Green Groups Urge Fire Fuel Reduction, Not Logging

WASHINGTON, DC, July 19, 2002 (ENS) - To clarify their positions concerning wildfire management on national forest lands, American conservation groups presented a letter to the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday. The groups say recent media reports and statements by federal and state officials have mistakenly characterized the environmental community as opposing most fire management strategies.

In total, 148 conservation groups signed the letter sent to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, outlining the conservation community's position on wildfires, home protection and fuel reduction projects.

"In recent weeks, some politicians and some U.S. Forest Service officials have repeatedly misrepresented the conservation community's position" on these issues, the conservation groups explain in the letter.

In the letter - which was also sent to every member of Congress and the Western Governors Association - the conservation groups make it clear they have always supported "common sense approaches designed to effectively protect homes and communities from fire."

Fire engulfs a hill on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest near Minden, Nevada. July 14, 2002 (Photo courtesy Sierra Front Office and NIFC)

"Unfortunately, the Forest Service has chosen to focus their priorities largely on commercial logging projects far removed from communities, not on effectively protecting communities," the letter explains. "[W]hat we are finding 'on the ground' is that National Fire Plan funds have been misused by the Forest Service to promote commercial logging, have not been targeted towards the highest risk areas, and have failed to effectively protect homes and communities from fires."

So far this year, almost 50,000 wildfires have burned 3,546,965 acres of public and private land across the nation, with the largest fires concentrated in the drought stricken western states. Some federal and state officials have blamed the large number of devastating fires - almost three times the 10 year annual average acreage burned - on litigation by environmental groups.

Critics charge these lawsuits have blocked fuel reduction projects on federal lands.

But conservation groups say they support most methods of fuel reduction and fire risk management, opposing only those projects that would log old growth trees in the name of fire prevention.

"For years, conservation organizations have been pressuring the Forest Service to focus its efforts on protection of communities through the use of both prescribed burning and reduction of underbrush, rather than continuing to log our remaining old growth trees in remote wildlands," said Brian Segee with the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona.

The Rodeo-Chedeski fire on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern central Arizona blazed from June 19 to July 7, 2002. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

"Far from being a right-wing poster child for environmentalism gone bad, the Rodeo-Chediski fire shows just how ferociously fires can burn through land that had been badly hammered by the logging industry and the U.S. Forest Service." he said.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) says the peak of this year's western fire season is yet to come. According to fire weather and predictive services experts at NIFC, the potential for extreme fire activity will continue to be high over the next two months, with the entire western United States expected to be hotter than normal and with some areas of drier than normal conditions.

Based on historical comparisons, about 80 percent of the large wildland fires that occur in many western states happen in July and August. With dry conditions reported in the Great Basin, California, Wyoming, southeast Montana, and pockets of eastern Washington and Oregon, the potential for fires to escape containment and become large is very high this summer.

Thursday was considered a good day, as firefighters were successful in containing three large fires and only one,in southern California, of the more than 300 wildland fires reported, became large. Of the 45 large fires burning currently, eight are expected to be contained by Sunday.

But Thursday brought tragedy as well, when a Hawkins and Powers Aviation PB4Y2 air tanker on contract with the U.S. Forest Service crashed while assigned to the Big Elk fire near Estes Park, Colorado. The two crew members aboard were killed, adding to public concerns about this year's record fire season.

Officials at the National Interagency Fire Center have issued a stand-down order for all contracted large airtankers and lead planes until noon Saturday, to allow the contractors to inspect and service their aircraft, and to give flight crews a day of rest.

"The Forest Service, Bush administration and anti-environmental members of Congress are spreading a great deal of misinformation about wildfire, hoping to capitalize on public fire hysteria and minimize public opposition to increased logging and roadbuilding in our national forests," said Jake Kreilick of the National Forest Protection Alliance based in Missoula, Montana.

"With virtually all new timber sales couched in terms of 'reducing fuels' or 'restoring forest health,' fire hysteria has emerged as the driving force behind the Forest Service's logging program and the administration's efforts to 'streamline' our nation's environmental laws," Kreilick said.

1997 Fire set by officials in Utah to burn unwanted fuel (Photo courtesy Utah Bureau of Land Management)

The governors are also seeking substantial funding in fiscal year 2003 to pay for community assistance in rural communities trying to protect homes, businesses and watersheds. Those same goals are supported by the conservation groups that wrote to the Forest Service this week.

The groups ended their letter to the Forest Service by saying, "As you can clearly see, the conservation community is deeply committed to the protection of homes and communities. We will continue to expand our efforts to safeguard communities, while at the same time, promote and support ecologically based restoration projects on our national forests. If the Forest Service supports these goals, we feel strongly that we can work together."

"However, if the Forest Service continues to misuse National Fire Plan money, the conservation community will continue to hold your agency accountable," the groups wrote. "The American people and our nation's public lands deserve no less."

Among the groups signing the letter were the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project , California Wilderness Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity, Endangered Species Coalition, Forest Guardians, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Native Forest Network, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Rainforest Action Network, and REP America (Republicans for Environmental Protection).

"It is time for the Forest Service to be accountable and set its fire management priorities where Congress and the American people have long demanded it," said Dr. Timothy Ingalsbee, director of American Lands Alliance's Western Fire Ecology Center in Eugene, Oregon.

Dr. Ingalsbee said the coalition supports "fuel reduction and fire protection directly adjacent to homes and communities instead of commercial logging or aggressive fire suppression in remote wildlands."