The Politics of Fire   Part 2  by Brian Allision

The record-setting 2000 fire season demonstrated dramatically that management of the nation’s forests must focus on prevention of catastrophic wildfires.  Just how to go about it has become a bone of contention among interest groups seeking to dictate public policy.

The root of the problem is clear:  After nearly a century of snuffing out nearly all fires as a matter of rigid policy, many of our forests have become virtual bombs, armed and primed.

For the timber industry, the solution couldn’t be simpler:  Cut more trees.  Logging on national forests declined precipitously in the last decade or so.

“The reason we have this problem has been a lack of management [of the forest],” said a spokesman for American Forest and Paper.  “As you cut down the harvest, you increase the fuel load and that increases the likelihood of fires.”

Environmentalists, naturally, disagree.  They cite the calamitous Peshtigo Fire of 1871, in which more than 1,200 citizens of Wisconsin perished because of logging.  Nearly all the larger trees of the forest were harvested, leaving dense underbrush and scattered slash which exploded in a deadly inferno.

The Forest Service proposed in January a plan designed to protect old-growth trees and endangered species while allowing limited logging of dense stands of smaller trees to reduce flammable fuels.  The plan, predictably, was ill-received by those on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

“I don’t want the timber companies on our national forests at all,” said Brock Evans of the Sierra Club, which recently voted to adopt a “zero-cut” policy on public lands.

Loggers were equally unimpressed.  “This plan guarantees to exacerbate the problem,” said Chris Nance of the California Forestry Association.  “Today, Sierra forests are 80 percent denser than they were 100 years ago...there are too many trees in the woods.”

The wheels of government move slowly, so don’t look for radical change in the forests anytime soon.  One thing, though, is certain:  The need for well-staffed fire lookouts has never been greater.