Commissioners to Forest Service: Reduce forest fuels now
Linn County Commissioners Roger Nyquist, Sherrie Sprenger and Will Tucker on Tuesday, March 29, expressed concerns to Willamette National Forest representatives that western Oregon would likely experience more massive fires unless the U.S. Forest Service makes policy changes regarding timber harvesting, forest floor fuel loads and firefighting priorities.
WNF Supervisor Dave Warnack and Deputy Supervisor Duane Bishop provided the commissioners with information about plans for fire recovery, fire preparedness and opening public access.
According to Warnack, the Willamette National Forest will receive $78 million to be used for fire recovery programs on 200,000 acres that burned in 2020 and 2021. He said that federal funds often must be spent within a one- to three-year period, but this money doesn’t come with such strings attached. Key goals, he added, were public safety/access; infrastructure repair; reforestation; restoration; natural resource surveys; and cultural resource surveys.
“We want to work closely with our partners to understand your needs,” he said. “We are asking for your help and participation. We have an open mind about what that would look like.”
Board Chair Nyquist said he hadn’t been happy with the Forest Service for a long time, describing a period in the 1970s that saw 64 mills in Linn County before the very few of today.
“Housing was affordable and now it’s not,” he said. “People weren’t fearing forest fires and now they have real concerns.”
He believed increasing wildfire issues could be traced to the late 1980s, when timber sales were reduced significantly due to the Northern Spotted Owl being listed as a threatened or endangered species. He said forests grow about 2.7% per year, and if timber sales do not meet or exceed that, the amount of standing fuels on the ground increases significantly and creates worsening fire threats every year.
Nyquist added that although federal funding is welcome, “We don’t need grants, we need chainsaws.”
Warnack said the new U.S. Forest Service chief came from California and is well-versed in the escalation of massive wildfires.
“He understands the impact of wildfires on both resources and communities,” he said. “He believes in staying out front of wildfires by reducing fuels through thinning.”
According to Warnack, the plan is to identify places where major fires could be stopped before they ever occur by hardening processes – timber reduction, etc. That process is already occurring in the Sweet Home Ranger District under the direction of Ranger Nikki Swanson.
Commissioner Sprenger said that in 2008 and 2009, when she was a State Representative, she viewed several timber stewardship projects and while they looked “very pretty, like a park” they produced very few logs for local mills.
“We need a whole lot more harvesting,” she said.
Commissioner Tucker expressed concerns about access to overhead aircraft.
“We have lost planes, helicopters,” he said. “What have we added?”
Bishop said that planes tend to be more effective on flatland fires and that air assets are distributed on a national level and vary as fire season moves by region.
Tucker also questioned Forest Service policies concerning firefighting in wilderness areas. He said personnel need to be able to use chainsaws and other equipment to contain or put out fires before they become massive, like the 400,000-acre fire that engulfed the Santiam Canyon on Labor Day 2020.
Bishop said the Forest Service has a 98% forest fire containment rating and until recent years, the largest fire in Oregon was less than 50,000 acres. He added that weather patterns are changing, and fire seasons, which used to last four to six weeks, may now stretch to four or five months.
“That 2% is the issue,” Sprenger said. “I implore your agency to change its policies to be more aggressive in fighting fires and increasing timber harvesting and fuels reduction.”
Commissioner Nyquist encouraged the Forest Service to operate more like the McDonald-Dunn Forest in Benton County.
“It is one of my favorite places on earth,” he said. “Why can’t we do that? Balance timber production and harvesting, reduce fire risk and provide public access?”
Bishop said the Forest Service is governed by the Northwest Forest Plan, which was enacted in 1994 under then-President Bill Clinton.
– Alex Paul, Linn County Communications Officer