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http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2003/2003...09.asp#anchor2

Forest Thinning Does Little to Stop Wildfires


June 19, 2003 Duluth News Tribune

Commentary by REP. RICHARD POMBO

Healthy forests are a Senate vote away

he wildfire that scorched 7,500 acres of prime forest and grassland
near my hometown of Tracy, Calif., earlier this spring may be only a
small harbinger of things to come if the Senate fails to pass the
Healthy Forests Restoration Act.

The House Resource Committee, which I lead, and the full House passed
this critical legislation before the start of this year's fire season
to repair the disastrous conditions that decades of well-intentioned
but misguided management have brought to our nation's forests.

More than 70 million of our nation's 190 million acres of forest land
are in such peril that environmental experts are tagging them tinder
boxes -- areas needing only a small spark to turn them into rampaging
infernos that destroy everything in their path.

Last year, 71,160 wildfires devastated 7,112,733 acres of America's
forests -- devouring critical wildlife habitat and in many cases rare
species of wildlife as well. Thousands of miles of streams were choked
with ash and run-off debris, wiping out fish populations. Roaring
fires incinerated birds and mammals. Millions of tons of air
pollution, carried high aloft by the heat, spread across the country.

Wildfires take a human toll as well. Last year they forced the
evacuation of more than 81,000 Americans from their homes in Colorado.
Nationwide, 1,200 buildings, many of them homes, were consumed by the
fires -- torching lifetimes of possessions and memories. The United
States now is spending an average of $1 billion a year fighting
monster wildfires. But that is the least of the costs we pay for
neglecting our forests. Twenty-one firefighters lost their lives last
year; scores of others suffered serious injuries.

Unfortunately, America's wildfires grow worse each year. The Forest
Service estimates that 72 million acres are at high risk of
catastrophic wildfire. In 2000 and 2002, wildfires consumed double the
10-year average of acreage as unnaturally dense forests provided
high-octane fuel for the uncontrollable conflagrations known as crown
fires.

Extreme environmentalists like to argue that forest fires are
historically normal events -- part of a natural cycle. Instead of
thinning combustible forests of brush, overgrown trees and fallen
trees to reduce massive fuel loads, their solution is to sit back and
watch them burn.

Historically, normal, natural North American forests averaged 30 to 40
trees per acre, according to experts such as Tom Bonnicksen, professor
of forestry at Texas A&M University and the author of "America's
Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery." These were
sunny forests with patches of trees of varying ages separated by
grasslands and meadows, providing abundant habitat for all species.
Fires burned coolly in these forests, removing underbrush and keeping
the forest open, without destroying mature trees.

Today, because of years of effective fire suppression and a
decade-long reduction on harvesting timber, many of our forests
average 300 to 400 trees per acre. As a result of this unnatural fuel
buildup in our nation's forests, wildfires now burn far hotter and
create more destruction than the ones that used to occur naturally.

That's why it is vitally important for the Senate to act and give
nature a helping hand in restoring our nation's forests. By
restoration, I don't mean simply replanting trees that fires have
destroyed, but restoring our forests to their historic natural state
-- providing abundant meadows and letting in the light that young
trees need to grow into old forests.

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act will aid restoration by mechanical
thinning of brush and trees of all ages. It will empower local forest
rangers and biologists in the field to manage our forests rather than
Washington politicians and urban environmentalists who usually have
little understanding of wise forestry.

The Healthy Forest Restoration Act obviously won't prevent all forest
fires, but it will preserve large parts of one of our national
treasures -- vastly reducing the amount of charred acreage. What's
more, it will make them much more environmentally friendly -- for
birds, fish, animals and, yes, humans, too.

My colleagues in the Senate should do the right thing and pass this
vital legislation before millions of additional acres go up in smoke.


Comment by poster: Obviously, Pombo has done his homework. I'm very
happy to see that politicians CAN understand the science behind
pro-management plans to save our National Forests.

Larry, Federal eco-forestry rules!