Of Fires, Habitat and Logging

Now that the fires have cooled, at least in the woods, here are a few things to contemplate.

The “save the world people,” i.e. Friends of This and That, Filers of Lawsuits to Stop Logging, Road building, Access, Save the Animals and Save the Trees- you know what I mean-have done a good job this time. I will stick to the Rice Ridge fire because like others in this area I am on a handshaking basis with it.

The timber harvest in this area has been brought to a virtual standstill because of things such as endangered species, wilderness, access, sedimentation, fishes, etc. The list goes on. Do not get me wrong as I have values and am concerned as well about all of the forgoing. At what point, though, are we going to use common sense and work on our problems instead of the ones with the most money filing lawsuits to stop it all?

Fire is good they tell me. Fire is natural and helps keep things in order, they say. However, the cataclysmic fires that we experienced recently, not so much.

We are where we are because of fire suppression and lawsuits to stop the consumptive use and management of our natural resources. These things- water, wood, fish and wildlife- were put here to manage and use. No management is worse than over-management.

Ironically, there was probably a bigger harvest of timber for fire safety than if the allocated timber harvests had been allowed to progress according to schedule. Then we could have stood a chance of truly managing the fire and its progress instead of just burning more timber for “fire safety” if there had been some thinning ahead of time. The fire issue could have been managed along with the logging and we could have had the best of both sides. We could have made money from both sides of the spectrum instead of spending millions of dollars on emergency tactics.

As for the wildlife that the ‘savers of all things’ saved, some of the best habitat for these animals was destroyed and undoubtedly, animals were caught in the fires and killed. So not only did these people ruin the habitat, they were directly responsible for the wanton waste of these critters. Big question is- where were these earth savers when the fires were raging?

I personally have been involved in wildland fires for 48 years, in one capacity or another. What I saw on this fire was what appears to be the new forest management plan for the future.

If you are comfortable with spending millions of dollars, loss of tourism income as well as evacuating your homestead periodically and the destruction of valuable resources, then smile and support the existing plan.

If, however, you would like to see valuable resources utilized for everyone, then start looking at alternative actions and use the grey matter between your ears. That means think about it and explore more reasonable options.

Before you say that this will look just fine in a couple of years, I will take you above my house and show you habitat that will not recover to support many types of diverse wildlife for my lifetime. Don’t be bashful. Use the phone. I will be glad to discuss it with you.