Burn Forests to Save Them, Says U.S. Forest Service
7/30/96
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Burn forests to save them, says U.S. Forest Service
7/30/96
Copyright 1996 by Reuters
by Maggie McNeil
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Controlled fires need to be lit periodically in
endangered national forests in the Southwest to stop the escalation of
forest fires, U.S. Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas said Tuesday.
"We must restore fire to fire-adapted ecosystems on a large scale," Thomas
told a Congressional hearing on this year's devastating forest fires in
Arizona and New Mexico.
Thomas warned that the conditions that gave rise to the current situation
still existed, and that next year or the year after, "we can expect a
repeat of 1996 or worse."
"We need to face up to this -- that fire is with us. Given the
deterioration of forest health, the situation will not get better in the
short term, it will get worse," Thomas said.
Wildfires have burned 2.3 million acres of forest this year -- three times
the normal amount. As of the end of June, there had been 68,000 wildfires
nationwide, compared to an average of 40,000 in the first half of a typical
year.
The big ponderosa pine forests of the Southwest in Arizona and New Mexico
have been especially hard-hit, and remain vulnerable. Thomas said almost
one-third of the 6.9 million acres of national forests in that area are at
high risk.
According to Forest Service statistics, as of July 10, 324,021 acres had
burned in Arizona and New Mexico, of which nearly 205,000 acres were
National Forest System lands. Over the same period in 1995, less than
45,000 acres of National Forest burned in both states, and 57,000 acres in
1994.
One of the biggest fires occurred earlier this year in Arizona's Tonto
National Forest, destroying 60,000 acres of the Four Peaks wilderness and
recreation area and prompting Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt, former
governor of the state, to fly to Arizona and help battle the blaze.
Thomas and other expert witnesses agreed that this year's fires have been
brought on by a combination of dry weather, and over-populated and weakened
forests that are due to a past policy of strict fire containment.
"Tree density and fuel accumulations in ponderosa pine forests are
currently enormous," said Thomas Kolb, forestry professor at Northern
Arizona University, adding that this provided a huge potential source of
fuel for fires.
Thomas and others urged an aggressive program of first reducing tree
densities by thinning out the forests, then re-introducing "prescribed
fire" on a periodic basis.
Thomas said if more funds were available, more high risk areas could be
"treated" with controlled fire.
Other witnesses said forest management was being hurt by federal laws such
as the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who chaired the meeting of the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management,
scolded the Forest Service for not moving more quickly to develop a plan of
action, and said, "We can't sit around and wait forever."