Wildfire Info Center Resources and Reports

Scientists Warn Against Fast-Track Logging in Forests Recovering from Fire: 169 Sign Letter Saying Logging Can Set Back Forest Recovery, Increase Fire Risks
In a letter sent to members of Congress, 169 scientists called for the defeat of legislative efforts to expedite logging in areas recovering from fires and other natural disturbances. The letter was released a day before the scheduled mark-up in Chairman Richard Pombo’s House Resources Committee of the Walden logging bill, H.R. 4200.

Post-Wildlfire Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk (pdf)
A new study done in the area burned in the Biscuit Fire in Southwestern Oregon in 2002 found that allowing trees to naturally regenerate works about as well or better than logging and replanting, and that undisturbed areas may be at lower fire risk in the future.

A Hard Look at the Bitterroot "Burned Area Recovery Plan" (pdf)
This new publication from the Native Forest Network examines the on-the-ground realities of the Bitterroot National Forest’s so-called "Burned Area Recovery Plan." Originally touted by the Forest Service and logging industry as a model approach to post-fire restoration and community protection following the 2000 wildfires, actual implementation of the "recovery" plan has been plagued by broken promises and a complete lack of accountability.

Postfire Management on Forested Public Lands of the Western United States (pdf)
This new report from a team of nine scientists examines the ecological effects of some common postfire treatments, including post-fire logging. The scientists reviewed postfire management practices within the context of ecological restoration and propose guidelines for postfire management aimed at maintaining or restoring the integrity of forested landscapes and their dependent freshwater systems. This report is a must read for anyone interested in postfire issues.

Wildfire Suppression: Funding Transfers Cause Project Cancellations and Delays, Strained Relationships, and Management Disruptions. GAO-04-612, June 2. (pdf)
Highlights avalable at http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04612high.pdf (pdf)

Restoration or Exploitation? Post-Fire Salvage Logging in America's National Forests (pdf)
With over half of the current logging volume on National Forests coming from post-fire timber sales, this groundbreaking report sheds light on the true ecological and economic costs from one of the most ecologically-destructive forms of commercial logging.

2003 California Wildfires: What burned and why
US Geological Survey research indicates fire suppression and fuel buildup are not responsible for shrubland fires in southern California.

2003 Wildfires: Comparing Plum Creek Timber Company Lands with US Forest Service Wilderness and Unroaded Lands (pdf)
Forest monitoring trips by the Native Forest Network clearly reveal that, despite being heavily logged, "thinned" and roaded, this summer's wildfires burned very intensely on Plum Creek Timber Company lands.

Yet Another GAO Report Confirms that Appeals and Litigation Don't Delay Fuel Reduction Projects
On October 24, 2003 the General Accounting Office released a new study entitled, "Information on Forest Service Decisions Involving Fuels Reduction Activities" .pdf). The new report confirms, once again, that administrative appeals (the opportunity for the public to make suggestions to the Forest Service on proposed projects) and litigation do no cause delays to fuel reduction projects. This is the fourth GAO study since 2001 to have similar findings.

New GAO Report Shows Federal Agencies Fail to Identify Lands at Risk from Fire and Fail to Make Community Fire Protection a Priority (pdf)
On September 15, 2003 the General Accounting Office released a report on Wildland Fire Management, which found that (1) federal agencies have failed to identify lands at risk of fire; (2) federal agencies have failed to make community fire protection a priority and (3) the main reasons fuel reduction projects could not proceed were due to the weather and the diversion of fuel reduction funds to fight wildfires, not due to "analysis paralysis" as repeatedly claimed by Bush Administration officials.

Analysis of Litigated Hazardous Fuel Reduction Projects
Despite repeated claims by the Bush Administration and logging industry that Forest Service fuel reduction projects are being stopped by litigation this new analysis shows that of all the acreage slated for fuels reduction in fiscal years 2001 and 2002 only 2% was litigated and only about 1% was subject to any interim injunction. Click here for the report (pdf) and here for the accompanying spreadsheet (pdf).

General Accounting Office Report Seriously Contradicts Bush Administration's Claims of "Analysis Paralysis."
A May 2003 General Accounting Office (GAO) report (pdf) shows that 95% of the 762 Forest Service fuels reduction projects it analyzed were ready for implementation within the standard 90 day review period. The latest GAO report is consistent with findings from a 2001 GAO report and an April 2003 report from researchers at Northern Arizona University. All three of these independent reports seriously contradict Bush Administration's claims of "analysis paralysis."

Show Me the Data! (pdf approx 120KB)
This new paper from Jacqueline Vaughn, a professor at Northern Arizona University, explains how members of Congress and the Bush Administration were successful in demonizing environmental groups through the use of rhetoric and the repetition of unconfirmed data to reduce their influence and credibility in the forest and fire policy debate.

Analyzing USDA Forest Service Appeals (pdf)
While the Bush Administration attempts to significantly limit the public's right to participate in decisions affecting America's public lands, a new report from Northern Arizona University shows that appeals of Forest Service projects have actually dropped significantly since 1998. The researchers found that for such a politically contentious issue there has been no comprehensive and systematic analysis of the outcomes of the appeals process. In order to answer basic questions such as: How many appeals are processed by the Forest Service annually, who the appellants are and type of projects being appealed the researchers found it necessary to construct their own database of Forest Service appeals.

Wildfire Protection Begins at Home (pdf)
This general handout provides information about effectively protecting homes and communities from wildfires.

Small Fraction of Restoration Work Actually Completed On One Year Anniversary of the Bitterroot Settlement
On February 7, 2002 the U.S. Forest Service, timber industry and seven conservation groups signed a Settlement regarding the Bitterroot National Forest's controversial "Burned Area Recovery Plan." While the Forest Service touted restoration as the top priority of their "recovery" plan, conservation groups repeatedly pointed out that the Forest Service was using restoration as a smokescreen to push through a massive commercial logging project. A year later, with less than 3% of the watershed and road restoration work completed, all restoration work on the Bitterroot is on hold and may never be finished.

LA Times: Forests Show Resilience as Fires Pass: Despite grim evaluations during summer, officials say large swaths only lightly burned.
KERNVILLE, CA - As flames leaped across the West this summer, so did the hyperbole. If fires weren't devastating, they were horrific or catastrophic. Colorado's governor at one point declared his state ablaze. Television sets blared the peril to California's groves of giant sequoias. In August, President Bush tramped through the charred landscape of a fire that had raged across southern Oregon and Northern California and declared the sight a "crying shame." But now
that the smoke has cleared, the scene is not so grim. In the path of each of the major wildfires that captured national attention this year, large swaths of land emerged only lightly burned - often better off for a much needed forest cleaning.

Associated Press: Closer look inside wildfire shows that all is not black
GRANTS PASS, OR - When Biscuit, the nation's biggest wildfire this year, was on its hind legs and roaring last July, anyone looking at the towering plumes of smoke in Southwestern Oregon could only wonder how anything could survive the inferno. Now that most of the flames have cooled, however, a look at the nearly 500,000 acres within the containment lines reveals a landscape typical of wildfire: More than half either did not burn, or burned at low intensity, leaving mature trees green, standing, and better off.

Major Wildfire Reports and Documents
This site contains Congressional Research Service documents, Forest Service reports, General Accounting Office reports, and more reports related to wildfires and the National Fire Plan.

Federal Fire Policy Documents
This site, compiled by the Western Fire Ecology Center, contains a wealth of documents concerning federal fire policy.

Recovery Plan or Salvage Logging Scam? (pdf)
In the summer of 2000, lightning and human caused fires burned over 300,000 acres of the Bitterroot National Forest (BNF) in Montana. The fires burned primarily through a landscape that had been heavily logged and roaded during the past forty years. Immediately following the wildfires - under the guise of 'fuel-reduction' and 'restoration' - BNF officials began planning a massive post-fire 'salvage' logging operation for the Bitterroot. See photos of this 'recovery plan' in action.

Exposing the Bush Administration's "Thinning" Plan
The Bush Administration and Forest Service are using the Fort Valley timber sale in the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona as the posterchild for the type of "thinning" they envision over 30 million acres of National Forests. However, photos of the site after logging reveal that Fort Valley is just another commercial timber sale.

Blowing Smoke: Industrial Logging Under the Guise of Fuels Reduction (pdf)
A new report by American Lands Alliance details how the Forest Service has used fire as an excuse for more logging, why the Administration's Healthy Forest Initiative will only exacerbate the problem, and what steps can be taken to ensure communities are protected from wildfires.

Restoration or Exploitation? The Case of Fort Valley Timber Sale
The conservationists perspective on the Fort Valley timber sale - the Bush Administration's posterchild "thinning" project. View more photos of Fort Valley following the logging and decide for yourself: is this restoration or exploitation?

Wildland-Urban Fire Research Publications
Jack Cohen of the US Forest Service's Fire Sciences Lab in Missoula, Montana has conducted extensive research on wildland-urban fires. Cohen's wildland-urban ignition research indicates that a home's characteristics and the area immediately surrounding a home within 100 to 200 feet principally determine a home's ignition potential during a severe wildland fire. This is a link to Cohen's recent research and publications.

Fire Analysis Shatters Common Misperceptions about Western Wildfires
The results of an independent assessment of the Rodeo and Chediski Fires in Arizona indicate that many politicians have been off base when they blame these fires on environmental groups and contend that logging would have prevented the fires. Pacific Biodiversity Institute released a report July 9, 2002 evaluating the factors that led to this 468,638-acre fire complex in Arizona.

Effectively Treating the Wildland-Urban Interface to Protect Houses and Communities from the Threat of Forest Fire (pdf)

Getting Burned by Logging
In the first year of the Bush Administration, the United States Forest Service inappropriately used National Fire Plan brush reduction funds to plan large timber sales in the Sierra Nevada. Learn more in this new report from the John Muir Project.

Wildfire and Salvage Logging: Recommendations for Ecologically Sound Post-fire Salvage Logging and Other Post-fire Treatments on Federal Lands in the West (pdf)
Click HERE for the text of a letter send July 3, 2002 from the "Beschta Report" scientists to the subcommittee on forest health in response to US Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth assertion that the "Beschta Report" is questionable.

Environmental Effects of Postfire Logging: Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography - "McIver Report" (pdf)

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Postfire Rehabilitation Treatments (pdf)

Livestock Grazing and Forest Fires: A literature Review (pdf)

Ponderosa Poster Child (pdf)
This report examines how the U. S. Forest Service has misrepresented and oversimplified the historic condition of ponderosa pine forests in order to justify thinning the large, commercially valuable trees.

From the Ashes: Reducing the Rising Costs and Harmful Effects of Western Wildfires
Federal mismanagement of National Forests made the 2000 fire season the most expensive fire year in history. From the Ashes: Reducing the Harmful Effects and Rising Costs of Western Wildfires offers a blueprint for reform and calls on the President and Congress to act immediately to address how our nation responds to wildfires.

The Wildland-Urban Interface: Protecting Communities from Forest Fires (pdf)

Logging and Wildfires: What Does Science Say?

Logging Does Not 'Fire Proof' Our Forests
The logging industry would have us believe that more commercial logging in our National Forests can prevent future wildfires. However, this belief is not supported by scientific evidence.

Wildfires and Roadless Areas: Excerpts from the US Forest Service Roadless Rule DEIS and FEIS

Burned trees are an essential part of a healthy forest
Burned trees play a vital role in forest rejuvenation after a fire, and scientific research has demonstrated that logging of burned trees - often referred to as 'salvage' logging - may hinder these natural processes.

The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative
This alternative was developed by local environmental groups in Montana in response to the Bitterroot National Forest's proposal to log 45,000 acres following the 2000 wildfires. It serves as a model burned area recovery plan for forests of the northern Rockies, but may also have application in other forest types. The alternative – based on the best available science – provides local jobs restoring the forest and protecting homes from wildfires.