Impasse over restoring forest health needs solution, trust.

Byline: MIKE DYKZEUL For The Register-Guard

RECENT GUEST COLUMNS in The Register-Guard by Aaron Jones and Tom Giesen demonstrate that directly opposing points of view are contributing to the impasse over restoring forest health. A serious problem exists! An effective solution needs to be developed now, and it will require trust among traditionally opposing groups.

The proper response to the fuels buildup condition in our forests has been debated for at least 10 years. The debate has given us only a wider separation of opinions - and now we have millions of acres of federal and private lands in ashes, leaving only crippling suppression costs to show for it. The fire risks identified earlier have come to pass, conjuring horrific images of Nostradamus' predictions.

Jones' and Giesen's columns mirror many articles that have been written, coast to coast, since President Bush announced his Healthy Forest Initiative. References to forest thinning as traditional "logging" by those who oppose the president's plan have only fueled the fire. Such statements are as ridiculous as saying that logging causes fires.

Fires have only two causes - lightning and humans. Fire intensity is influenced by natural factors including drought, wind, fuels, topography and multiple starts by lightning. Fire intensity is also influenced by human decisions to suppress fires in the interest of public safety. Like it or not, this has placed society in the role of Mother Nature to control forest health with human tools other than fire, such as "logging," although not in its traditional sense.

Giesen's arguments, intentionally or subconsciously, are aimed at all forestlands. There continue to be drastic differences, however, between public and private lands management. Oregon's private lands are regulated by strict laws enforced by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Managed lands have greatly reduced risk from fire because of active fuels management and aggressive fire suppression. They are primarily at risk of fire from adjacent public lands.

Of the 980,000 acres burned in Oregon so far this season, only 96,000 have burned on lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry. The department protects privately managed forestland and Bureau of Land Management lands in Western Oregon. The majority of private acres burned this year, and in previous years, have been a direct result of fires originating on unmanaged neighboring public lands.

Several fuels reduction projects in southwest Oregon this summer clearly demonstrate the benefits of these treatments. Fires were stopped in the lighter fuels time and again. Shaded fuel breaks on higher elevations remained healthy, while adjacent crowded stands are dying from drought and insect infestations. Managed forest areas lived - unmanaged areas died!

Those advocating no management action in public forests have effectively stopped years of forest planning and surveys, which cost millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, with literally one 37-cent stamp and a sheet of paper (ironically, a forest product). They have loved our forests to death, and admit that they would rather see them burn than be managed as a renewable resource.

Just as each stand of trees has its own characteristics - species, spacing, density, fuel loading, aspect, fuel breaks and risks - so do the variety of treatments available to us to restore viable healthy stands. Removal of material causing the risk ranges from brush clearing to thinning tightly spaced undergrowth to pruning lower branches referred to as "ladder fuels," to removing non-native or non-climax species that have potential commercial value.

These activities will restore our forests! Foresters and the forest industry want the same thing! We recognize the difference between management of public and private lands and are committed to removing only the problem fuels. Just as your doctor writes you a prescription to make you better, forest plans are called "prescriptions" based on the management objective.

Treatments cost money. It should not be viewed as a crime to extract those materials causing the risk, thereby creating jobs, restoring economic health to rural America, generating revenue for an already reeling economy, providing revenue for public schools and potentially providing income to help pay for the treatments. It is truly a win-win-win-win proposal.

We have an opportunity and a commitment to begin to restore public forest health. Estimates vary, but between 100 million and 190 million acres of just U.S. Forest Service lands are listed at risk to catastrophic fire; additionally, tens of thousands of acres are at risk because of insects and disease.

We cannot treat all these acres with prescribed fire alone, with its inherent risks of escape and increased smoke emissions. Not every acre will be treated. The millions of acres in the wilderness system, national parks, state parks, national refuges and other legally recognized unique areas will remain untouched and will remain at risk for catastrophic fire. We have millions of acres left on which Mother Nature can show us her might and fury. However, those lands set aside for multiple use should be managed for multiple use.

The bottom line is that President Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative will help restore forest health. Public input, surveys and management plans will still exist, but in a timely manner to expedite effective and responsible treatments. These are public lands. I encourage Oregonians to support fuels treatment operations now - they may not have another opportunity to visit a green forest, only a black one.

Mike Dykzeul of Wilsonville is the director of forest and fire protection for the Oregon Forest Industries Council and a member of the board of directors and manager of the Oregon Forest Protection Association.