West Coast wildfires burned a historic 5 million acres of land this season, but as the ash settles in Oregon’s forests, the state faces a new challenge: What happens next?
On Oct. 21, Oregon Wild, an environmental advocacy organization, held a press conference to address the swaths of scarred land left behind from the fire season. The panel mirrored other environmentalists by advocating a “hands off” approach, which contrasts historical responses from the Forest Service and the timber industry.
Steve Pedery, conservation director at Oregon Wild, told Street Roots that the impulse to “fix” charred forests is a bad idea for long-term forest regeneration.
“What that typically means in Oregon is a chainsaw and a bulldozer and clear cutting whatever is left after the fire, and then replanting it with economically attractive species,” Pedery said.
Oregon Wild’s concern about overharvesting burnt forests is rooted in a tumultuous history surrounding environmentalists, logging and fire.
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting’s podcast “Timber Wars,” a loophole for timber companies opened after Congress passed the salvage logging rider in 1995, which allowed logging in burned areas without environmental review.
Activists fought back, but the practice still exists, and it surrounds the removal of “hazard trees.”
Wildfires leave acres of forest with different degrees of burn damage. Some trees live through it, while others die and become unstable; these dead trees often become hazard trees.
Michael Krochta, forest watch coordinator at the Mt. Hood National Forest watchdog group BARK, said hazard trees are loosely defined as trees that have potential to fall close to roadways or hiking areas.
This loose definition has created conflict between the Forest Service, which defends cutting back dead trees, and environmentalists, who are quick to say the Forest Service oversteps its bounds to help timber companies turn a profit.
This divide is emblematic of how different groups see wildfire cleanup in Oregon.
Stephen Baker, a spokesperson from the Northwest arm of the Forest Service, told Street Roots the agency’s main priority now is to remove the hazard trees and protect surrounding areas. But Baker also noted that the economic state of nearby towns sometimes influences the amount the Forest Service cuts, because hazard trees are auctioned at salvage sales.
This echoes the concerns of Brenna Bell, staff attorney for BARK, who said that such efforts have led to overlogging in the past.
In 2014, the 36 Pit Fire burned thousands of acres in Estacada. Once extinguished, Forest Service officials began cutting hazard trees along roadways in the area. But activists at BARK said they found trees removed far downhill from roads and trails, and many of it was done in a “clear-cut fashion.”
In a letter BARK provided to Street Roots, the Forest Service defended its need to clear burnt trees from Mt. Hood National Forest, saying it made these cuts to help the areas regrow. Members of the environmental nonprofit say this is the wrong method for healthy regrowth.
“If forest ecology is what we’re going for, then salvage (logging) is the opposite direction,” Bell said.
Bell compared the fragility of Oregon’s charred forests to a small burn she had on her own skin, saying these injuries need time to heal before any action can be taken. The decades-long activist added that dead trees still play important roles in the ecosystem, to house wildlife and preserve the soil.
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Oregon Wild also advocates a hands-off approach to non-hazardous burn sites and emphasizes the importance of fire for maintaining healthy ecosystems. Pedery noted that much of the low-intensity fires will be good for the environment in the long run.
Oregon Wild spokesperson Arran Roberston referenced controversial research about the cost of post-fire logging, published after the Biscuit Fire, which burned in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in 2002.
The research, titled “Post-Wildfire Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk,” stated post-wildfire logging significantly reduced forest regeneration in the two-year period after the Biscuit Fire.
This finding became a point of political dispute before and after publishing, and a Los Angeles Times article explains how politicians and timber industry officials harassed its primary author, Daniel Donato, as well as Oregon State University, in an attempt to stop its release.
John Sessions, a forest engineering professor, and former Washington state Rep. Brian Baird, both criticized the study, and both published comments disputing the legitimacy of Donato’s research.
But despite political opposition, research like Donato’s contributed to the growing body of evidence showing wildfires are necessary to the Western environment, and Pedery said the low-intensity burn areas in Oregon will likely create a healthy diversity of new and old-growth forest in the next 20 years, if left alone.
Pedery also brought up the Columbia River Gorge fires of 2017. He noted that despite the damages and people’s concerns about losing their favorite hiking spots, the fire ended up being one of the best things for preserving that landscape and promoting biodiversity.
Everyone who spoke with Street Roots agreed that clearing hazard sites is the necessary next step, but environmentalists remain wary about the possibility of overlogging and say Oregon needs to come up with better evacuation plans for future fire events.
“They tell you where to go to find high ground in the event of a tsunami, and we’re starting to take earthquakes seriously, with preparation in urban areas for what will happen when the inevitable quake comes,” Pedery said. “But we don’t treat fires in the same way.”
Oregon’s state government gives weekly updates of wildfire cleanup on its official website, and most of the progress relates to cleaning up burned buildings. The site also has a list of resources for hazardous waste removal, and shelters for those who have lost their homes.
Wildfires burned over 1 million acres in Oregon this year, according to the state Department of Forestry. These areas are still under inspection as management approaches are considered.
Oregon Emergency Management is initially focusing on cleanup efforts in Jackson, Linn, Lane and Marion counties.
Baker said that it’s too early to tell whether the historic fires will affect the annual timber target, a quota the United States government provides to logging companies and the Forest Service for trees to be sold.