Eastside Forest Scam–The Proposed Removal of the 21-inch Rule.

 

 

Old-growth grand fir on the Ochoco National Forest could be logged if the proposed removal of the 21-inch rule is adopted. Photo by George Wuerthner

 

The Forest Service has begun a 30 day comment period on its proposal to eliminate the 21-inch rule or what is known as the Eastside screens. The plan would remove a prohibition against cutting trees larger than 21 inches in the drier forests east of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington. The agency suggests that forests are denser than historical conditions and have shifted in their species composition. Not all researchers agree with this interpretation, but since these scientific studies don’t support more logging, they are usually ignored.[1] [2]

The agency researchers conclude that thinning forests is necessary to promote “forest health” and cutting of larger trees will hasten this transition.[3] Since big trees enhance the profitability of timber sales, there is intense pressure from the timber industry for cutting big trees.

However, the elimination of the 21- inch rule will increase the removal of large trees critical to healthy forest ecosystems.

The 21-inch rule was implemented in 1994 to protect larger trees from logging, partially in response to the realization that big trees have a disproportional ecological influence. Unlike the ancient forests west of the Cascades inhabited by the spotted owls, which gained some protection from the Endangered Species Act, eastside forests were vulnerable to the removal of old-growth forests.

Large trees, even if dead, provide important ecological functions such as carbon storage and wildlife habitat. Photo by George Wuerthner

In response to the loss of large trees created by excessive logging, Congress convened a scientific panel to review the issue. However, unlike many such scientific panels that rely exclusively on forestry schools and/or the Forest Service for advice, Congress asked the Wildlife Society, the American Fisheries Society, the Society for Conservation Biology, and the American Ornithologists’ Union to produce the Eastside Forests Scientific Society Panel report.  The panel came out with 13 suggestions, including a prohibition on cutting larger trees older than 150. The Forest Service adopted this policy recommendation.

But times have changed. With the advent of the Trump Administration, there is intense pressure to increase the cut of timber. This pressure, along with collaborators who are more than willing to accommodate the timber industry’s and Forest Service demands (and rely exclusively on their science), many members of collaboratives including some so-called environmental groups support more logging.

In yet another example of the tail wagging the dog, the Forest Service now suggests that to “restore” eastside forests, and “save” them from (god forbid) death from wildfire or beetles, the agency must log the forest.

Part of the underlying assumption behind restoration is that forests are denser now than in the historical past due to fire suppression. The idea that you can restore the forest to some “historic” condition ignores the fact that all vegetation is a reflection of climate. The reason we see more mortality from fires, beetles, drought, and other ecological processes is primarily to changing climate. It’s warmer and drier. With less precipitation, higher temperatures, and more drought, you have the perfect ingredients for wildfire and bark beetle mortality.

There are many things wrong with this perspective. Trying to emulate the historic forest condition created by the climate at that point in time, is not relevant to the forest structure today.

Part of the assumption behind removal of 21-inch screens is that eastside forests were characterized by open stands dominated by ponderosa pine as seen here. However, some researchers challenge the assumption that such forest structure was as common as presumed. Photo by George Wuerthner

Furthermore, natural evolutionary processes like bark beetles, drought, and fire are better, selecting which trees should and will survive than a logger with a chainsaw.  For instance, it has been demonstrated that some trees have greater resilience to bark beetle predation, but this genetic advantage is not readily visible to foresters. [4] By randomly logging/thinning the forest, logging may reduce the number of trees with genetic resistance to natural stresses, degrading the “resiliency” of the forest.

In a sense, the Forest Service and its collaborative allies see natural ecological processes like fire and beetles as the “enemy”. Somewhat like the attitude of some hunters view predators like wolves and cougars as “damaging” the deer and elk herds, many foresters and agency personnel view natural mortality from fires and beetles as counter to forestry goals of “green trees” and a source of fodder for sawmills.

Western larch, Glacier Mountain, Strawberry Mountains, Malheur National Forest, Oregon

This industrial forestry perspective is widely held in the timber industry, Forest Service, and its collaborative allies.

Yet dead trees are essential to healthy forest ecosystems. They store carbon. They provide habitat as snags and down wood to many species from salamanders to animals as large as bears. For instance, grizzly bears rely on ants found in down trees for a significant proportion of their summer diet. And down trees in streams enhance the productivity of aquatic ecosystems. A substantial portion of birds and other wildlife utilize snags and dead trees at some point in their lifecycles. This is why some researchers have reported high biodiversity in the snag forests that result after a wildfire or bark beetle attacks. [5]

Another rationale for eliminating the 21-inch rule is to reduce competition for resources and increase the remaining trees’ growth. Fast-growing trees are a goal of the Industrial Forestry Paradigm, but it is not necessarily good for healthy forest ecosystems. Slow-growing trees have denser wood, which makes the snags and down wood that remains after they die more resistant to rotting. Therefore, such dense wood is retained longer in the environment providing the above wildlife habitat and carbon storage benefits.

Although it is seldom admitted, one of the chief reasons for removing the 21-inch rule is to increase the economic viability of logging projects. This is revealed in a recent review of the 21 inch rule in a paper recently published by the Forest Service.[6] In that review, the authors suggest, ” Including larger trees in restoration prescriptions can increase the acreages where fuel treatments are financially feasible. Prestemon et al. (2012) showed that allowing the harvest of live trees over 21 inches increased the acreage in the West where fuel treatments were economically viable, even without considering avoided damage values”.

The paper goes on to note that: “Throughout the West, including live trees over 21 inches in fuel treatment harvests increased the viable treatment area by 2.6 times.”

The review also notes: “It is important for managers and stakeholders to consider how large harvested trees can be processed locally to support local mills and be consistent with collaborative group goals.”

Here we see that meeting the goals of the collaboratives is more important than preserving healthy forest ecosystems.

The review admits that: “if no timber products could be sold from forest restoration actions, there was no place on the east side where the expected net economic benefit from fuel treatment would be positive, even when accounting for avoided wildfire damage.”

As a consequence, we get to the heart of the issue. Without logging big trees, most thinning and other projects on eastside forests make no economic sense.

One way logging is further justified is by stewardship contracts. Stewardship contracts permit the Forest Service to take profits from timber sales and utilize for other forest projects like mitigating the ecological damage from previous logging projects by removal of culverts or closure of roads.  I have often heard the so-called environmental representatives on collaboratives justify logging to me by saying, “don’t you support removing culverts and closing roads?” Of course, I support closing roads, but we don’t need to build more roads and log the forest to get some money to fix the damage from previous logging projects. Given the amount of money, the FS typically loses on timber sales. Putting agency funds towards road closure and other real restoration could be accomplished without having to log the forest to pay for these projects.

If you wish to send in your comments on the proposal to eliminate the 21-inch rule, individuals and entities are encouraged to submit comments via webform at https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?project=58050 Comments may also be sent via e-mail to SM.FS.EScreens21@usda.gov.

[1][1][1] Baker, WIliam. (2017) Restoring and managing low-severity fire in dry-forest landscapes of the western USA https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172288

 

[2] Baker WL, Ehle D. Uncertainty in surface-fire history: the case of ponderosa pine forests in the western United States. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 2001; 31: 1205–1226.

[3] The 1994 Eastside Screens

Large-Tree Harvest Limit: Review

of Science Relevant to Forest

Planning 25 Years Later

Paul F. Hessburg, Susan Charnley, Kendra L. Wendel, Eric M. White,

Peter H. Singleton, David W. Peterson, Jessica E. Halofsky, Andrew N. Gray,

Thomas A. Spies, Rebecca L. Flitcroft, and Rachel White General Technical Report

PNW-GTR-990

August 2020

[4]Diana L. Six1

*, Clare Vergobbi1 and Mitchell Cutter2

Are Survivors Different? Genetic-Based Selection of Trees by Mountain Pine Beetle During a Climate Change-Driven Outbreak in a High-Elevation Pine Forest Front Plant Sci. 2018; 9: 993.

[5][5] Hutto, Richard. Toward Meaningful Snag-Management Guidelines for

Postfire Salvage Logging in North American Conifer

ForestsConservation Biology

Volume 20, No. 4, August 2006

[6] The 1994 Eastside Screens

Large-Tree Harvest Limit: Review

of Science Relevant to Forest

Planning 25 Years Later

Paul F. Hessburg, Susan Charnley, Kendra L. Wendel, Eric M. White,

Peter H. Singleton, David W. Peterson, Jessica E. Halofsky, Andrew N. Gray,

Thomas A. Spies, Rebecca L. Flitcroft, and Rachel White General Technical Report

PNW-GTR-990

August 2020

 

10 thoughts on “Eastside Forest Scam–The Proposed Removal of the 21-inch Rule.

  1. Fungus Lives Matter: OK. This sounds facetious but soil fungus plays a very important role in forest health. Too often fungus is seen only as a pathogen or a best an agent of decay. Some under ground species of fungus actually enhance nutrient transport through tree roots and can even recognize the seedlings from “mother” trees and assist them in growing. The mycorhiza from some fungi can also form a protective barrier around tree roots which keeps the trees from being attacked by pathogens.

    So besides all the negative stuff that George has pointed out, the forest service and BLM can spray public forest lands with something like four dozen different herbicides. As far as I can tell these agencies ignore the impacts of logging/planting/chemical operations on soil fungi and the commensal relationship they may have with native flora.

    In a nutshell, killing off friendly fungi is another nail in the coffin for our national forests. The above agencies do not really perform forest restoration but rather forest destruction by continually impacting the delicate balance in the web of forest life.

  2. Does this have anything to do with the push for biomass as a “renewable” Green New Deal energy source ?
    Per M. Moore’s “Planet of the Humans” documentary.

  3. Just read that the nomination of Pendley has been withdrawn – too bad that doesnt really change anything from what hes doing BUT apparently the feeling was it wasnt possible to get him confirmed? Too many people well aware of his bad actions.

  4. This is a note on the biofuels outfit in Oregon.

    Red Rock Biofuels in Lake View Oregon: It is a corporation supported /under written by 13 other corporations including Goldman Sachs, FedEx and TCG Global. They claim that this plant can process 136,000 tons/year of woody biomass waste and convert it into approximately 15 million gallons of jet fuel, diesel or and naphtha type fuels.

    The US Dept of Transportation spent 5.6 million and the state of Oregon spent 3.12 million on repairing the rail system that runs to the plant. The plant itself costs several hundred million.

    So where to they get their wood. I do not know yet but I think we should all keep looking. I noticed that some of the “Green Business” websites push the idea that biofuels production is some how good for the environment because it uses a renewable resource and reduces fire danger etc.. Really? Considering the way in which the USFS and BLM manage forests, I do not believe that forests can survive much longer.

    It also sounds like this technology goes around through the environmental “backdoor” so to speak because the carbon from the processed “waste” wood will go back into atmosphere as jet exhaust. One thing for sure is that the corporations involved with these kind of projects want money back on their investments. In such an economic environment real ecology has little meaning.

    1. So now WOOD is a “renewable” resource? Well, not unless we prevent the forest removals & the monoculture replacement “forests”! And this is to provide jet fuel, diesel & naphtha type fuels? Green Business? I dont think so. Just more of a slightly different “type” of fossil fuel & instead of pulling it out of the earth – removing our very necessary existing GREEN forests. More profit for big business.

  5. “We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can’t speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.”

    —Qwatsinas (Hereditary Chief Edward Moody), Nuxalk Nation

  6. This article ‘outs’ the DOI & USDA’s plans to create more livestock grazing via plausible, yet obtuse wildfire reduction ‘band-aids…

    https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/19/08/r14338973/rancher-logger-author-and-naturalist-william-e-simpson-ii-disagrees-with-dois-plan-of-burning-amer

    Just like in Brazil (where I personally saw this happening) the USDA and DOI are happily reducing forested areas in American. Once the canopy is reduced or gone, the grass and brush fills-in and the grazing permits are sold…. so much for enlightened natural resource management… THIS crap has gotta stop!

    I am fighting to implement natural holistic and sustainable natural resources with ecosystems that are in balance as was the case 500 years ago. I do this for free… I am not a non-profit, nor do I seek donations. I do it because it’s the right thing to do… and I live in the wilderness so I am not studying these things from a book or on a monthly field trip over a sandwich and telephoto lens.

    Bona-fides, award-winning documentaries and draft outline for legislation to save forest and wildlife HERE: http://www.WHFB.us

    More information

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