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CLOUDY Temp: 57 °F Wind: S at 4 mph Saturday, August 3, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Cyberchef E The People Golf Job Network Headbone Zone Wellness Connection Movie Times Newspaper in Education Oregon CarZone Outdoor Journal Personals Prime Times Real Estate Tempo A & E TV Times W3 Magazine CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Destinations Automotive Communities Employment Entertainment Publications Real Estate Recreation Shopping Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Jobs @ Mail Tribune Email Story to a Friend July 14, 2002 The debate ‘all depends on what your values are’ By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune The salvage debate that flares up after each wildfire on public land stems from different concerns and objectives, observed Tom Atzet. Related stories: � Debating salvage: The question becomes more pressing during fire season . � BLM decision restarts argument over salvage . "It all depends on what your values are," said the forest ecologist for the Rogue River, Siskiyou and Umpqua national forests. "If you value the forest for water, for example, you want to make sure you get a lot of vegetation back as soon as possible to intercept and absorb the water," he said. Likewise, if your value is based on timber production, planting trees immediately in the aftermath of a fire is a top priority, he said. "If your value is for wildlife, you want to make sure the snags and downed wood is not all removed," he said. "And if your value is looking for protection in the long run from fire, you may want to go into areas that were not intensely burned and take out material to reduce the chance of that material becoming a fire hazard," he added. Ultimately, the forest as an ecosystem will endure without human intervention, he said. "The forests have evolved with fire," he said. "If you take human beings out of the picture, the system will rebound." But that cycle can take decades, even centuries, he said. During the early years of the Forest Service, fires were perceived as harmful, resulting in decades of fire suppression, he said. "The value then was to try to eliminate all fires," he said. "Because of that, we allowed the fuels to accumulate and didn’t allow fire to do its thing." There are always winners and losers when a fire sweeps through a forest, he said. Some species, like knobcone pine, are dependent on fires to reproduce. "It is more than a tool that cleans up and maintains a forest," Atzet said. "It is a evolutionary thing that happens. The system becomes less and less healthy without fire. "Without human beings, the forest would do just fine," he reiterated. "But we’ve already entered the picture. We can’t undo that. And we are going to continue to have a demand on the woods." Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S