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Bush's forest plan will actually do little to prevent risk of wildfire near communities. It will not protect endangered species habitat or prevent insect infestation.
And while some amount of prescribed burning needs
to happen, especially on upland pine savannahs where the endangered
woodpeckers make their homes, the Bush plan will also allow the
burning of mid and lower slope areas dominated by hardwood trees.
These areas are easily damaged by fire and should be left alone.
The Bush Administration and the timber industry have blamed environmentalists and existing environmental regulations for causing these forest "health problems." They claim that too much public comment has choked the ability of forest managers to deal with forest fuel reductions and endangered species habitat. However, according to the General Accounting Office, 95% of all fuel reduction projects went through without litigation during 2001 and 2002.
To further exacerbate these problems, Off-Road Vehicles have destroyed acres and acres of sensitive forest habitat. ORV users have illegally created trails through our national forests, trampling plants and animals and causing excess erosion. These vehicles have also been alleged for the ignition of wildfires in backcountry forests. So why would the Bush Administration continue to use commercial logging to supposedly restore our national forests? Why build more roads to try to reduce fire? And why has the ORV issue not been approached? The Forest Service Fire Lab has stated "likelihood that a home will ignite from wildfire is almost entirely determined by the landscape within 200 feet of the building and by the materials and design of the building." So why would the Bush forest plan emphasize thinning in the backcountry far from homes and communities?
Thinning and Logging: But instead of doing the job right, based on science and environmental impact analysis, the Bush Administration1s Forest Service will use commercial logging operations supposedly thin those forests in need. The problem with this is that the profit motive will drive the prescription of thinning projects. Since the overabundant smaller, younger trees are not commercially marketable, the Bush Forest Service will allow logging companies to also cut down the larger, older, more fire resistant trees. An example of this is the 440 year-old, six-foot-wide Shakespeare tree that was cut during a thinning operation in Oregon. Here in Texas, the Four Notch area of Sam Houston National Forest recently experienced a thinning operation that cut down mostly larger trees and in the process, damaged nearby trees and ruined a scenic area with wildlife ponds. The Bush forest plan calls for more of this kind of "thinning" which really amounts to commercial logging with a sugar-coated name. Southern Pine Beetles: Loblolly pines, also called swamp pines, usually grew among bottomland hardwood forests. They are quick growers and would have responded to the occasional sunny canopy opening created by the fall of some huge oak or hickory. This new stand of loblolly pines invading the sunny spot in the forest would in time become more and more susceptible to a pine beetle infestation. In the upland mixed forest of shortleaf pine and hardwoods, a similar event might happen with the fall of post oaks or blackjack oaks. Shortleaf stands would have also been helped by a slightly higher frequency of fire which would have burned the smaller trees and brush and creating a larger pine dominated stand. Again, as the stand aged, it would become more susceptible to pine beetle infestation. The hardy longleaf pines would have primarily existed in fire adapted upland savannas that would have also included older hardwood trees. Longleafs are the most resistant of the three Texas pine trees to southern pine beetle infestations. Red-cockaded Woodpeckers who lived in the oldest longleaf pines, fed on the beetles. By pecking their home trees the woodpeckers create sap flows to prevent rat snakes from climbing into their nests. These sap flows reduce the protective sap in the tree and actually raise its susceptibility to getting killed by southern pine beetles. As these pine trees grew older, and perhaps used as nesting trees for the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, they may have eventually been invaded by pine beetles and killed. Sometimes, whole stands of pines would be killed. In time the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers would have left the pines to find new stands of living old-growth pines. These standing dead trees, called snags, would actually provide new habitat for a colony of Red Headed Woodpeckers. Unlike their cousins, the Red Headed Woodpeckers prefer dead pine trees for their homes. In the meantime, the seeds of the now dead pine trees along with those of surrounding hardwoods, would have sprouted and a new forest would in time emerge. In the uplands, a natural fire would come through within a few years, burn the snags and most of the new growth, leave the larger, healthier trees, and create a new upland forest. In the bottomland areas, the snags would eventually be overtaken by younger hardwoods and loblolly pines. Thus, cycle would continue. Unfortunately, the logging industry has disrupted this natural process by clearing huge swaths of forest and replacing them with pine plantations consisting of the faster growing loblolly pines as well as the non-native slash pine. The hardwoods that once protected pines from pine beetles are now considered weed species in a farm for growing lumber producing pines. These cornrow fields of loblolly and slash pines are more susceptible to southern pine beetle infestations because for the beetle, they resemble expansive orchards of candy canes. Now, southern pine beetle infestations are much more explosive than the natural cycle of life. In order to reduce future pine beetle infestations on national forests, we must allow nature to return, stop commercial logging on national forests, and restore our forests to natural conditions. Bush1s forest plan would NOT restore our forests to a healthy state. Instead, it would increase commercial logging on publicly owned national forests, continue the destruction of hardwood forests, and eventually increase the likelihood of pine beetle infestations. Texas N.F. Economic Report More Resources:
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