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Logging Change is Shortsighted {Jim Furnish recently retired as deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service after a 34 year career with the service including a term as forest supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon. He is now a forestry consultant.} It's dismaying to learn that the Bush administration is hell-bent on logging more Oregon and Washington old-growth timber. I had hoped the days of "log it first, ask questions later" had forever been replaced by answering the questions first. If the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are to become credible stewards of public forests, they need to truly conserve forests and stop pandering to the timber industry.
The real promises of the Northwest Forest Plan did not involve a certain supply of timber. Although one billion board feet was identified as the potential maximum timber harvest, it was predicated on the promise that it would proceed only when water quality, fish and wildlife issues were properly addressed. In some situations, this may mean no logging. The current effort to maximize timber harvest is shortsighted and unwise. The issue of what to do with the remnants of old-growth and mature forest is symbolically, but no longer economically, important. For decades, the forest products industry converted old growth into profit, but it now no longer needs big trees to survive and prosper. Large logs amount to only five percent of the supply to Oregon sawmills today. The total supply from federal lands is now only seven percent of sawmill production. Forget the reckless pursuit of cutting more old-growth. The substantive issue today is forest restoration. Oregon will never be like it was 100 years ago, but meaningful restoration of our forests is achievable. Do we have the heart to restore our forests, and while we're at it, replace cynicism with hope? The political capital expended in chasing the diminishing, contentious old-growth timber resource would be much better spent investing in badly needed restoration projects. The highest priorities are trees, roads and streams. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, the greatest need is to improve the condition of tree plantations from the bygone era of clearcutting. These plantations, now rapidly maturing, would benefit from thinning to yield fewer, but bigger, healthier trees in the future more like former old-growth forests. More than 1.5 million acres of national forest land could benefit by thinning. Right now, federal agencies are accomplishing only l,500 acres a year. Roads require recurrent maintenance, and old roads become liabilities unless they are adequately maintained or stabilized. Every bad flood hits such roads hard, creating unnecessary pollution and even costlier repairs. The Forest Service seems to find enough money to build new roads, but there's never enough to maintain the older ones. This chronic shortsightedness has created an enormous backlog with severe consequences to water quality and fish. Many streams have been badly damaged by roads and logging. These conditions have contributed to dramatic fish losses. Reducing the negative effects of roads and logging, coupled with high priority stream restoration projects, directly benefits streams and fish. As a case in point, consider Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon's Coast Range.
When I was forest supervisor in the 1990s, the Siuslaw went through a rapid transition from clearcutting to forest restoration. It is achievable. We stopped clearcutting and started thinning plantations instead. We carefully picked stream restoration projects to benefit endangered salmon. We picked the most important roads and maintained them well; we stabilized the rest to minimize erosion. The flood of 1996 wreaked havoc on many logging roads, but markedly less on roads that we had closed and stabilized, saving millions of dollars. This shift was applauded by the environmental community, jaded though it was by the bitter struggles over federal forest policy. Most national forests in Western Oregon and Washington mirror the opportunities we found on the Siuslaw. Politics can be slow and painful and typically lurch toward results that are acceptable to the public. But when an agency clings to an agenda that does not enjoy broad public support, opposition is guaranteed. The Forest Service should stop fighting over the dregs of old-growth and press the priority of restoration. This is a great time for leadership. |
Jim Furnish spent 34 years with the U.S. Forest Service (Photo courtesy Jim Furnish)
Enchanted Valley on the Suislaw National Forest (Photo courtesy 