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Fire prevention through thinning Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Blair Moody, a forester with the Bureau of Land Management, and Jackson County Commissioner Sue Kupillas stand among a section of small diameter trees near Jacksonville. Kupillas has formed a committee to look into ways to remove such trees for safety reasons that could also prove environmentally and economically rewarding. Study group combines academia, industry, and environmental community By Dani Dodge A group led by Jackson County Commissioner Sue Kupillas is trying to determine whether there�s a way to protect forests from Montana-style fires by removing small trees � and, at the same time, make it a worthwhile, money-making operation. "We�ve suppressed forest fires for 100 years," Kupillas said. "And now we have fuel buildup in the forests. We are due for some kind of catastrophic event because there�s so much material out there to burn." But currently, there�s very little economic incentive for loggers to go into forests and take out the 4- to 12-inch trees � a process called thinning. It�s the big trees that bring big bucks. But taking out big trees, of course, creates big environmental concerns and big political problems. Plan of attack The Small Diameter Tree Utilization Committee is working on a way to make it economically feasible to make the forests in Jackson County more fire-resistant. Their plan has four components: Research and development: They are working with Oregon State University to develop a model that will show what Southern Oregon forests will look like in the future based whether there is thinning of small diameter trees, or no management at all. Education and analysis: The model will be used to design a simulation of short-term and long-term effects and risks to forests. The model will be used to educate the public. Study new available and affordable treatment technology: The group assumes that restoration and treatment of the forests needs to be economically viable to make it sustainable, so they will search out and outline an array of new technologies available for dealing with small diameter trees. Address the political issues: The committee will involve different interest groups, national leaders, and others in the process. In Jackson County, about 50 percent of the land is federal forest. That means a lot of property is growing denser and denser by the year. A year ago, people from the forest industry and from the environmental community called Kupillas within a week of each other with their concerns about the growing fire danger in Jackson County forests. The fire danger is not only threatening public forests, but also private forests that are laid out like a checkerboard among the public lands. Kupillas convened a committee to look at the problem and see if there are any solutions. The group, called the Small Diameter Tree Utilization Committee, is working with professors at Oregon State University, Boise Cascade managers, business leaders and environmentalists to see if something can be done to diminish fire danger by making harvesting the small diameter trees a profitable enterprise. They are considering only acreage that is not currently off-limits for forest management � about 11 percent of the forests in the Rogue Basin � and only stands within 1,000 feet of existing roads. Still, that could mean 770,000 acres containing more than 2.4 billion board feet of trees under 12-inches in diameter. There already has been one company looking around the area after hearing about the project, said Bruce Laird, the regional development officer for the state Oregon Economic Development Department. He said harvesting small trees has become more attractive with increases in the price of fuel � which includes fuels made from bark and tree shavings called "hog fuel" � and new technology that makes it easier to get boards out of small trees. He said he�s seen mills that "crank out toothpicks." "Someone will jump on this opportunity," Laird said. "There will probably be three or four of these small-log focused companies in the state in the next few years because we aren�t the only area with this problem." One of the main stumbling blocks for the plan could be environmental concerns, Kupillas said. Christoph Buchler, an environmentalist who has been a working member of the committee and also serves as the liaison to the environmental community, said he�s working to find common ground between the environmentalists and those who believe that it�s important to manage forests with strategic thinning. The key is rebuilding the trust between the groups. "From my perspective, the starting point is that the concerns environmentalists have shown have to be taken at full value � they are serious concerns," Buchler said. "The way we get progress. ... is having (environmentalists) involved from the beginning, and not have them just reacting." Kupillas said she expects the educational component of their committee to calm many of the public concerns about a thinning operation. She said the committee is working with OSU professors to build a model that will show what the forests will look like in the future with and without thinning of these small diameter trees. "We have the technology to show the difference between management and non-management," she said. "The whole thing would be research based ... and with that educational tool we believe the general public would understand." BLM foresters Blair Moody and Steve Armitage believe the committee is forging a better future for the county. They can proudly show off forests where smaller thinning projects have allowed trees to grow bigger and stronger and more fire resistant. As she walked among dense trees in need of thinning just outside Jacksonville, Kupillas summed up the group this way: "It�s more than just a project, it�s a passion to fix something that�s gone way wrong." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.