Tester Bill Will Increase Fire Danger
Letter to the editor, the Missoulian, October 20, 2009 [here]
Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009,” S1470, is touted as providing jobs and increased national forest timber harvest. Existing laws tell the Forest Service to manage for timber and all available resources: The 1897 Organic Act, the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960, the National Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 and the National Forest Management Act of 1976, and the Wilderness Act of 1964.
S1470 proposes 670,000 acres of new wilderness: no man-caused disturbance may take place, and no active forest or vegetation management is allowed within a wilderness, thus forest fuels will build up over time. Fire suppression is usually less aggressive in wilderness unless special authorization is obtained to use chain saws or dozers. Less aggressive suppression may result in increased risk of wildfire escaping from the many proposed wilderness areas, which raises a potential public safety issue. S1470 fails to speak to these issues.
Without aggressive action, wilderness of 80,000-100,000 acres may be required to contain wildfire within its boundaries. Only two of the 23 proposed wilderness areas under S1470 come anywhere close to this size, or are large enough to be seriously considered as legitimate Montana wilderness.
The Forest Service began to bring our national forests toward a managed state starting in the mid-1950s. By 1985, preservationists had managed to stymie active management. The preservationists now strive for wilderness designation for all inventoried roadless areas. S1470 provides for many of the wilderness areas and special management areas on the Lolo, Kootenai, and Beaverhead/Deerlodge national forests preservationists demand. In return, they “may allow” minor, short-term timber harvest and restoration activities. This response to preservationists’ demand for “wilderness first” is really response to coercion, and tantamount to eco-extortion. The Forest Service, the Congress and the public must not fall for it!
Roger C. Lund, Paradise