Fanning the Flames with Misinformation

By David Muhly (June 26, 2002)

On June 13, Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) issued a press release around his testimony before the House Forestry Subcommittee. In this testimony, presented along with Mark Rey, former timber industry lobbyist and now Agriculture Undersecretary that oversees the Forest Service, Mr. Goodlatte cynically portrayed the recent Marbleyard fire in the George Washington National Forest in Virginia as an example of how environmental laws put America's National Forests at risk.

Spouting the same industry propaganda that asserts that healthy forests can't exist unless we log them, Goodlatte said that fuel for the fire was there "…because 'analysis paralysis' has successfully stopped management."

Mr. Goodlatte's comments represent an ongoing effort by many members of Congress (and some western governors) to blame environmental regulations and conservationists for the fires in the West, and those that will surely follow in the drought-stricken eastern National Forests. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As broadcast on a local ABC affiliate, the Virginia fire was not so much the result of a lack of management, but instead reflects what many have been saying all along: fire is much more prevalent, burns hotter, and is more destructive in areas that already been logged than in interior forest areas that have been left to mature. According to USFS employee Mike Hodges, battling the Virginia fire, "There's a lot of dead dry fuel on the ground where timber's been harvested the last couple of years. The relative humidity is dropping as we speak which allows the fuel to dry out quicker and that allows the fire to burn faster and hotter."

According to General Accounting Office (GAO) reporting, numerous independent studies, and the Forest Service's Roadless Area Conservation Rule, logging (along with previous decades of fire suppression) is one of the leading causes of fire intensity. Logging increases the number and severity of wildfires by reducing the larger, commercially valuable, fire resistant trees and leaving smaller-diameter stands to increase in density. Logging also opens up the forest floor to the drying effects of additional sunlight and leaves highly flammable accumulations of slash and debris.

A recent Chattanooga Times/Free Press editorial stated, "Preserving the roadless rule and protecting unlogged older forests also would reduce, not increase, forest fire hazards. Despite the self-serving talk of timber lobbyists, it is young forests with thick understory-not older forests with thin understory-that constitute the greatest forest fire risks."

It's unfortunate that-as naturally as summer follows spring-wildfires are followed by cynical attempts by industry to advance its own agenda on the backs of the property damage and fear that follow. Already the Western politicians are blaming environmentalists for the blazes in Colorado and Arizona, while the blame could more properly be laid on the diversion of federal monies earmarked to protect homes and businesses from fire to other uses, especially timber sales.

Environmentalists, however, have long been advocating for thinning near structures and urging all available resources be directed toward protecting lives, homes, and communities. Using a combination of controlled burning and removal of brush and small trees, the Forest Service should focus these projects near communities. The commercial logging program should be ended and programs developed to help homeowners prepare their homes for the threat of fires. Low intensity fires could be permitted to burn where this can be done in a way that does not jeopardize lives or communities.

Contrary to recent accusations, the Forest Service has not been hampered from preventing fires by lawsuits. The GAO found that of 1,671 'fuel reduction' projects last year, only twenty (1%) were appealed, and none were brought to court. Federal funds should, however, be spent protecting the lives, homes, and property that surround public lands, not wading into the middle of those lands with skidders and saws,

As drought continues in the East, and National Forests from Alabama to Pennsylvania face the threat of fire, federal managers here face the same problems as those in the West. Are funds going to be used to protect lives and homes or to prop up a timber program that only exacerbates the problem? Are federal Fire Prevention Plan funds going to be used where they will do the most good, or instead be fuel in the flames of hysteria whipped up by apologists for more extraction?

It's time some Members of Congress acquainted themselves with the facts and shook hands with the truth, rather than their friends in the timber industry. Perhaps then the answers to those questions will be evident to them.

David Muhly is Associate Regional Representative of the Sierra Club-Appalachian Region. He may be contacted at 276- 688-2190, david.muhly@sierraclub.org or Rt 2 Box 118 Bland, VA 24315.