I have followed with interest the letters and editorials generated by the current fire season. The wild card which current forest policy hasn’t addressed is “smoke.” I’m hearing that people have had enough. As a forester I hate to see a political solution because there is a better way.
I totally understand the role that fire plays in the ecology of Montana’s forests. I also understand that in some fire seasons, conditions are so extreme that fires are hard to put out. On the last day of July 2000, lightning ignited 62 fires in the south end of the valley. 55 of them were put out in the next couple of days but on August 6th the remaining seven joined together and the 2000 fire season became history. In those extreme conditions some fires will get away.
But what about this past July when conditions weren’t so extreme? The public needs to know that it is forest policy to reintroduce fire into the forest landscape whenever possible. Sometimes those fires, which were allowed to burn because they were in “steep rugged terrain” or in the wilderness, get away and burn homes and private forests. I think there is a better way. Here are some ideas:
First, let people like Steve Arno and other forest scientists determine forest policy. They know how to use both fire and timber harvesting to maintain a healthy forest. When forest managers come up with a sound proposal, don’t appeal or litigate it. The burned area on the Lolo Peak fire is a prime example. In 1982, the Carlton-One Horse Helicopter sale was litigated by the Wilderness Society because the then current president, who lived west of Florence, “didn’t want to hear helicopter noise.” This sale would have left a beautiful stand of Ponderosa pine, Western larch and Douglas fir trees while reducing fuels and improving forest health with basically no adverse impacts. Incredibly, the only units that were allowed to be harvested were ground based skidding units which have many more environmental impacts. This was pretty selfish, considering the people who are listening to helicopter noise now while their view burns.
Secondly, don’t switch the subject to climate change when we know that fire intensity is directly related to forest management. If the best climate change scientists hadn’t “cooked the books” more people might believe their dogma. One wonders if we could affect the climate if we keep burning off our forest at the current rate?
Lastly, knowing that the infrastructure is largely gone for utilizing forest products, I hope some enterprising business people will build a state of the art sawmill to use the amazing renewable resources which we are now wasting. Not only is this a better way, it is the only sustainable way.
Nate Luibrand
Corvallis