Scientific Report Shows Logging and Road Building Will Not Protect Forests From Fire

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With the nation’s attention understandably riveted on western forest fires, the timber industry and its political allies are calling for more logging on publicly owned national forests. According to the logic of timber advocates such as Montana Governor Marc Racicot, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), and presidential candidate George W. Bush, if the forests had only been logged, they would not have burned. They have taken particular aim at a Clinton Administration proposal backed by scientists and environmentalists to ban road construction on millions of acres of pristine national forest. Timber sales have generally declined on federal lands in the last decade to protect watersheds, old growth forests, recreational opportunities, and endangered species.

The facts revealed in a scientific report released today by the Pacific Biodiversity Institute (Assessment of Summer 2000 Wildfires in Western United States in Relationship to Landscape History, Current Landscape Condition and Land Ownership) show that the arguments for additional logging are self-serving attempts to exploit emotions and human tragedy for corporate profit. The facts simply don’t support the political rhetoric. Using advanced satellite imaging, federal fire data, and computer mapping systems, the Institute scientifically analyzed the location, size, land ownership, forest type and management history of five of the largest fires. It also reviewed regional fire patterns over the last century. The report was produced for the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, and the Pacific Rivers Council.



“When the smoke clears, the claims of logging advocates are revealed to be hot air,” said Mitch Friedman, Executive Director of Northwest Ecosystem Alliance.  “If the American people didn’t already know that you can’t save a forest by cutting it down, the proof has now emerged from the flames themselves.”



“Logging is the problem, not the answer,” said Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity. “It is disgusting to see politicians exploit human tragedy to in order to help an industry that has already done so much damage to our forests. We need to base forest policy on facts, not heat of the moment rhetoric.”

“In very dry years, many kinds of forest, shrubland and grassland burn,” said David Bayles, of Pacific Rivers Council.  “The cause of this year’s widespread fires is drought, not forest policy.”

The Pacific Biodiversity Institute’s report determined:



• Only 31% of the acreage burned was on National Forest land. Proposals to massively increase logging on National Forests, therefore, miss most of the areas actually under greatest threat of fire.

• Much of the land burned was not forested. A large proportion of the acres burned were grasslands, juniper woodlands and other non-forest areas where forest thinning is a non-issue.


• Much of the burning occurred in forests where intense fire is natural. While some dry forest types (i.e. ponderosa pine) naturally have frequent, cool burning fires, others (i.e. subalpine fire, lodgepole pine, etc.) naturally have intense, stand replacement fires at long intervals. Much of the forest acreage burned this year is in latter type. Such fires are not only natural, they are beneficial to the ecosystem.

• Most of the forested area which burned was managed timberland, not pristine old growth. Contrary to timber industry rhetoric about logging to prevent fires, most of the forests which burned this year had already been logged. Logging simply doesn’t prevent forest fires.
• Only 38% of the acres burned were in roadless or wilderness areas. Most fires neither originated in, nor were confined to roadless area, demonstrating the hollowness of attacks on roadless area protection.

• Analysis of five of the largest fires (Valley/Skalkaho (MT), Kate’s Basin (WY), Canyon Ferry (MT), Burgdorf Junction (ID), and Clear Creek (ID)) confirms the west-wide pattern: 36% of area was non-forested, 57% was in naturally high intensity burn forest types, only 8% occurred in naturally cool burning forest types. Most of the acres were in roaded, managed forests

• The acres burned this year are well below the century’s average. The 6.4 million acres burned thus far is much less than the 13.9 million acre average from 1916 to 1999. Over 7 million acres have burned in 1988 and 1963, over 50 million acres burned in 1930 and 1931. Large regional fire years are the norm, not the exception.



“The timber industry and its supporters claim this is an extreme fire season, but they are ignoring some very basic facts,” said Peter Morrison of the Pacific Biodiversity Institute. “This year is really not all that extreme. In fact it is really well below the average for the last 84 years. This year severe fires have been burning in roaded and heavily managed landscapes near where people live. So this has been an intense year for them, but massive logging programs aren't the solution to their problem."