IT鈥橲 not just Australia that can鈥檛 decide how to deal with wildfires. The US
government is embroiled in a legal wrangle with environmentalists over what to
do with the remains of forests that have been partially razed by fire.
About 1200 square kilometres of the Bitterroot National Forest on the
Montana-Idaho border burnt during wildfires in the summer of 2000. The federal
government ordered some of the surviving charred timber to be logged to prevent
fires breaking out again. But now environmentalists have won a court ruling
allowing them to appeal against the decision. They say the logging will be
harmful to the forest and that the burnt trees should be left to regenerate
naturally.
Last month, US agriculture undersecretary Mark Rey ordered the immediate
鈥渟alvage鈥� logging of about 160 square kilometres of burnt timber. This would
have yielded the government鈥檚 largest ever sale of timber, around 415,000 cubic
metres. To speed things up, Rey tried to prevent environmentalists from
launching an appeal against the decision. But last week, a US district judge
ruled against Rey and the US Forest Service, saying an appeal could take
place.
Advertisement
Bitterroot forest supervisor Rodd Richardson supports the logging. Wood
doesn鈥檛 rot quickly on the high, cold mountainsides, and he fears the partially
burnt logs will fuel future forest fires once younger trees have sprung up
around them. The money from the timber sales will also fund forest
restoration.
But environmentalists say there鈥檚 no evidence that burnt trees create a fire
hazard. They are worried that logging will compact the ground, making it harder
for new growth to start. They also fear that it will increase runoff and pollute
streams that are home to endangered fish populations. There鈥檚 a lot of science
that argues against salvage logging, says Jeff Juel, director of the Ecology
Center in Missoula, Montana, one of the groups that sued for the right to
appeal. 鈥淏ecause of the effects of the fire, the soil is more fragile and less
resistant to logging operations,鈥� he says.