🚀 go-pugleaf

-------------- Enclosure number 1 ----------------
To:             All Forest Activists
From:           Joy Belsky, ONRC <jb@onrc.org>
Date:           August 21, 1996

Subject:        Fire Policy

Enclosed is Oregon Natural Resource Council's new fire policy to encourage
the US Forest Service and other agencies to adopt guidelines to fit our new
understanding of fire in forested ecosystems of the Intermountain West.  We
are distributing it to forest activists to encourage them to begin the process of
educating their own members and the general public.  If you have any
questions, call Tim Lillibo (541-382-2616) or Mark Hubbard (503-283-6343 x
211).

*ONRC Policy Statement*

Wild and Prescribed Fire in Forests of the Intermountain West
Over a hundred years of logging, grazing, fire suppression, road-building, and
development have resulted in widespread fragmentation and degradation of the
magnificent coniferous forests of the Intermountain West.  Many of these
forests are recognized by the scientific community as being critically
destabilized.  Still, significant areas, including wilderness, roadless areas, and
moist forests, remain relatively unchanged. 

Originally, most ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests of the Intermountain
West were open and park-like, with large, majestic trees underlain by dense
grass swards.  These low- and mid-elevation forests were shaped by millennia
of recurrent forest fire, which helped maintain the forests' ecological integrity
by reducing tree densities, controlling forest pests, and releasing a steady
supply of nutrients into the soil.  Many of the plant and wildlife species in
these arid western forests evolved with fire-return intervals as short as 7-30
years and are dependent on the conditions created by fire for regeneration,
rapid growth, food, and shelter.  

Due to nearly a century of active fire prevention, fire-fighting, and  livestock
grazing, which eliminates the fine fuels necessary to carry low-intensity
surface fire, ever greater numbers of tree seedlings and saplings have survived
to maturity.  Forests that were once open and park-like due to periodic
thinning by low-intensity ground fire now develop into dense thickets.  During
dry seasons and prolonged drought, these trees become stressed, limbs fall to
the ground, and trees die.  Consequently, dead woody debris accumulates and
forests become increasingly prone to intense fire.  Without periodic fire to
reduce this fuel load and limit tree numbers, species composition of the forests
changes from dominance by fire-tolerant, sunlight-loving species such as  
ponderosa pine and western larch, to dominance by fire-sensitive,
shade-tolerant species such as Douglas-fir and true firs.  These changes, in
combination with selective logging of large, fire-tolerant trees, have created
conditions in which many of the original park-like forests have been converted
into dense, fire-prone, and increasingly disease- and insect-prone stands.   

Nevertheless, many forests in the region have not been significantly affected
by recent changes in the fire regime.  Riparian forests and wetter forests on
north-facing slopes and at higher elevations traditionally experienced fewer
fires.  And forest types such as high-elevation lodgepole pine and Engelmann
spruce-subalpine fir have always developed into dense flammable forests,
which were periodically consumed by stand-replacing fires.  

Because of drought, selective logging, high tree densities, high fuel loads, and
the loss of a mosaic of burned and unburned forest stands, low-elevation
forests and those on south-facing slopes are now more vulnerable to
destructive fire, insects, and disease than they were formerly.  ONRC
advocates that land managers initiate measures that mimic nature in reducing
fuel loads, so as to return forests to their pre-EuroAmerican-settlement
densities and fire regimes.  These activities (see next page) include prescribed
burning, thinning of small fire-sensitive trees, removal of livestock, a let-burn
policy in some areas, and less destructive fire-fighting techniques.  Salvage
logging, as currently practiced, should be prohibited since it damages already
disturbed soils, watersheds, and wildlife habitat.  Despite pronouncements by
the timber industry, commercial thinning and post-fire logging may not reduce
the frequency of fire.  In fact, these activities often increase the intensity and
rate of spread of fire because of increased fuel loads from logging debris left
on the ground.   Consequently, salvage logging is incompatible with
ecosystem-based management. 

Prescribed Fire
The long-range goal of fire management policy should be to restore forest
types, fire cycles, and habitat mosaics to those found before EuroAmerican
settlement.  For some areas, this is best achieved by manually igniting fires,
which thin the understory and remove excess fuels.   A region-wide, long-term
plan for restoring intermountain forests needs to be developed.  The plan
should include a 30-year schedule of prescribed fire to reduce fuels, as well as
district-by-district maps delineating areas targeted for a let-burn policy, fire
prevention, or fire suppression. 

Priority for prescribed burning should be given to forests near developed areas
(the urban/wildland interface), low-elevation or south-facing forests most
transformed by past fire suppression, and areas with unnaturally high fuel
loads. 

Where absolutely necessary to reduce ladder fuels that carry fire into canopies,
small non-commercial trees may be thinned, lower limbs pruned, and litter
raked away from large tree trunks and snags. 

Fire Prevention 
Fire prevention should not be a goal of forest management in the
Intermountain West except when human life and extraordinary ecological
values are at stake.  Since fire is an inevitable and ecologically essential
component of forest ecosystems, managers should focus on restoring historical
fire regimes. 

Artificial fire breaks should be constructed only where proven effective, and
not at all in wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, roadless regions, municipal
watersheds, or ecologically sensitive areas.   

Livestock grazing should be eliminated from public forests and wild ungulates
maintained within their year-round carrying capacities so that dry grasses can
once again fuel low-intensity surface fires. 

Private property owners should be required to take measures to "fire proof"
their property by clearing flammable vegetation, adding fire-resistant roofs and
shutters, and taking other reasonable precautions.  By choosing to live in or
adjacent to wildlands, homeowners must assume the risk of protecting or
replacing their property rather than relying on taxpayers through their funding
of fire-fighting agencies.

Fire Suppression
Fire suppression activities should be conducted only when absolutely necessary
and with utmost care for the long-term integrity of the ecosystem. 
Low-impact fire-fighting techniques should be used. 

Fire suppression should be conducted only where human life, developed
property, or irreplaceable ecological values (e.g. rare forest types or a major
portion of the population of an endangered species) are at stake, or in areas
that should be protected until prescribed burning can reduce excess fuels. 

Fire suppression should not be allowed in wilderness, wild and scenic rivers,
and roadless regions, unless these areas have irreplaceable natural values and
are scheduled for prescribed burning. 

Fires should not be actively fought where nearby natural fire barriers such as
bodies of water or rocky ridges are likely to extinguish the fire. 

Due to the risk of de-watering, surface water should not be taken from small
streams and lakes for fire suppression.  Fire-fighting retardants and foams,
which are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms, should never be used near
streams. 

Bulldozing and other forms of disturbance should be prohibited in stream
channels, riparian areas, wetlands, and on sensitive soils and steep slopes.   

As much funding should be available for restoring natural forest ecosystems as
for fire suppression. 

Post-Fire Activities
"Restoration" activities such as salvage logging, grass seeding, bulldozing, and
stream clearing may be as damaging to forests as fire suppression and should
be prohibited unless proven effective and beneficial.  

Note: Municipal watersheds should be evaluated for non-commercial thinning,
prescribed fire, and fire suppression on an individual basis.  These activities
are appropriate for some, but not all, watersheds.