In response to last year’s devastating fire season,
the Forest Service has proposed 330 projects over the next two
years to reduce the threat of disease and fire while producing an
estimated 1.5 to 2 billion board-feet of timber. Some 1 million
acres would be affected, including as much as 150,000 acres on
roadless areas. The plan would allow salvage logging on as much as
200,000 acres of fire-damaged land, thinning trees on nearly
400,000 acres of unburned forest, setting controlled fires on more
than 300,000 acres, and replanting trees on 130,000 acres. The
timber industry says the Western Forest Health Initiative does not
go far enough. “There’s a very serious forest health problem in the
West, and a small number of demonstration projects doesn’t even
come close to addressing it,” says Doug Crandall, vice president of
the American Forest and Paper Association. Environmentalists, who
oppose opening roadless areas to logging, say the plan is a ruse.
“The Western Forest Health Initiative is garbage. It’s another term
to get wood products out of the forest,” says Barry Rosenberg of
the Spokane-based Inland Empire Public Lands Council. Forest
Service officials say the plan will comply with environmental laws.
Local agency offices should have copies available of the forest
health initiative.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline RX for forests.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
