Contacts: Allan West
September 22, 2003
FOREST SERVICE RETIREES URGE ACTIVE FOREST
MANAGEMENT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MOUNTAINS
SAN
BERNARDINO, Calif.– Allan West, testifying for the National Association
of Forest Service Retirees (NAFSR) at the House Resource Committee hearing
today at Lake Arrowhead concerning the crisis on the San Bernardino National
Forest, pointed to past delays in timely action to treat the bark beetle
epidemic and fuel buildup in Southern California forests. The forests,
afflicted by drought-induced moisture stress, worsened by excess growth and
bark beetle infestations, now pose a dangerous threat from wildfire.
The retired foresters say that the complexity of our
forests requires the entire spectrum of active management practices to attain
sustainable and safe forest conditions, including thinning large and small
material to a level where moisture conditions allow the forest to withstand attacks
from insects, disease and devastating wildfire. Prescribed fire is an option,
they say, only after forest managers remove enough fuel to prevent the fires
from escaping and inflicting losses in the communities.
The environmental movement for many years opposed
timber harvest and successfully disrupted the program of beetle salvage, once
active in the area, to the point where wood products industry shut down,
leaving no market for excess growth and dead and diseased material from the
forest. The retirees believe there is enough material from salvage and forest
growth to support a modest industry, while at the same time improving forest
health. They also believe that small power generating plants are a viable
solution to the accumulation and disposal of small material not otherwise
commercially useful.
Regarding the forest flora
and fauna, forest mangers, according to Mr. West, should compare the short-term
risk involved in not protecting species against the long-term risk to that same
or other species by not taking
steps to maintain a healthy forest. It makes no sense, he says, to avoid action
now when inaction puts the species in greater jeopardy later.
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Note: The NAFSR report, “Forest Health and Fire: An
Overview and Evaluation” can be read and downloaded at
www.fsx.org/NAFSRforesthealth.pdf.