March 19, 2003

Press Release Source: NAFSR

Sacramento, California (Business Wire) - The nation's Forest Service retirees, alarmed that public policy may be built upon a host of misconceptions regarding the causes and solutions to wildfires, are urging policy makers to rethink some common assumptions about regaining forest health and resistance to wildfire.

In a new report entitled "Forest Health and Fire: An Overview and Evaluation," the National Association of Forest Service Retirees (NAFSR) says that resistance to proven, professionally applied forest management practices is harming the very forestland their members spent their careers caring for.

"Because misconceptions so often influence public policy, we must challenge some of these that hinder understanding the problem and steer discussion toward more productive courses of action," the report states. "Our forests are a treasure-trove of untold spiritual and economic value. They are dynamic and diverse, requiring our best science and adaptive management for their perpetuation."

Arguing that forestry policy must be built upon both professional experience and sound science, the retirees' association identifies some common misconceptions about wildfires and forest health and proposes constructive remedies for attaining healthy, resilient forests.

While many urge policy makers to leave forests undisturbed, the retired foresters say that the complexity of our forests requires a complete spectrum of active management practices to attain sustainable forest conditions.

"The recent widespread wildfire events dramatically demonstrate the impossibility of maintaining the forest as it is," the report concludes.

"Humans can use their knowledge of forest dynamics and act in ways to maintain the biological processes necessary for the health of the forest."

While some commonly attribute fuel buildup to past fire suppression efforts, the growth-to-removal ratio is the major cause of the fuel buildup in western forests. In the Sierra Nevada national forests alone, there is a net growth of more than 2 billion board feet of wood per year.

The retired foresters recommend that forestry officials and managers:

· Aggressively attack fires to keep them from becoming uncontrollable, but allow fires that fit an approved fire plan to burn under prescribed conditions as long as they don't pose a threat to forest health or human communities;

· Work with nature by replicating natural processes leading to a mosaic of age classes of trees, including openings, which will assure "both sustainability of all components of the forest," and discourage disastrous fires;

· Conduct better accounting of the lost resources as well as the cost of fire suppression and destroyed man-made structures. Destruction of watersheds and water delivery infrastructure can be a major cost of fires.

· Determine "the cost of management inaction to restore forests and reduce unusual risks of fire, insect infestation and disease." Without such analysis, says the NAFSR report, "we are hiding the true cost" of these disasters;

· Compare the short-term risk involved in not protecting an endangered species against the long-term risk to that same or other species by not taking steps to maintain a healthy forest;

· Encourage communities and individuals to use the self-help fire protection program "Firewise Communities" to assess fire risk and design protection programs for local areas.

"The huge job of designing, establishing and maintaining a healthy forest may be the largest, most complex program ever undertaken by agencies managing our public forests," the report states. "With science providing the understanding of the local conditions and the limitations they impose, we can engage in serious public discussions about what cluster of values society wants in its forests. We can then have the forest managers apply the art."

Note: The new report, "Forest Health and Fire: An Overview and Evaluation," can be read and downloaded at www.fsx.org/NAFSRforesthealth.pdf.

If you would like a hard copy, contact Cheryl Rubin, 530-823-2363 or cr@calforests.org