Fix roads in Biscuit fire area

Eugene, OR. -- As the Jan. 6 article on the Oregon State University Biscuit fire study shows, post-fire salvage logging is bad for the environment and bad for the economy. This new study is a vindication for those scientists who have been arguing for years that post-fire salvage logging is a lose-lose situation.

But many people feel that something should be done after a forest fire, and they're right: We should fix the roads. The road system in the Biscuit burn area poses the single greatest threat to water quality and fish habitat.

Roads are the primary source of chronic erosion in the Biscuit area and most unburned forests throughout the state. Roads also can give way and trigger landslides, with devastating effects on human and natural communities. These threats are made worse after a fire burns through a forested area and renders soils more fragile - threats that then are exacerbated by salvage logging.

Fixing the roads in the Biscuit area not only would improve watershed conditions but would create local jobs, improve forest access routes and overall provide a greater return on taxpayer dollars. In other words, there really is a solution that's good for the environment and good for the economy.

DEANNA SPOONER

Conservation Director, Pacific Rivers Council