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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 6, 2005 A group of business and community members stand on a hilltop where the Apple fire burned in 2002 near Roseburg. The outing was organized by Communities for Healthy Forests, which promotes the prompt removal of burned trees and planting after a wildfire. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven The salvage debate Logging vs. regeneration after disastrous fires plays out in bills before congress By PARIS ACHEN Mail Tribune On a steep slope in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest where loggers recently felled trees charred in the 2002 Biscuit fire, small conifer seedlings have sprung out of slash and loosened soils. Conservationists point to these first signs of natural regeneration at the Fiddler fire salvage timber project, about six miles northwest of Galice, as evidence against the practice of logging and planting trees in areas burned by wildfire. "What I’ve learned from three years working on the Biscuit is there are a lot of ecological surprises after events like this," said Dominick DellaSala, a forest ecologist with the World Wildlife Fund in Ashland, during a recent tour of the timber project for a group of scientists. "It’s not the end of the world; it’s a rebirthing process that’s been happening for millennia." About 160 miles away in the Umpqua National Forest, members of Roseburg-based Communities for Healthy Forests showed business and community members a section of the 18,000 acres burned in the 2002 Apple fire. The group promotes the prompt removal of burned trees and planting after a wildfire. "There is a tremendous amount of fuel left here," said Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson, pointing to fire-killed trees. "If you leave a large area that burned this intensely alone, you’re not going to have cones to spread seeds across the landscape." Advertisement The economic value of the remaining burned wood is lost from insects and rot, he said. The viewpoints represent both sides of a national argument about what to do with the millions of acres of national forestland affected each year by natural disasters. The argument is playing out in Congress with two forest recovery bills by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. Walden’s bill seeks to expedite and increase the removal of fire-killed trees after a natural disaster and planting of young trees in areas of 1,000 acres or more, except designated wilderness areas, national monuments and national parks. The proceeds of timber sales would go toward planting young trees. Udall’s legislation proposes a pilot program in which land management agencies collaborate with scientists and community members to come up with rehabilitation projects for forests hit by natural disasters. The bill is intended to yield a body of research on best short-term and long-term practices for rehabilitating forests after disasters. It would make old-growth forests and roadless areas off limits in addition to wilderness, national parks and national monuments. Conservationists argue fire-killed trees should be left alone to provide refuge for wildlife, enrich soil for natural regeneration and protect streams from the erosion caused by logging. They oppose tree farms, which are meant to yield timber and don’t produce the diversity of a natural forest. And they say salvage projects are often subsidized by taxpayers without creating a significant number of jobs. "The primary result of selling a lot of salvage is timber companies postpone green cuts on private lands," said Rich Fairbanks, a retired Forest Service employee who led the Biscuit recovery project. "How does that improve job prospects?" Supporters of salvage logging say decay is the main reason salvage projects lose money. At the Biscuit fire, fire-killed trees have likely decayed by 42 percent, according to Forest Service estimates. Some timber sales have failed to attract bids, while others sold for less than expected. "It’s a crying shame to leave millions and millions of board feet of timber rotting," said Dave Schott, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. "The agencies can take a small percentage of that value to pay for reforestation." Schott conceded that forests do regenerate on their own. But it "takes hundreds of years as opposed to planting trees and getting them growing right away," he said. Reach reporter Paris Achen at 776-4496 or e-mail The salvage debate ">[email protected] . Biscuit timber salvage The U.S. Forest Service planned to harvest less than 5 percent of the 500,000 acres burned in the lightning-sparked Biscuit fire in 2002. About 368 million board feet of fire-killed timber, enough to build 23,000 houses, were slated for harvest. To date, 18 percent has sold and 11 percent has been harvested. The project's environmental analysis estimated the wood would decay by 42 percent this year. The Forest Service has not yet decided how much more will be sold. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations Casinos Canada dvd-r Generic Viagra Myspace Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Student Loans Sudoku Online Advertisement s Advertisement