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The Conservation and Local
Economy Alternative
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
During the summer of 2000, over 300,000 acres of the Bitterroot
National Forest in Montana were burned by a number of wildfires
- both lightning and human caused. The wildfires burned primarily
through a landscape that had been heavily logged and roaded
during the past fifty years.
In April 2001, Bitterroot National Forest (BNF) Supervisor
Rodd Richardson proposed a "recovery" plan for the
burned areas of the Bitterroot National Forest that included
logging of up to 280 million board feet of trees from over
79,000 acres - or 125 square miles. To put this into perspective,
the Forest Service planned to "restore" the BNF
by logging enough trees to fill 56,000 log trucks lined up
for nearly 500 miles!
Since conservationists felt BNF officials were headed down
the wrong road to recovery, we decided to use the best available
science to develop the Conservation and Local Economy Alternative
(pasted below).
The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative adopts the
results of the Forest Service's own research - research which,
coincidentally, BNF officials have repeated chosen to ignore:
the most effective way to protect homes from wildfire is to
focus on the home and its immediate surroundings - typically
within 40 meters of a home - and that post-fire 'salvage'
logging does not reduce future fire intensity and is not a
component of sound forest restoration.
Unfortunately - but predictably - the Forest Service went
ahead with their massive logging proposal. However, it is
ironic that while the Forest Service ignored the Conservation
and Local Economy Alternative, the Record of Decision signs
the praises of this alternative:
- "In the long-term, Alternative G [The Conservation
and Local Economy Alternative] would improve watershed
and aquatic habitat more than the other alternatives because
of its more aggressive watershed improvement treatments."
- "Alternative G would conduct fuel reduction activities
in the immediate vicinity of private homes using primarily
manual methods, depending on needs and homeowner preference.
These activities would improve defensible space and reduce
ignitability risks in the immediate vicinity of homes
in the wildland-urban interface."
If you would like more information on the Conservation and
Local Economy Alternative please contact Matthew Koehler of
the Native Forest Network at koehler@wildrockies.org.
Purpose and Need
The alternative meets the following purpose and needs:
- Provide for, and aid, natural recovery of the burned area.
- Improve the protection of homes from wildfire.
- Provide economic opportunities for in Ravalli County.
- Provide for clean water, healthy watersheds.
- Reduction in nonnative weeds.
- Restore wildfire into the forest ecology outside of the
Wildland-Urban Interface.
- Improve the scientific understanding of fire ecology.
- Improve the public s understanding of fire ecology and
forest management.
Summary
This alternative protects homes from wildfire and improves
forest health. It is based soundly on the best available science.
Two compelling themes emerge from the scientific literature
and on-the-ground experience with fire and forest health issues
related to fire. They are:
- The chances of a home igniting during a wildfire is determined
almost entirely on what happens within a hundred yards of
the home. The landscaping within 40 meters of the home and
the building design and materials determine whether or not
a home will catch fire. Home protection is a local endeavor
. It is what is done on private property that really counts.
What is done miles away on national forest land has almost
nothing to do with saving homes from wildfire. (Cohen, Preventing
Disaster, 2000; USDA, 1999, Reducing the Wildfire Fire Threat
to Homes: Where and How Much , 2000; Cohen, Why Los Alamos
Burned , 2000).
- Fire is a major force of nature that is a natural part
of the forest in the Bitterroot Valley. On the other hand,
past human management has led to the need for proactive
management to restore these forests.
Wildland fires are meant to happen. Natural recovery, or
more accurately natural succession, works well. Our attempts
to intervene in nature s dynamic should be limited to facilitating
the natural forces at work. Human intervention is only necessary
in areas where we have done damage or made significant changes
to the landscape before the fire. The two biggest issues to
deal with are to remove/rehabilitate roads and to allow lightning-caused
fire to play its ecological role. (Beschta, et. al., 1995;
Mclver and Starr, PNW-GTR-486, 2000; Stickney, 1990).
The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative provides home
protection through a Homeowner Education Program and a Community
Conservation Corps. The Corps will provide both fire hazard
assessment and fire hazard reduction landscape assistance
free of charge. Applying fire hazard actions to private land
is the only way to effectively reduce the homeowner s risk
due to wildfire.
The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative sustains forest
health by allowing and facilitating natural recovery and succession.
Unroaded areas and areas that were not intensively managed
prior to the fire will be allowed to naturally recover. Active
recovery efforts of road rehabilitation, road removal, stream
banks stabilization, and in some cases, replanting, will be
done in areas that were damaged through human management prior
to the fire. Weed control will be done through prevention
and control in areas where weeds are known to have occurred
prior to the fire.
The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative provides for
the collection of scientific field data that will greatly
increase our understanding of fire. Several study areas will
be selected for different conditions and management approaches,
utilizing appropriate experimental design, data collection
and analysis.
Basis for the Conservation and Local Economy Alternative
Three issues must be addressed to meet the purpose and need:
- Improve the protection of homes from wildfire.
- Insure the healthy recovery of the burned area.
- Allow fire to play its natural role in the forest ecosystem.
Based on the best available science, an alternative that
best facilitates the recovery of the burned area, the restoration
of fire into the ecosystem and protects homes needs to be
consistent with the following principles:
- The large majority of burned areas recover naturally without
any significant intervention (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Mclver
and Starr, PNW-GTR-486, 2000; Stickney, 1990).
- Sites that were damaged before the fire from roads, timber
harvest, grazing, and other developments are most likely
to require intervention to aid natural recovery. (Beschta
et. al., 1995; Lyon, GTR-INT-184, 1976).
- The likelihood that a home will ignite from wildfire is
almost entirely determined by the landscape within 40 meters
of the building and by the materials and design of the building.
(Cohen, Preventing Disaster, 2000; Cohen, Reducing the Wildfire
Fire Threat to Homes: Where and How Much , 2000; Cohen,
Why Los Alamos Burned , 2000).
- Management activity, including fuel reduction, beyond
40 meters away from a home has little effect on the likelihood
that a home will ignite during a wildfire. (Cohen, Preventing
Disaster, 2000; Cohen, Reducing the Wildfire Fire Threat
to Homes: Where and How Much , 2000; Cohen, Why Los Alamos
Burned , 2000).
- Salvage Logging usually does significant damage, significantly
changes the plant and animal succession, and has no ecological
benefit. (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Robichaud, et. al., PNW-GTR-486,
2000).
- Herbicides have significant effects on native plant, shrub
and tree succession persisting for several years after application.
(Lyon, GTR-INT-184, 1976).
- Stand replacing fires are a natural occurrence to which
the forest is adapted with the exception of some lower elevation
forest types. (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Interior Columbia
Basin EIS, 2000).
- Even ponderosa pine forests have been found to have originated
in stand replacing fire events. (Arno et al. 1995).
- Drought and other climatic factors are the primary causes
of large-scale whichfires, which occur regardless of fuel
conditions. (Schmoldt, Daniel L. , et. al., , PNW-GTR-455,
USFS, 1999).
- Fire suppression, logging, and grazing areis the primary
causes of unnatural fuel conditions. (Beschta, et. al.,
1995; Mclver and Starr, PNW-GTR-486, 2000; Schmoldt, Daniel
L. , et. al., PNW-GTR-455, USFS, 1999).
Based upon these principles, two distinct categories of the
landscape emerge: The Wildland-Urban Interface, which lies
within 40 meters of structures, and the area outside of the
Wildland-Urban Interface. Two distinct goals are thus differentiated.
In the Wildland-Urban Interface the goal is to protect homes
while providing aesthetic appeal and maintaining habitat as
much as possible. Outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface,
the goal is to allow and, when needed, aid natural succession
of the forest ecosystem, including post-fire succession.
Applying the above principles to the Wildland-Urban Interface,
we find that the management activity that is effective at
protecting homes occurs on private property with few exceptions.
In order to protect homes from wildfire, the home design and
construction materials must resist ignition from firebrands.
The landscape within 40 meters of the home must be thinned
to eliminate the likelihood of a crown fire and small fuels
must be removed to stop an approaching fire. The Forest Service's
roles, to aid in accomplishing these actions, are homeowner
education and assistance in fuel management within 40 meters.
The Alternative includes two activities that implement effective
home protection assistance:
- A homeowner education program and
- A home site fuel reduction Corps.
Homeowner education is based upon a coordinated program of
public presentations, direct mail education material, media
public interest education, and news features. This is a more
intensive continuation of the education effort that has been
done for many years by the Ravalli County Resource Conservation
& Development.
Home site fuel reduction assistance will be accomplished
with a Community Conservation Corps formed by the Forest Service.
The Corps will provide free onsite assessment, education,
and landscape services. The Corps will consist of locally
hired workers and contractors.
Applying the principles outlined above to the area outside
of the Wildland-Urban Interface is based on the understanding
that natural forces, natural disturbance, and successional
processes will provide for recovery. Management actions are
utilized only on sites where natural recovery is determined
to be unlikely occur. (Beschta, et. al., 1995). In areas significantly
outside the normal range of vegetative conditions due to fire
exclusion, delineate where prescribed fire would be allowed
to burn, when caused by lightning. In some areas where allowing
a natural fire to burn might threaten home or other human
built structures, this alternative would require the Forest
Service to do all it can to prepare the structures and immediately
surrounding area.
Features of the Conservation and Local Economy Alternative
- HOME PROTECTION
Homeowner education will include direct mail to every household
in Ravalli County describing what is needed to protect a
home from wildfire. Annual public presentation of this information
will be given throughout the valley. In addition, public
presentations will be held on Jack Cohen s work (preferably
given by Jack Cohen, who works at the Missoula Fire Lab).
TV, Radio, and Newspaper ads will be run summarizing the
information and advising how to get help.
A Community Conservation Corps will be created. This Corps
will provide a fire-safety assessment and landscape fire
hazard reduction assistance free of charge to homes in the
Wildland-Urban Interface.
This responds to the issue of wildfire risk to private homes
and structures located in the Wildland-Urban Interface.
- BURNED AREA RECOVERY
Burned areas will be allowed to naturally recover except
where previous human activities have resulted in conditions
that require intervention.
This responds to the issue of insuring forest health through
natural post fire succession.
NATURAL RECOVERY OF BURNED AREA
Applicable areas. All burned areas that were not damaged
by intensive management, outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface.
Management action. Allow to naturally recover. The only
active management shall be trail maintenance and weed management
that is described below.
GRAZING REASSESSMENT
Applicable areas. Grazing allotments in the burned area.
Management Action. Eliminate cattle grazing in burned areas
and initiate National Environmental Policy Act before grazing
is allowed.
ROAD ELIMINATION
Applicable areas. All roaded areas on the Bitterroot National
Forest.
Management actions:
Remove and recontour all roads not needed for foreseeable
management projects, for the following reasons:
a) The lack of funding for the Forest Service to adequately
maintain all roads.
b) The ongoing ecological damage from roads that are not
or cannot be adequately maintained.
c) For affirmative response to the new Roads Policy.
d) For affirmative response to the commitments made by the
Forest Service in the bull trout programmatic Biological
Assessment.
e) For compliance with watershed analysis process requirements
as outlined in the Federal Guide for Watershed Analysis
(as mentioned in the INFISH Decision Notice).
ROAD REHABILITATION
Applicable areas. In all roaded areas on the Bitterroot
National Forest, the roads that are needed in the foreseeable
future will be rehabilitated.
Management action. Upgrade all culverts, so that they meet
INFISH specifications. For those remaining roads that are
causing damage to Priority, Key, or Special Emphasis watersheds
because of their location in Riparian Habitat Conservation
Areas, this alternative would relocate those sections of
road away from the riparian areas.
WATERSHED PROTECTION
Applicable areas. High hazard areas in the Wildland-Urban
Interface and in areas that are roaded and were intensively
managed prior to the fire.
Management action. Contouring felled logs and mulching.
In specific cases, planting will be used in areas where
a ground survey has shown that no seed source is available.
PLANT TREES
Applicable areas. Roaded and heavily logged areas where
there is no seed source as determined by, 1) Site analysis
of soil and seed sources that determines that there is no
available seed source, 2) Observation in the second or subsequent
years after the burn that natural recovery is not occurring.
Management Action. Seed or plant trees.
WEED PREVENTION
Applicable areas. Entire burned area.
Management actions. Human and equipment weed seed spread
will be limited by a weed prevention program. All commercial
activities (including timber, mushroom, and other harvesting
operations) shall have an equipment wash down, personnel
education program, and weed-free stock feed.
WEED CONTROL
Applicable areas. Areas that contained weeds prior to the
burn or have been assessed to have weed seed present.
Management actions. Survey and map locations of noxious
weeds. Apply Integrated Pest Management. The application
of herbicides shall be limited to hand application.
- INTEGRATE FIRE INTO THE ECOSYSTEMS OF THE BITTERROOT
NATIONAL FOREST
Amend the Forest Plan to formally adopt and actively implement
the Federal Wildland Fire Policy. The first and highest
priority is completion of a strategic fire management plan
that will guide fire recovery activities, fuels management
treatments, community fire education programs, and appropriate
management responses to wildland fires. This will initiate
a process of determining where prescribed burning may be
applied and where natural fire can be allowed to burn without
suppression activities.
This responds to two issues:
1. Ecosystems need fire to play its natural role in the
ecosystem.
2. Wildfires must not cause unwanted damage to homes and
other structures.
FUEL REDUCTION THROUGH NATURAL FIRE
Applicable areas. All areas outside of the Wildland-Urban
Interface that do not threaten homes. In those areas not
significantly outside the normal range of vegetative conditions
due to previous fire exclusion, delineate where natural
fire would be allowed to burn, when caused by lightening.
This includes all unroaded areas and all stand types in
the Bitterroot Valley other than some ponderosa pine/ Douglas
fir stands that are not near the Wildland-Urban Interface.
Management action. Monitor fire to insure that it does not
cause harm to life or homes.
FUEL REDUCTION THROUGH PRESCRIBED FIRE
Applicable areas. In those areas deemed to be outside the
normal range of vegetative conditions due to previous fire
exclusion.
Management action. In areas unlikely to burn outside the
normal range of intensity, apply prescribed fire. In those
areas deemed to be outside the normal range of vegetative
conditions due to previous fire exclusion and where a prescribed
fire would be likely to burn outside the normal range of
intensity, perform manual pretreatments in preparation for
prescribed fire and wildland fire use before conducting
prescribed burns.
DEVELOP SCIENCE
The Bitterroot fire area provides an opportunity to develop
badly needed information for understanding fire. (Schmoldt,
Daniel L., et. al., PNW-GTR-455, USFS, 1999). The alternative
includes the designation of study areas to assess the effectiveness
of various treatments proposed in the current literature,
compared to natural succession.
Two study areas of about 20 acres each will be selected
for the following treatments:
1. Thin from below.
2. Uneven aged thinning.
3. Prescribed burn.
4. Unmanaged.
FUNDING AND CONTRACTING
This alternative would not require that funding be immediately
or imminently available for all activities. However, the
Forest Service would rank all activities by priority based
upon their necessity to restore ecological functioning,
so that appropriate requests will be made in future budgets,
and so as to be able to respond as funding does become available.
Many of these actions might be funded under the funds made
available to Counties by the Secure Rural Schools and Community
Self-Determination Act of 2000 (the County Payments bill)
that was signed into law by President Clinton on October
30, 2000 (Public Law 106-393). It would require cooperation
of County Government and Resource Advisory Council, as well
as acceptance by the Forest Service.
Contracts shall be structured so that the size and content
fit the capabilities of local contractors. Hiring for the
Bitterroot Community Conservation Corps shall begin with
solicitation of workers from Ravalli County.
Literature Cited
Arno, S.F., Scott, J.H. and M.G. Hartwell. 1995. Age-class
structure of old growth ponderosa pine/Douglas fir stands
and its relationship to fire history. Res. Pap. INT-RP-481.
Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Intermountain Research Station. 25 p.
Beschta, RL; Frissell, CA; Gresswell, R; Hauer, R; Karr,
JR; Minshall, GW; Perry, DA; Rhodes, JJ. 1995. Wildfire and
salvage logging: recommendations for ecologically sound post-
fire salvage logging and other post-fire treatments on Federal
lands in the West. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University.
Cohen, Jack D., Preventing Disaster Home Ignitability in
the Wildland-Urban Interface , Journal of Forestry, March
2000.
Cohen, Jack D., Why Los Alamos Burned , USFS, 2000, USDA,
1999.
Cohen, Jack D., Reducing the Wildland Fire Threat to Homes:
where and how much? Paper presented at the Fire Economics
Symposium, San Diego, CA April 12, 1999.
Lyon, L. Jack, Vegetal Development on the Sleeping Child
Burn, 1961-1973, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment
Station, Ogden, UT, GTR-INT-184, 1976.
Mclver, James D. and Lynne Starr, Environmental Effects of
Postfire Logging: Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography
, PNW-GTR-486, USFS, 2000.
Robichaud, Peter R. , et. al., Evaluating the Effectiveness
of Postfire Rehabilitation Treatments, RMRS-GTR-63, USFS,
2000.
Stickney, Peter, et. al. , Wildfires and Wildflowers , MNPS
3rd Annual Meeting, 1990.
Schmoldt, Daniel L. , et. al., Assessing the Effects of Fire
Disturbance on Ecosystems: A Scientific Agenda for Research
and Management , PNW-GTR-455, USFS, 1999.
US Forest Service and BLM, Interior Columbia Basin Supplemental
Draft Environmental Impact Statement, 2000.
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