Forest-health policy assessment.

In a forest-health policy announced in 1992, the Boise National Forest publicized its intention to: 1) salvage dead and dying timber on the forest; 2) thin and adjust the species mix on green stands so that they would be more resilient and healthy; and 3) conduct ongoing monitoring and information sharing to facilitate adaptive management. Due to the enormous areas of dead timber from insects and forest fires, the timber-sale program on the forest for the past three years has been virtually all salvage work.

With the upcoming opportunity to shift toward preventive work in the green stands, however, Forest Supervisor Steve Mealey asked AMERICAN FORESTS to conduct a policy assessment. To do that, AMERICAN FORESTS prepared a technical overview of the Forest Health Symposium held in Boise June 1-3, 1993. The overwhelming verdict of scientists at that symposium was that the forests of the inland west are indeed seriously outside their historic ranges of variability. The most seriously affected, it was pointed out, could not be expected to regain reasonably healthy conditions without human intervention, and the risk that many of them would experience unnaturally destructive wildfire intensities was deemed very high.

During a two-day August workshop in Boise, AMERICAN FORESTS' Neil Sampson led a wide-ranging discussion of the situation and the proposed policy. Many of the workshop attendees, while agreeing that the forest was undergoing significant changes of great concern, felt that the Boise Forest policy was too "tree-oriented" and did not explicitly express how the forest-health work would affect other resources such as wildlife, watersheds, and soils.

A proposed project named "Logging Gulch" was lauded by Idaho Fish and Game officials, environmental interests, and timber-industry representatives as an excellent example of a new ecosystem-management approach that had adequately considered and involved all forest interests and stakeholders.

In a report back to the Forest Supervisor, AMERICAN FORESTS has suggested a broadening of the policy in terms of its explanation and content. It remains clear, the report says, that rapid and effective action is needed to help prevent enormous destruction on parts of the forest. Using the need for forest-health treatment as a "stepping stone" toward implementing new ecosystem-management techniques, as it appears to be happening on the Boise, was cited as a laudable goal. The report also lists ways in which the future success or failure of the forest-health policy could be assessed.

Copies of the final report are available from AMERICAN FORESTS at a cost of $10 to defray printing and postage.