SOS Forests

Mike: I appreciate your making the effort to attend the seminar at OSU where DeFazio’s proposal was discussed. After reading the draft, I agree with you there is much work to be done to create legislative direction that will remove some of the current gridlock, and be of benefit to the forests and to the people who depend upon forests for a wide range of commodity and non commodity values. Your suggestion that a rewrite of the draft may be helpful makes sense to me.

I suggest the first clarification needed is a reminder of the reason the federal forests were established. In the case of the national forests the driving force was the fear that the United States was, in late 1800’s, about to run out of renewable resources such as water and timber. Today the original Organic Act is still on the books and, as far as I know, is still applicable to management of the national forests. By bringing this point up I am not advocating by any stretch of the imagination a return to some of the past simplistic forest management activities. We have learned so much more about forest function in the last 50-60 years and have better management skills and tools.

However, in my opinion, the reason for the national forests existence must be given careful consideration since the public still consumes water and forest products at mind boggling rate, even in this day and age of so called green living.

Therefore I believe the first change in the proposed legislation should be an acknowledgment of the fundamental purpose of the these federal lands. Legacy trees are fine, desirable even, and I believe compatible with the National Forest’s charter, as is recreation, wildlife habitat, scenery, etc. However, in the decision process for forest management there is a need to stop and consider such long term factors as quality and quantity of water, wood fiber supply, wildlife habitat, etc. and even air quality issues. There is serious need to model and consider demand and supply issues stretching at least into the next century, maybe the next two centuries. This is one of the vexing issues with forestry: time spans. Forestry, unlike so many other professions, usually requires years from the time a prescription is implemented until the results are ready for evaluation.

So in attempting to help DeFazio create legislation we need to stress fundamentals and spend effort on taking a serious look at the big picture of our forests’ importance to the social and economic well-being of local communities, regional communities, and communities beyond the target of this legislation, the Northwest Plan boundaries. There is certainly no advantage to our forests or communities from another piece of legislation driven by ideology rather than good science and good forest practices.

I look forward to taking part in this exercise to help Peter create legislation that sincerely helps the forests and people, and not just trial lawyers.

We should start with an introduction which clearly explains the fundamental reasons for the national forests and the O&C lands existence. Over the past 30 years the legislative direction for the original establishment and management of these lands has been lost in fights over management or non-management of the lands.

I appreciate the need to honor other values beyond basic natural resources, and I agree the excessive focus on aggressive logging some two decades ago had many negative consequences. However, the growing anti-logging, anti- any commercial use is causing at least as much damage to the land, and certainly has caused continuing agony for the residents of forest-based communities.

So, in my humble opinion, it is time to do some serious thinking and gathering of wisdom about forests, human needs, economic realities and how to meet the basic intent of enabling legislation for these lands, while also addressing the other values and uses people want. Included in this pondering has to be answers to the question of how to pay for the protection and management of forest lands.

After watching the federal budget process become more partisan and media driven over the past 20 years, I can’t see anything good happening to the public forests without dealing with the need for stable financing. The forests are going to have to support their own care. Trees don’t vote and tax dollars flow to where the votes congregate. These priceless resource lands must have financial support to provide the care and protection they need to survive.

I recommend preparation of an alternative plan for the Congressman to consider; one that will care for old-growth as well as the replacement trees, and will deal with the insect, disease, fire, wildlife and other issues important to truly healthy and sustainable public forests.

John — After careful review, I tend to agree with you that an alternative bill might be better than amending DeFazio’s. Start over from scratch.

That would also be a worthwhile endeavor. The points you raise need to be discussed and potential solutions debated.

We should seize this opportunity. I look forward to working with you to re-craft the legislation into a form that works for all.

Section 4 d: Active management, including salvage, prohibited in Old Forest Recruitment Areas except when Beschta says so. Takes out S and M.

OFRA’s will be all significant areas of late successional forest that contain legacy forest features, meaning big trees, dead, dying or live, standing or down. Any time there is a “natural disturbance event” more OFRA’s would be created.

Yeah, I’m with John and Mike on this. Start the heck over. This is nothing more than codifying Beschta.

Well, since our forests definitely AREN’T “natural”, in no way can fires be considered to be a “natural disturbance event”. Hey, if wildfires would burn “naturally”, then we wouldn’t have any problems.

When politicians come up with solutions, we all have to consider the possibility that they don’t understand ecosystem science, at all. Of course, economics is usually just ignored, as the general public doesn’t understand fiscal realities either.

The re-write process is underway in the Forum. Your participation is invited. I will be posting updates here periodically as well.