest Council is fighting
by the agency for wilderness designation. And although the for total preservation of all
BLM slightly increased their findings in the face of public 650 million acres of national
outrage, the agency still seems to be more interested in profits forests, BLM lands, national
than protection. parks and wildlife refuges.
In fact, a January report from the Department of the Interior
to the Utah BLM said Utah staff need to understand that oil and Past Features:
gas drilling is “their No. 1 priority.”
More drilling permits were approved by the BLM in 2001 Summer 2002
than any previous year. And when permit violations were The Yellowstone Ecosystem
discovered by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance earlier
Spring 2002
this year (a truck exploring for oil had left 15-inch deep ruts
Yosemite National Park
in the fragile cryptobiotic soil, in excess of a four-inch rut
maximum), BLM officials sped to the site to cover the ruts Winter 2001-2
before reporters arrived. Hart Mt. Wildlife Refuge
And there’s more to cover up. The BLM is supposed to
preserve Wilderness Study Areas until Congress deems them Fall 2001
wilderness-worthy or not. If the lands are not protected, they Lewis & Clark National Forest
suffer degradation and are no longer eligible for wilderness Summer 2001
designation. A study by the General Accounting Office, the Jack Morrow Hills (BLM)
investigative arm of the U.S. Government, found that Utah’s
BLM was not enforcing ORV regulations, and erosion was
accelerating in many areas. This was making the lands ineligible To obtain past issues, please
for wilderness designation and open for further drilling and contact our main office:
development. 541.688.2600
Until public lands such as the Redrock Wilderness are info@forestcouncil.org
specifically designated as wilderness areas, the BLM will allow www.forestcouncil.org
desecration and destruction to continue. ■

Forest Voice Fall 2002 5

 In Focus: Wendy Martin by Ed Dorsch

M
anaging Editor Wendy Martin joined Native Forest
Council last January, fresh from completing her
studies at the University of Oregon (BA Honors
College, Journalism, minor fine arts). A writer, designer and
“That experience photographer, Martin brings both a strong narrative voice and
an artist’s touch to the Forest Voice. An all-state gymnast in high
really opened my school, she also claims she can still do back handsprings, but we
eyes. I thought, haven’t confirmed that yet.
Martin was born in Ashland, Oregon. Her mother is a private
‘The Forest Service? music teacher and her father teaches first grade. “As far back as
Smokey Bear? They I can remember, my family always enjoyed the outdoors,” says
Martin. “Every Sunday was family day. We’d go on a hike or a
can’t be doing picnic. Our home is out on the edge of the woods, too. My dad
this!’ Robb’s case and I would hike all around back there when I was little. Thanks
to Ashland’s ‘open space’ laws, we could enjoy city-owned forests
opened the door and meadows.”
and I began to This love of the outdoors was also fostered by her
grandmother, who lives in a log home in a forested Quaker
see the clearcuts, community in British Columbia. “My grandma moved there as
the waste and the a young woman,” Martin says. “She and grandpa built the house
by hand, and she’s lived there ever since. I love to visit. It’s my
deception. ” escape from everything. But they just logged a beautiful stretch
of old growth along Fry Creek and it broke grandma’s heart.
Mine too.”
It wasn’t until her first year at the University of Oregon that
Martin’s commitment to conservation became political. She met
Martin in Vienna, Austria, after studying in Italy for a term in 2000.
her partner, Robb Maris, after joining the University crew team,
and found herself in the middle of a public lands struggle that’s
still going on today. speaks for itself on this issue. And, if more people knew the truth
Maris was the first person to challenge the “Fee Demo” about national forests, big changes would happen.”
program (see story, p. 10), refusing to pay fees at a Forest Service Right now, Martin’s reading John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and
toll booth that blocked access to his favorite surfing spot on the (her secret indulgence) Louis L’Amour novels. She also enjoys
Oregon coast. He beat the federal government. Today, Maris camping, hiking, playing the fiddle, rafting and surfing. ■
is working with Native Forest Council to continue opposition
against Fee Demo.
“That experience really opened my eyes,” Martin says. Where are they now?
“I thought, ‘The Forest Service? Smokey Bear? They can’t be
doing this! Robb’s case opened the door, and I began to see the Rick Gorman: Gorman left the Forest Council Eugene office
clearcuts, the waste and the deception. You’d think an educated two years ago to attend law school in New York. After earning
person would be able to easily find out what’s going on, but they his degree, Gorman moved to Berkley and is now studying for
really hide what’s beyond the beauty strip so well.” the bar exam while interning with environmental lawyer and
“Robb likes drawing attention to issues through action, and Council chairwoman Sharon Duggan.
he’s good at it. But I’d rather work behind the scenes, researching,
writing or taking pictures. I enjoy it. I got into journalism because Jessica Brittsan: The Forest Voice’s former managing editor is
I believe that writing is one of the most influential tools to make living in San Francisco, working for direct mail maven Mal
change. I want to jolt people out of their apathy to help save Warwick, helping nonprofit organizations fundraise.
what’s left. And I think good journalism is very important in the
conservation movement. It takes many people doing different Shawn Irvine: Irvine, administrative assistant at the Forest
things to draw attention to issues and make change. The truth Council from 1999 to 2000, is with the Peace Corps in Paraguay,
working on municipal projects such as flood prevention, tax
assistance and AIDS prevention.

“Behind the Scenery”

Illustration from the Saturday Evening Post, circa 1927 Logging Old Growth
by James Johnson

T
he sound of saws at the Berry Patch timber sale in Oregon’s
Willamette National Forest are the opening shots in the
next ancient forest war of the Pacific Northwest. Berry
Patch is the first old growth timber sale to be logged on the
Willamette National Forest in more than three years.
The Willamette has historically been ground zero for
controversy over public lands logging. In 1987 just this one forest
logged one billion board feet of timber—almost 10 percent of all
the timber that was consumed in the United States. Thanks in
large part to the tireless work of Oregon activists, the Willamette
logged only 17 million board feet last year—the lowest total for
the forest since the Great Depression.
That’s all about to change if the Bush administration gets
its way. The purchaser of Berry Patch—D.R. Johnson of Riddle,
Oregon—bought the sale in 1996, just before the bottom fell out
of the market for large diameter old growth logs. After receiving
market related contract extensions for years, the Forest Service
is forcing the company to complete the logging. The Bush
administration is banking on more Berry Patch-like timber
sales as they move to “streamline” environmental planning in
the Northwest Forest Plan area. There are more than a dozen
timber sales that would clearcut more than 2,000 acres of old
growth forest in the Willamette that could be sold as early as this
summer. Last year the Willamette lost $30 million on its timber
sale program, more than any national forest in the country.
On a recent tour of the Berry Patch sale, there were more
than 100 giant Douglas firs felled in two separate logging units.
Some of the largest trees were more than seven feet wide and
500 years old. Several Forest Service law enforcement agents
were keeping watch on the area. Tree-sitters have occupied the
North Winberry timber sale about a mile to the north of Berry
Patch for more than three years. ■

6 Forest Voice Fall 2002

Summer Siege Public Lands Threatened Across the Nation

Logging Bush Administration:

Trashing Land, Air,
Oregon and Washington: As of our press date, 150
timber sales target more than 50,000 acres of native and old
Soil and Water
growth forest in western Oregon and Washington. More than
So far, the administration has:
70 acres were recently cut in Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest.
Several of the last patches of native and old growth left in
• Reduced clean water
Oregon’s Willamette National Forest are being clearcut.
standards, allowing
Montana: Bitterroot National Forest is being “salvage logged”
more mining waste into
in the largest timber sale in U.S. history: 60 million board feet
our streams, more raw
from 14,000 acres.
sewage into our rivers
California: The Forest Service is logging trees more than 1,000
and more destruction of
years old in the Sequoia National Monument.
wetlands.
Alaska: Logging proponents in the Bush administration are
planning many timber sales in the Tongass National Forest, the
• Slowed or stopped
largest national forest in the U.S. Tongass is known for its rich
toxic cleanups and
salmon spawning grounds, prime grizzly bear habitat and the
opposed making
world’s most concentrated population of bald eagles.
polluters pay for them.
Washington: The Bush administration has 26 native and old
The projected taxpayer
growth timber sales scheduled in the Gifford Pinchot National
bill in 2003 is $700
Forest. Fifteen more are in the planning process. Ninety percent
million and more than
of the logging planned for the next ten years targets old growth.
1 billion in 2004.

• Allowed the Forest

Drilling Service to accelerate
native and old growth
California: Oil companies already extract 700,000
timber sales in the
barrels of oil per year on more than 14,600 acres in Los Padres
Northwest.
National Forest, substantially degrading national forestlands.
But the Forest Service is attempting to open additional wild-
• Approved a permit for
lands in five roadless areas of coastal mountains that are home
the U.S. Navy to blast
to 20 of California’s 67 endangered condors.
sonar across as much
Alaska: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is not
as 80 percent of the
out of danger yet. Despite the April Senate vote that rejected Fork of the Flathead River, along the park’s western edge. world’s oceans. The
a provision to drill in ANWR, the fate of the refuge remains A recent Canadian proposal to expand the Waterton Lakes permit exempts the
undecided as the House and Senate must now reconcile their National Park north of Glacier would prevent more logging Navy from the Marine
versions of the energy bill. in the biologically diverse floodplain ecosystem. Mammal Protection
Florida: A private company plans to conduct exploratory oil Southern Utah: A world-renowned symbol of the American Act and harms whales,
drilling and seismic testing in the heart of the Big Cypress West, Redrock Wilderness is currently being destroyed by dolphins and other
National Preserve, which is named for its expansive landscape of hard-rock mining, oil and gas exploration, drilling, logging, species.
cypress, wet prairies, mixed hardwood swamps and pinelands. grazing and ORV wreckreation. (See article on pages 4-5.)
Rocky Mountain Front: Montana’s Lewis and Clark National
• Allowed energy
Forest is one of several areas in the Rockies under consideration
development at
for oil and gas drilling. Under the Bush administration’s energy
bill, more than 350,000 acres could be opened to drilling. There
Grazing Canyons of the Ancients
National Monument in
has also been a huge jump in drilling permits in Utah’s Uinta Arizona: Grazing continues in Tonto National
Colorado.
Basin. More than 1,200 wells have been drilled and 1,748 permit Forest despite the destruction of a fragile desert
applications have been approved since 2000. ecosystem. It will take centuries to recover from the dam-
• Made an additional
Wyoming: The Forest Service plans to open 370,000 acres of age already done. The Arizona BLM grazing allotments are
four million acres
Bridger-Teton National Forest for drilling, in the heart of Greater scheduled to be assessed this year for compliance with the
available for oil and gas
Yellowstone. Forest officials foresee up to 128 new wells, even statewide Standards and Guidelines for Rangeland Health.
drilling in 2001.
though just 11 of 160 current wells are producing oil. Idaho: Grazing in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area is
threatening gray wolves, which are killed or relocated after
• Eliminated the Clean
conflicts with cattle. A coalition of Idaho conservation groups
Air Act’s New Source
Mining is demanding the closure of eight grazing allotments that
would encompass more than 100,000 acres.
Review program, which
would have prevented
Missouri: A renewed effort to search for lead in the
thousands of tons of
Ozarks has reignited a 20 year battle. The Doe Run Company
additional air pollution.
is seeking permission from the Forest Service to drill more
than 200 holes, some up to 1,000 feet deep, for additional lead
ORV Wreckreation • Approved plans to
deposits in the Mark Twain National Forest. Potential drill site Yellowstone National Park: The Park Service’s decision to
ship nuclear waste
locations have been disclosed to the Forest Service and the BLM phase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park was
to Nevada’s Yucca
but not the public. overturned by the Bush administration, which initiated a new
Mountain, where it will
Montana: Glacier National Park, listed as one of America’s ten study and forced the park to develop new, pro-snowmobile
likely contaminate the
most endangered national parks, is threatened by open-pit coal alternatives.
area’s groundwater.
mines and logging that would pollute the North California: The BLM
published a proposal
• Moved to legalize
for the Algondones
mountaintop removal
Dunes in the Sonoran
coal mining. New
Desert that would allow
regulations (now
off-road vehicles access
blocked by a court
to an additional 49,000
ruling) allow waste to
acres that are home to
be dumped into
many rare, threatened and
valleys, clogging
endemic species.
streams.
Utah: The National Park Service
has decided to keep motor vehicles
• Rejected the Kyoto
out of Salt Creek Canyon, one
Protocol, a global
of Canyonlands National Park’s
treaty to reduce
most fragile riparian zones. But
climate change.
off-road vehicle groups and local
governments are trying to reverse
• Appointed nearly three
the decision.
dozen former energy
Utah: Legislation in Congress would
industry executives,
create a federal motorized trail system,
lobbyists and lawyers
the “Shoshone Trail,” in northern
who have helped
Utah. The system would include more
carry out energy policies
than 500 miles of trails. ■
without waiting for
congressional approval.
For more information, check our
website at www.forestcouncil.org.

Forest Voice Fall 2002 7

 A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW
1951

Wickiup Reservoir

Davis Mountain

Davis Reservoir

Take the highway through Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest... Portland

...and you’ll see breathtaking mountain views, clear lakes and tall trees. At least as far as the “beauty strip” goes. But
take a look from above (far above) and you’ll see that, beyond the strip of trees left along the highway, there’s a
different view. In little more than 50 years, this national forest has been transformed from what you see on the left Portion of Deschutes
National Forest shown above

to the patchwork of roads and clearcuts on the right.

 1995

Wickiup Reservoir

Davis Mountain

Davis Reservoir

Giving Americans an accurate view of their national forests

A picture’s worth a thousand words, and we’re putting together thousands of pictures. These are photo mosaics of
smaller aerial shots, “stitched” together to create a dramatic record of the destruction of America’s national forests.
Working with NASA and the University of Oregon Department of Cartography, Native Forest Council is creating similar
visual records of other national forests. For more information about this project, go to www.forestcouncil.org.

The Oregon
legislature has
rejected Fee Demo
on the grounds
that citizens
already pay federal
income taxes
USFS: Playing the Numbers
How many Fee Demo sites
are there? When Congress
first authorized the Fee
Demo Program (through a
rider, skipping the public
hearing process) it said that
the Forest Service could
charge fees at up to 100
“areas, sites or projects.”
But in December 2001, U.S.
Magistrate Thomas Coffin
found that the agency had
“exceeded its authority”
in collecting fees at 1,349
sites. After the ruling,
Congress lifted the 100-site
cap (in another process that
skipped public input). Now
the Forest Service says it is
testing fees nationwide on
“87 projects in 80 National
Forests across 32 states and
Puerto Rico.”
For more information about
Fee Demo, check our website
at www.forestcouncil.org.
Clockwise from top: Eleanor
Leeson displays her sign
pointing out that Fee Demo is
double taxation;
Council Regional
Representative Robert Maris
speaks to a reporter, while
other demonstrators speak to
drivers passing by; A diverse
group of demonstrators
included Frank and Ann
Wilson on the right, owners of
the restaurant Frank’s Place in
Mapleton, Oregon. Photos by
Wendy Martin.
10 Forest Voice Fall 2002
We Already Pay Taxes!
Forest Council joins thousands of citizens in national day of action against Fee Demo.
by Wendy Martin
O
n June 15, the Native Forest Council joined citizens and
conservation groups in a national day of action against
the Forest Service’s Recreation Fee Demonstration
program, or “Fee Demo.” It is a program charging citizens to
visit publicly owned lands. Prior to the day of action, Forest
Council members from across the nation used the action pages
at www.forestcouncil.org to fax their senators and tell them that
Americans oppose this double taxation. We also alerted media
around the country to spread the word that, even as politicians
are working to make Fee Demo permanent, citizen opposition
is growing.
Council Regional Representative Robert Maris was the
first person to take the Forest Service to task (and to court) in
1997 over Fee Demo. In federal court Maris won the right to
freely access his favorite surfing spot on a state-owned jetty in
Florence, Oregon. Maris organized the demonstration at the
fee collection booth in Florence, one of 30 protests around the
country, to express support for free access to public lands and
call for the end of forest fees nationwide.
From birdwatchers, local business owners, fishermen, surfers
and families, the people who gathered in Florence to show their
support for free access to public lands represented a diverse
group. Demonstrators distributed literature and displayed signs
in an effort to raise public awareness of Fee Demo.
Fee Demo was introduced in 1996 through a rider tacked
onto an appropriations bill. Started as a three year experiment,
it has been extended through 2004 by two additional riders.
Pushed by the American Recreation Coalition (ARC), an
industry front group with members including Walt Disney
Co., Outdoor Resorts of America, Coleman and the motorcycle
industry, Fee Demo is the first step toward the privatization and
commercialization of our public lands.
In the Northwest, the program charges $5 per day or $30 Isaiah Holman-Gross shows his support for free access to public lands on
per year at trail heads, parking lots, turnouts, picnic areas and the June 15 Day of Action in Florence, Oregon. Photo by Wendy Martin.
similar sites on public land. In parks, fees have skyrocketed, from
$5 to $20 per vehicle. Fees are charged at almost 1,400 sites on director of Wild Wilderness and a leading opponent of Fee
national parks, forest and BLM lands, generating an estimated Demo. “We are turning America into a land of and for the
$180 million annually. Visitors who refuse to pay can be fined elite.” If this privatization continues, our public forests may
up to $5,000 and sentenced to six months in jail (although no soon be run by corporations for the “consumption” of a
one has ever paid that sum, and only one person has served jail recreation “product.” The profits go to those who manage the
time) but the average citation is $50. land and sell recreation equipment and services.
According to the General Accounting Office, about 20 Thousands of citizens, more than 240 organizations
percent of the fees go toward program “administration.” The and numerous counties and cities object to Fee Demo. The
remaining fee dollars go to “site improvements,” often involving state governments of Oregon, Colorado, California and New
trail widening or paving, erecting signs, enlarging parking lots Hampshire have rejected it as well. Anyone who buys the pass
and removing hazard trees. is counted as a vote for the program, but there is no way to vote
Supporters of the program claim the extra revenue helps against it without receiving a fine or citation.
improve facilities, puts a value on recreation and makes up for the And many people have opted for the citation. In a notable
budget cuts imposed by Congress. Derrick Crandall, president of December 2001 decision, U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin found
ARC, explains the industry side in a 1999 L.A. Weekly article: that the Forest Service had illegally exceeded its 100-site cap by
“The American public feels that recreation on public lands is an charging fees at 1,349 sites. This means that the Forest Service
incredible bargain, and is willing to pay substantially more.” illegally obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars. Congress
Opponents argue that citizens already pay federal income lifted the 100-site cap shortly after the ruling.
taxes that should adequately fund the operation and maintenance Despite ballooning opposition, lawmakers in Washington
of national forests, that Fee Demo disproportionately affects low intend to take the “demo” out of Fee Demo, making this
income Americans and that it is a regressive tax that bears no fall a crucial time for opponents to make their voices heard.
relation to the actual costs of recreation. Federal agencies are A bill to make Fee
using tax dollars to fund destructive activities such as the timber Demo permanent for
program, which costs taxpayers more than $1 billion each national parks was
year. If the Forest Service shifted even a small percentage out of already introduced in
extractive activities there would be ample funding for operation May. National Forests
and maintenance of public lands. are next in line.
Most importantly, Fee Demo is an attempt by private, It takes determined
profit-driven corporations to change how our public lands are public outcry to
managed. If ARC is successful in promoting Fee Demo, the door fight huge corporate
is left open for other private companies that stand to make a monetary influence.
profit from public assets. “We are seeing a paradigm shift from Demonstrations,
tax-funded public services to regressive user fees that price out letters and lawsuits
middle and lower income families,” says Scott Silver, executive around the country are
proving that American
citizens won’t give
away their public land
to private interests
without a fight. ■
“We had to destroy the village in
to order to save it.”
Wildfire Basics

Dr. Tim Ingalsbee is the director of the Western
Fire Ecology Center, a research and educational
organization which studies and reports on fire related
forest management issues throughout the West.
For ten years, Ingalsbee worked as a wildland
firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park
Service. He has trained and supervised hot shot crews throughout
the West in minimum impact suppression techniques. Here Dr.
Ingalsbee answers a few questions about wildfires.
In general, fires
burning through How big is this summer’s fire season?
When it comes to fire ecology, size doesn’t matter. In fact, we
native forests or need to see more acres burning, under appropriate conditions,
unmanaged old with beneficial ecological effects. The real issue is the intensity
and severity of fires. Are the fires burning hot? Killing most
growth forests are or all of the vegetation? Impacting the soil? These are the
less severe than real issues. Not the size. Unfortunately, federal agencies only
measure the size of fires. They really don’t assess their severity.
fires burning
through managed How does logging affect wildfires?
In general, fires burning through native forests or unmanaged
stands that have old growth forests are less severe than fires burning through
been logged, roaded managed stands that have been logged, roaded or grazed.
Because logging takes away the most fire-resistant big old trees
or grazed. and leaves behind the smaller trees. The disturbance caused by
logging causes a lot of growth of brush and grasses and there’s
lots of logging debris or slash left behind. These sites tend to be
hotter and drier, causing more intense fire, resulting in more
severe fire effects.
What about protecting peoples’ homes?
This has become the burning issue of our time: How can we
protect homes and communities that have invaded fire-prone
ecosystems? And homeowners who are largely ignorant of
the fact that they’ve built their homes in a fire plain are now
This infamous quote from Vietnam reflected
the senselessness and cynicism of the war.
Bush’s plans to increase logging in national
forests in the name of “wildfire prevention”
are just as senseless and cynical.
T
he summer fires had scarcely begun, and already fingers
were pointing. The Forest Service blamed fires on “analysis
paralysis” and “environmental obstructionists.” This
July, Mark Rey (former timber lobbyist and current U.S. Under
Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment) claimed
environmental lawsuits were to blame for “catastrophic” fires.
Never mind the fact that just 20 of 1,671 fuels reduction
projects had been appealed by outside interests. Or that none
of those made it to court, making the total number of these
“paralysis” lawsuits zero.
Never mind overwhelming evidence that commercial
logging and fire suppression have exacerbated the fire problem.
And forget the fact that just 25 percent of the funds allocated
by Congress for a National Fire Plan have actually been
spent on fire management (or that much of these funds have
actually been diverted to commercial logging projects). Forget
all this, said logging interests, the Forest Service and the Bush
administration: The answer isn’t controlled burning, prevention
or thinning brush. Commercial logging, including clearcuts,
will save us from forest fires.
While this strategy will help Big Timber’s bottom line (and
justify ballooning federal budgets), it certainly won’t help forests,
say scientists, who remind us that this summer’s “catastrophic”
wildfires were actually about average if you look at the last 100
years. The fire fighting budget, however, has increased sixfold
since the early 1990s; Today’s firefighting methods are more
costly, risky and environmentally destructive.
The President has called for more logging—both for fire
prevention and as a way to reimburse logging companies for
thinning brush. As of our press date, different versions of fire
legislation are being debated in Congress.
Before embracing Bush’s “Forest Health” plan, though,
legislators should ask a few simple questions. Why does
is President Bush calling for cutting large trees far from
communities, when we need just the opposite: clearing
commercially worthless brush near developed areas? Fuels
reduction is a legitimate practice in some areas, but why should
we pay logging companies to do it when the federal timber
program already operates at a loss?
And why aren’t homeowners who build fire-prone homes
in fire-prone forests shouldering some of the burden? In this
edition of Forest Voice, we examine some wildfire science, the
cost of suppression, how Yellowstone has recovered from the
controversial 1988 fire and the possibility of homeowners taking
some responsibility for building near national forests. ■
experiencing floods: floods of fire. Homeowners could do some
simple, inexpensive things to greatly increase their home’s
survivability from fire. Things like having a non-flammable roof.
Cutting the brush. Mowing the grass. Raking the pine needles
that accumulate every year. Don’t store your firewood under
your deck or next to your walls. Don’t store your propane tank
next to your home. Simple things. You don’t need a government
grant, an environmental impact statement or anyone else’s
approval to do this. It’s really prudent behavior. And just these
things can improve a home’s survivability rate by 90%.
Why have fire management policies stayed the way they are?
Our national psyche is still held captive to a cartoon bear that is
promoting the message absolutely contrary to the natural species.
Real bears love burns. Burns create the berries. Burns create the
large dead trees that they hibernate in, and that form salmon
spawning pools. All of us have a responsibility, including the
news media that thrives on the hype and hysteria that wildfires
can create. The sooner we educate ourselves about fire ecology,
fire’s beneficial effects, the sooner we prepare our communities
and fireproof our homes. I think that will take a lot of fear and
hysteria out of fires. We can then begin a more rational fire
management policy.
So, what’s the solution?
It would begin first with developing fire management plans. It
may shock people, but very few of the national forests have a fire
management plan in place, so when a fire strikes it’s basically
up to a couple fire staff people in the dark of night to whip up
a plan and then we’re just fighting these fires blindly, at great
cost to taxpayers. Already the Forest Service has exhausted its
budget of $300 million. So it’s borrowing funds from a lot of
other activities. ■
For more information, please visit www.fire-ecology.org or
www.forestcouncil.org.
Forest Voice Fall 2002 11
 Federal Fire Sham
 Billions Wasted
The $2 billion to $3 billion a year that the Forest
Service and other federal land agencies spend on
fires is mostly wasted, says a new report from the Oregon-based
Thoreau Institute. Last year, Congress gave the Forest Service a
$1.4 billion, 38 percent increase in its budget, mostly for fire, on
the promise that spending more money now will reduce future
fires and fire costs. But that’s a promise the Forest Service can’t
keep.
Reforming the Fire Service, by Thoreau Institute economist
Randal O’Toole, says the real problem with fire is not built-up
fuels but the near-blank check that Congress has given the Forest
Service to put out fires and for other fire-related activities. To
preserve and enhance this budget windfall, the Forest Service
has misled Congress in at least three ways:
First, the Forest Service claims decades of fire suppression have
led to an accumulation of fuels in the nation’s forests that make


Logging and Fire Risk
Does logging really decrease fire danger?
Overwhelming evidence indicates the opposite.
Forests with extensive logging and road building experience
greater fire severity than unlogged, unroaded areas, according
to both the Department of the Interior and the Department
of Agriculture: “The removal of large, merchantable trees from
forests does not reduce fire risk and may, in fact, increase such
risk,” says a September 2000 report by the Department of the
Interior and the Department of Agriculture. A 2001 audit by the
Department of Agriculture also reports that “commercial timber
Fire managers
sales do not meet the criteria for forest restoration.” And U.S.
and fire ecologists Forest Service fire specialist Denny Truesdale says, “The majority
of the material that we need to take out is not commercial timber.
agree that letting
It is up to three and four inches in diameter. We can’t sell it.”
more fires burn So why is the Forest Service still pressing “fuel reduction”
timber sales? Big trees mean big money. As a 1999 GAO report
will save money,
says, Forest Service managers “tend to (1) focus on areas with
protect firefighters’ high-value commercial timber rather than on areas with high fire
hazards or (2) include more large, commercially valuable trees
lives, and improve
in a timber sale than are necessary to reduce the accumulated
ecosystems. Yet fuels.” Removing small trees is expensive in the short run, but
could save millions—even billions—in the future.
the Forest Service
continues to Commercial Logging and Fuel
Commercial logging removes the large, fire-resistant trees,
suppress 99.7 leaving behind flammable needles, limbs and brush. Removing
percent of all fires. large trees also reduces the overstory canopy that shades the
forest floor. With a hotter, drier surface, debris on the ground
dry to create prime fuel, helping fires spread faster and burn
longer, with greater flame lengths and more erratic shifts in
speed and direction.
Monoculture Tree Plantations
Tree plantations replanted after clearcuts are extremely
vulnerable. Fire spreads quickly through monoculture, same-
age, densely planted trees. Tree plantations are also prone
to disease and infestation, which create dry, dead trees ideal
for a catastrophic fire. When plantations burn, they usually
have a 100 percent mortality rate, and leave no native seeds
to regenerate stands. Burned plantations require expensive,
repeated management for successful restoration.
Roads
Logging requires roads, and roads bring the number one cause
of wildfires: humans. Over the past decade of fires, humans have
started an average of 88 percent, according to federal statistics.
Most are accidental, but approximately 25 percent (even up to 50
percent, according to some estimates) are caused by arson.
fires worse today. In fact, recent severe fires are due to drought,
not fuels. Second, the Forest Service claims that “thinning” on
federal lands will protect homes and towns in the “wildland-
urban interface.” In fact, thinning away from homes offers little
protection, while treatments of the private lands immediately
around such homes offers sufficient protection. Finally, the
The real problem with fire is not built-up
fuels but the near-blank check that Congress
has given the Forest Service
Forest Service tells Congress it can reduce fire suppression
costs by increasing “presuppression” funds, including having
more firefighters, aircraft, and other equipment on standby. Yet
experience has proven otherwise: After a 50 percent increase in
presuppression funding, 2001 suppression costs per acre burned
were as great as in 2000 and 50 percent more than in 1999, even
though 2001 was a relatively mild fire year.
Based on these claims, Congress approved 2001 budgets for
presuppression, suppression and fuel treatments that were nearly
twice the year before and at least six times what they had been a
decade before. Yet this funding will not stop fires, protect homes
or reduce the cost of suppressing future fires.
Fire suppression in the South, where most forests are
ecologically adapted to frequent, light fires, leads to fuel build
ups that can cause catastrophic fires after a few years. But most
forests in the West are ecologically adapted to infrequent, severe
fires. Fire suppression in such forests does not necessarily lead
to fuel problems. “The West has always had major fires,” says
O’Toole, “and it always will have major fires.”
At the same time, fire managers and fire ecologists agree that
letting more fires burn will save money, protect firefighters’ lives,
and improve ecosystems. Yet the Forest Service continues to
suppress 99.7 percent of all fires, O’Toole’s report reveals. Tight
restrictions prevent local managers from letting fires burn even
if they know such fires would be good for ecosystems and are not
a threat to private property. The result is that the Forest Service
spends more money than ever on fire suppression.
The real problem, says the report, is the perverse incentives
created by the budget process. “Firefighters say the Forest Service
puts out fires by dumping money on them,” says O’Toole. “Now
Congress is dumping money on the Forest Service in the hope
fires will go away—but they won’t.”
The report recommends that Congress stop spending money
on fire and let the Forest Service and other federal land agencies
manage fire out of their own receipts. The report notes that most
state forest agencies and private landowners rely on insurance to
cover their costs in severe fire years. This takes away the need
to give agencies a blank check, which only leads to bureaucratic
empire building. ■ Download full report at www.to.org/fire.html.

Wildfires in the United States: A Brief History

Before European settlers Forest fires are part of the natural cycle. Some Native Americans conduct controlled burns.
1871 The death of 87 firefighters prompts the USFS to adopt the “10 o’clock” policy—all fires out by 10 a.m. the following morning. The number of
acres burned drop from more than one million to between 200,000-300,000 per year.
1910 USFS finds “Smokey Bear” in New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest. He becomes an icon for fire suppression and the Forest Service.
1970s USFS ends “blank check” policy for fire fighting expenditures.
1972 Both the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service formally adopt the policy of using fire as a tool to reduce fuel.
1980s 1.4 million acres in Greater Yellowstone burn. More than half of Yellowstone National Park, 793,880 acres, is allowed to burn.
1988 Federal policy officially changes after the deaths of 14 firefighters in the Storm King fire in Colorado. Federal land managers are told to identify
areas that could burn with little risk to life or property.
1990s “Blank check” funding returns, but with a new name: “Emergency appropriations.”
2000 Fire fighting budget: $1.3 billion.
2001 Fire fighting budget: $542 million.
2002 USFS memo estimates fire fighting budget projected to be between $1.3 and $1.5 billion (it also indicates $215 million has been “misplaced”).

12 Forest Voice Fall 2002

Yellowstone:
A Study in the
Vital Role of
Wildfires
by Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times Photos by the National Park Service

F
or more than 250 years, the three-toed woodpecker barely
eked out an existence in the high forests here in the Rockies.
The eight-inch insect eater never had much more than a
tenuous foothold and by the 1980s was on the verge of losing
even that, pushed out by hardier birds.
Then something auspicious happened, giving the little
woodpecker a break. In 1988, wildfires roared through 750,000
acres of Yellowstone, charring acre after acre of the old forest,
destroying habitat for the bird’s competitors. What looked like
a disaster for the park’s wildlife turned out to be a boon for the
woodpecker.
“All those dead trees are bug factories, wonderful for him,”
said John Varley, pointing to a steep ridge once covered by old-
growth lodgepole pines and conifers. Today, the mountainside
is prickly with what look like towering black chopsticks. It’s the
woodpeckers’ happy new home.
“In a fire, even a big one, for every loser, there is a winner,”
said Varley, director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources.
In this summer of massive wildfires throughout the West,
Yellowstone offers a compelling lesson in fire’s quid pro quo. Flowers among burned Douglas fir near Tower Junction.
A forest destroyed is also a forest made over: It becomes more
efficient, safer and often more diverse.
Rather than land lying fallow after a fire, other plants rush in Most plants and animals here have evolved to survive fire. Some
to fill the vacuum. After a huge burn, forests are all but fireproof, even fare better after a fire. The dominant tree in Yellowstone,
and the absence of long-established trees opens the forest to the lodgepole pine, stores its seeds in a resin-encased cone.
new species of plants and healthier versions of their own kind. Intense fires cause the resin to melt, releasing decades worth of
Animals adapt in similar ways. Like the plants that have always seeds to the forest floor. Because the soil is rich with nutrients Most plants and
existed in small numbers in the Yellowstone ecosystem, some deposited by the fire, pine saplings flourish as they would not animals here have
animals bide their time until have before the fire.
conditions are right, then Despite the national hysteria following the Even the lodgepole’s seeds evolved to survive
rapidly increase after a big fire. are fire-smart: The black seeds fire. Some even fare
Since the fires, Yellowstone
park’s “let it burn” policy, Yellowstone today spill onto the charcoal and
has become a living laboratory shows no signs of devastation. ash and are camouflaged from better after a fire.
for fire ecologists, who in more hungry birds. Quaking aspen, The dominant tree
than 400 research projects have charted, measured and mapped rarely seen in the park and unable to compete for space with the
the massive burn area to calculate the fires’ handiwork. Varley conifers, are now thriving in leafy green swaths. The aspens’ vast in Yellowstone, the
argues that the fires did a fine job of restoring balance to the root systems are deep and protected from a fire’s heat, allowing lodgepole pine,
park. Despite the national hysteria following the park’s “let it them to capitalize on the open space provided by the burn.
burn” policy, Yellowstone today shows no signs of devastation. When a fire takes down tree crowns, it creates more sunlight on stores its seeds in a
For that, Varley compliments nature and its hardheaded resolve the forest floor. Plants that had lain quietly in seed beds beneath resin-encased cone.
to impose balance on its ecosystems. the soil opportunistically spring up after burns, responding to
Varley walked the park’s backcountry to illustrate that point. newfound light or sensing a change in environment. Everywhere Intense fires cause
He paused in a broad green swale, tucked partway up a ridge. His after Western fires, brilliant red fireweed plants abound. the resin to melt,
black boots stood ankle deep in a thick carpet of healthy plants “I worked at Yellowstone for 14 years before the ‘88 fires
and a young 11 foot Douglas fir dwarfed his 6 foot frame. and I’d never seen a Bicknell’s geranium, but they flourished releasing decades
“Golly, it doesn’t look devastated,” the scientist wisecracked, after the fires,” said Don Despain, a former research biologist at worth of seeds to
gesturing to the vast tract of national parkland before him that Yellowstone.
exploded in fire on the night of September 10, 1988. That blaze “There’s a lot more to forests than trees. They may be gone, the forest floor.
was the last of several major wildfires that rendered the nation’s but everything else sprouts like mad,” said Despain, now with
oldest national park an “ecological disaster,” as media reports the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman, Montana. “We suspect
called it at the time. there is a chemical released after fire that causes flowering
But destruction, in Varley’s experience, is in the eye of the plants to take off. There is a nitrogen compound in smoke that
beholder. Where many see this summer’s huge wildfires in stimulates other species to germinate.”
Colorado and Arizona as, invariably, “devastating,” Varley and Even among animals, habitat loss for some means new homes
other scientists know fire for what it is, an integral actor in for others. Moose, elk and pine martens, which thrived in old-
nature’s grand design for survival. Continued on page 14

South of Tower Falls Store, at left right after the fires in November 1988, and at right in July 1989.

Forest Voice Fall 2002 13

 E
Yellowstone, continued from page 13 ventually, the Yellowstone fires would require 25,000
personnel to fight, including two battalions of Marines,
growth forests, did not do well in years immediately after the and more than 10 million gallons of water. The last blaze
Little of the fire’s fire. Nor did most nesting birds. was extinguished in mid-November—put out by rain and
“good news” is But some birds, such as three-toed woodpeckers, tree swallows snow—and the bill for the fire fighting effort came to $120
and mountain bluebirds, prospered. Ground squirrels are back, million.
understood by the happy in younger sagebrush that allows the small creatures to Fire management policy in the park still allows natural fires
public because hide in and peer over. to burn. Generally, a similar policy applies to all public lands,
“Little of the fire’s ‘good news’ is understood by the although with the severe drought in the West, land managers are
media reporting public because media reporting on wildfires is simplistic and quick to fight even small fires.
on wildfires is sensationalized,” said Peter Morrison, executive director of the
Pacific Biodiversity Institute in Winthrop, Washington. Fire as savior is a concept that’s counter
simplistic and “They say, ‘10,000 acres destroyed by fire,’” he said. “Rarely
sensationalized. do I see as much attention to the landscape after the fire. The intuitive for most Americans. Fire has a few
reporting would be much more accurate if it said, ‘10,000 acres public relations problems. For generations
restored by fire.’”
Fire as savior is a concept that’s counter intuitive for most raised on Smokey Bear’s admonitions
Americans. Fire has a few public relations problems. For against forest fires, the sight of trees
generations raised on Smokey Bear’s admonitions against forest
fires, the sight of trees burning seems wrong. Aesthetically, a burning seems wrong.
treed landscape is more pleasing than the fire-gutted alternative.
Also, fire can kill. The Yellowstone blazes share similarities with wildfires from
“When we say that fire this year’s dangerous fire season. Images of the massive fires were
is good for an ecosystem, in the news for weeks. Americans were aghast as animals fled
the mental image the from burning forests and 250 year old trees immolated in 15
public has is a vast area seconds. The fires were so intense that 150,000 acres of parkland
of standing black trees burned in one day.
that’s just denuded. It For Varley and other Yellowstone scientists, the criticism
just goes against core surrounding the fires lasted longer than the damage to the park.
values for some people,” Congressional hearings were called, the federal approach to fires
said Paul Langowski, a was revamped and experts claimed Yellowstone would never be
fire ecologist for the U.S. the same.
Forest Service. “A few months after the fire, I was right here, walking
When Yellowstone through 10 inches of ash,” Varley said, pointing down to a
began to burn after meadow bursting with plants. “Another way to look at ash is as
lightning ignited fires in decomposed nutrients, the building blocks of life.”
June 1988, park managers Several months later, plants covered 80% of the same site,
followed a policy that Varley said.
allowed natural fires to The following year the meadow was completely covered with
burn themselves out, as vegetation. “I like the way things have shifted here,” Varley said.
long as life or property “People want things to stay the same, but that’s never possible
was not threatened. By in nature. One species is on top for a long time, then the fires
the next month, the change that. The deer mouse used to be the dominant animal
complex of eight fires in these forests. Now it’s the red-backed vole’s turn. Nature is
was so out of control always seeking balance. Fires make it happen.” ■
that the controversial
“let it burn” policy was Copyright 2002, Los Angeles Times. Reprinted with permission. For more on
reversed. the Yellowstone Fire and the forest’s recovery, visit www.forestcouncil.org.
Lodgepole pine seedling.

“A people without children would face a hopeless future.

A country without trees is almost as hopeless.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

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14 Forest Voice Fall 2002

Solutions: Fire Prevention
by Leah Greenstein

“Ultimately, it is the main right and

responsibility of homeowners to Homeowners
manage the structures and vegetation
who are largely
on their own private lands to reduce
ignorant of the
home ignitability—It should not be the
fact that they’ve
burden of taxpayers throughout the
country to pay the economic costs and built their homes
environmental impacts of extensive fuels in a “flood”
reduction projects on public lands.” plain are now
-Dr. Tim Ingalsbee experiencing
floods. But these
are “floods” of fire.

T
he 2002 fire season has sparked a heated debate about Dr. Ingalsbee, simple and inexpensive fire prevention tactics can
wildfires. Though the Bush administration and the logging increase a home’s survivability rate by up to 90 percent. Proper
industry still claim that logging prevents forest fires, both prevention measures not only help homes survive fire, but can
Big Timber and the environmental community can agree on one also turn homes and entire communities into zones that stop
thing: fireproofing homes is a relatively simple and effective way fire by depriving it of fuel, called fuel breaks, making homes and
to prevent wildfires—and save lives and tax dollars. communities a part of the solution rather than the problem.
“Homeowners who are largely ignorant of the fact that

B
they’ve built their homes in a fire plain are now experiencing ecause individuals have historically been slow to fire-proof
floods: floods of fire,” says Dr. Tim Ingalsbee, director of the their homes, the responsibility of fire prevention often falls
Western Fire Ecology Center. Along with logging, drought and to city and state policy makers. Although the majority of
a century of fire suppression, the increasing number of people Western towns have not adopted new wildfire codes (even El
building in the wildland-urban interface (the zone where forests Paso, one of the most high-risk areas in Colorado, still permits
and human development meet), has put more homes—and cedar-shingle roofs on houses in the forest), many have begun to
lives—at risk. work with fire agencies, insurance companies and city planners
The interface is quickly developing: Population growth to ensure that their homes are safe from future fires.
rates near national forests are among the highest in the U.S. After the June Rodeo-Chediski fire destroyed 450 homes in
There are now ten times as Sho Low, Arizona, the town Check our website for
many homes in areas prone to Simple and inexpensive fire prevention is drafting ordinances that more wildfire prevention
wildfire as there were 25 years will require building with fire information:
ago. Urban sprawl, population
tactics can increase a home’s survivability resistant materials. In Colorado, www.forestcouncil.org
growth and technology that rate by up to 90 percent. 39 of its 64 counties have
allows people to work and live voluntarily participated in Some other good sites:
away from urban centers have all contributed to the zone’s rapid programs to improve building codes and firefighter training.
growth. So far, insurance companies don’t charge higher rates Bend, Oregon is another good example. The town became a www.taxpayer.net
for homes in the “fire plain.” The Forest Service doesn’t charge pilot community for the FireFree program after a 1990 fire burned Taxpayers for Common
these homeowners (not any more than they charge the rest of 21 homes and structures and a 1996 fire burned another 30. Sense: Wildfire economy
us, anyway) to put fires out. And local governments have few FireFree is a progressive, fire prevention program incorporating and policy facts
incentives to slow development in high risk areas. the local fire department, the fire district, city planning and a
In recent years, firefighting costs have risen dramatically. nearby national forest. The program has enabled Bend to map www.firefree.org
More than half of federal fire management funds are spent on wildfire hazard zones, institute a fuel break ordinance to assure FireFree: The FireFree
emergency wildfire suppression. A Forest Service memo estimates the creation of defensible space and hold property owners program and how to
this year’s firefighting costs at $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion. The accountable by establishing penalties for noncompliance. The start one in your area
agency estimates that a third of all fire suppression dollars are city also amended its building code to address issues of water
spent defending the wildland-urban interface. If homeowners availability, slope, property accessibility and block length. www.or.blm.gov/nwfire/
took appropriate measures to protect their homes from fire, these “Ultimately, it is the main right and responsibility of docs/Livingwithfire.pdf
figures could be drastically reduced. homeowners to manage the structures and vegetation on Living with fire: A guide
“The single most effective and quickest step that we can their own private lands to reduce home ignitability,” says Dr. for the homeowner
take is for individual homeowners to create defensible space Ingalsbee. “It should not be the burden of taxpayers throughout
around their homes,” says William Romme, professor of forest the country to pay the economic costs and environmental www.fire-ecology.org
fire science at Colorado State University. The majority of homes impacts of extensive fuels reduction projects on public lands.” Informative site of
catch fire when firebrands, or burning embers, blow onto roofs or Together, homeowners and communities can help slow the the Western Fire
surrounding vegetation, so installing a fire resistant roof, storing flood of fire, saving their homes, tax dollars and lives. A new Ecology Center, Dr.Tim
flammable objects at least 30 feet away and planting fire-resistant approach to wildfire prevention may also save us from a renewed Ingalsbee’s organization
vegetation within 200 feet from a home can save it. According to agenda in the White House to log our national forests. ■
www.nifc.gov
National Interagency Fire
Center: Updates, facts
Fire-Proofing Homes in the “Fire Plain”
www.colostate.edu/Depts/
1. Create a defensible space: a 30 foot buffer zone with low CSFS/homefire.html
lying plants or grass. Thin an additional 70 foot zone. Colorado State
(Farther for homes on slopes where fire spreads faster.) University: Home
protection strategies
2. Replace wood shingles with non-flammable materials:
aluminum, cement shingle, tile or sheet metal. www.or.blm.gov/nwfire/
Northwest Fire
3. Keep roof and gutters free of leaves, moss and pine needles. Prevention Education:
4. Install electrical service lines underground. Fire updates restrictions
and closures, wildfire
5. Provide adequate water supply and pressure that reaches all prevention tips
sides of the house.
6. Regularly remove flammable vegetation. www.landscouncil.org/
wildfire/wildfire.htm
7. Trim tree branches up to six feet from the ground. Lands Council: Wildfire
news and information
8. Driveways provide emergency access. They should have
fire breaks on both sides and should be not be too narrow, www.firesafeidyllwild.org/
windy or steep for firetrucks to ascend and maneuver. firesafeweb/problem/faq/
9. Store combustibles such as firewood, picnic tables, etc. away faq.html
from the house. Answers to frequently
asked questions about
Rustic, beautiful and a good example of a fire-prone home. 10. Keep large trees spaced 10 feet apart. (Farther if on a slope.) defensible space

Forest Voice Fall 2002 15

 Save Our Disappearing Native Forests

1620
ZERO CUT. ON PUBLIC LANDS

1950

2002
A native forest is a self-regenerating forest that has
never been cut or planted by humans.
Little more than 100 years ago, our national forests were first opened to logging. Since that tragic decision, 40 million
acres of national forest ecosystems have been clearcut. The worst part? We’re paying them to do it. The destruction
of our nation’s forests, rivers and streams—a living life-support system that gives us clean air, soil and water—costs
taxpayers billions annually. But logging on national forests provides just 4 percent of the nation’s timber. A ban
on public lands logging would not affect the nation’s timber supply. It would, however, preserve our nation’s last
remaining natural treasures.

NATIONAL PETITION

ZERO CUT. No more compromises, negotiations, deals or surrenders. The destruction of America’s public lands must stop! I want to help save
what’s left and recover what’s been lost of our national forests. We need the clean air, soil and water that only forests provide. By signing this petition, I am urging the
Bush administration to stop all logging on our national forests, and to spend our tax dollars on the restoration, not the liquidation, of our nation’s precious heritage.

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