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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Eyes on the skies: $16.7 million would keep radar stations in top shape through 2030 ... Our view: RCC's health care opportunity can't be lost ... Medford plans to go after utilty debtors ... Eyes on the skies: $16.7 million would keep radar stations in top shape through 2030 ... Our view: RCC's health care opportunity can't be lost ... Medford plans to go after utilty debtors ... GUEST OPINION Guest Opinion: Forest thinning means water for the future Comment By David Schott MailTribune.com By David Schott Posted Dec. 14, 2014 at 12:01 AM By David Schott Posted Dec. 14, 2014 at 12:01 AM » Social News Wildfire, much of it catastrophic in nature, dominated our lives this past summer. This wasn’t unexpected, and everyone should be prepared to witness larger and more damaging fires in the future. Along with the fires we’ll increasingly experience smoke filled valleys, we’ll have destruction of homes and property, we’ll see loss of life and we’ll spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on fire suppression. Unfortunately, the lack of forest management in our federal forests has contributed to this inevitable scenario. However — and this isn’t intended to minimize the threat of fire — the major crisis facing the west is quickly becoming one of water. More precisely, it’s the certainty of a lack of water. Moreover, it is important to understand that our increasing lack of water is intricately linked to the over dense and choked forests of the Cascades, Siskiyous and Sierra Nevada. Optimally, healthy forests should have somewhere between 25 to 75 trees per acre. A huge percentage of our federal forestland has growth of 500, 800 and sometimes even more than 1,000 trees per acre. This extreme density of trees has been identified as an enormous problem by James Workman, a renowned water expert, and his colleague Helen Poulus in their recent article in the Environmental Defense Fund newsletter. In the article titled “If 12 trees are good, are 100 trees really better” he explains how, in severely overstocked forests such as we have in Southern Oregon, “tree canopies intercept 20-30 percent of snow and rain.” The effect is that huge amounts of snow and rain never reach the ground but instead are caught in boughs of trees and on brush above the ground. Before it can melt and fall to the soil, it evaporates back into the atmosphere. Further exacerbating the problem is that a large percentage of the moisture that eventually reaches the ground is sucked up by the roots of the over abundant trees, shrubs and brushes. Rather than having a significant migration of subsurface water into creeks, streams, rivers and lakes, that flow is severely restricted. Additionally, Workman and Poulos “have estimated, conservatively, that excess trees in the 7.5 million acres of Sierra Nevada conifer forest are responsible for the loss of 58 billion liters per day, or 17 million acre feet of water per year. That’s more than enough water to meet the needs of every Californian for a year”. So what’s the solution? They advocate that local, state and federal authorities subsidize the removal of excess small trees. They claim that the value of the recaptured water would justify that removal. However, the realistic cost for doing that kind of work is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 per acre, and obviously such broad-based treatments would be economically prohibitive. There are few municipalities in California and Oregon that have untold millions to throw at this type of rehabilitation. There is, however, another way to begin solving this problem. Timber sales utilizing thinning harvests or other partial cut treatments can be employed. These have been the norm in federal timber management practices for the past three decades, and would eliminate any concern about clearcutting . Such sales can not only pay for the rehabilitation of our federal forests, they can create thousands of jobs as well as supply timber for area mills. We must start returning forests to a healthy 50 or so trees per acre. As a byproduct, catastrophic fire danger can be significantly reduced. This is not a campaign for “ancient forest" or "old growth” harvesting. Factually, most mills today cannot begin to process even 40-inch logs. This is a plea for some environmental and economic common-sense measures. If we don’t take steps immediately, fire will dictate what our forest environment will become. The environmental/preservationist community will always find reasons to resist any type of common-sense timber management as a potential solution. Resistance is a huge money-making business for them. Utilizing the Equal Access to Justice Act, environmental groups have made millions over the years by litigating sales. Unfortunately, the taxpayers end up paying their bills. In the West, water is the issue of the day ... the decade … the next 100 years. We can take steps to remedy water shortages starting now. We can start eliminating summer smoke-filled valleys. We can start limiting enormous costs to fight fires. We can make our forests healthier and resilient to fire. Current forest management practices have failed miserably. We must start making forests healthier and securing future water needs now. David Schott is executive director of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. By David Schott MailTribune.com By David Schott Posted Dec. 14, 2014 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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