Medicine Bow NF Massive Logging Unacceptable

Lewis Lake and Snowy Range (Medicine Bow Range) Wyoming Photo by George Wuerthner
Hikers  on Medicine Bow Peak, Medicine Bow Range, Medicine Bow NF, Wyoming Photo by George Wuerthner

The Medicine Bow National Forest is proposing to implement the  Landscape Vegetation Analysis (LaVA) Project, one of the most massive logging operations in the lower 48 states.  As much as 320,000 acres (an area bigger than Grand Teton National Park) will be “treated” by logging and other “vegetation” manipulations. http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=51255

In the 1970s, the Targhee National Forest in Idaho created enormous clearcuts along the border of Yellowstone National Park to “stop” a bark beetle outbreak. The clearcuts are visible in photographs from space. The ecological damage that resulted was huge, and the areas are still suffering from that misguided logging.

This proposal by the Medicine Bow National Forest is bigger and more disgraceful because we have a lot of knowledge and information about the crucial ecological role of bark beetles and large wildfires and how ineffective chainsaw medicine is for curing non-existence problems.

Let me not mince my words—this is a tragedy of enormous proportions. This “vegetation treatment” (read forest destruction) will entail clearcutting a shocking 95,000 acres, as well as 80,000 acres of logging in designated roadless areas. Under this forest demolition plan, the Forest Service would create 600 miles of new, temporary roads (temporary roads are environmentally worse than permanent roads).

In short, the Medicine Bow Forest is going to destroy the forest ecosystem, cause excessive environmental and ecological damage in the name of “forest health” and fire risk “reduction.” Neither of these goals will be achieved, and the forest ecosystem and American citizens will bear the costs.

Worse for American citizens who own these lands, the justifications for this enormous logging program is based on flawed science from one end to the other. Fortunately, several environmental groups, Sierra Club, Center for Biodiversity, and Wild Earth Guardians have filed formal objections.

First, one of the rationales for logging is to protect homes and property from wildfire. The underlying presumption is that logging will reduce “fuels” and thus reduce large fires. Yet logging/thinning increase the likelihood of wildfires in several ways. Numerous studies have suggested the most effective way to protect communities is to work from the home outward.

A further flawed assumption is the idea that fuels are the problem. Large fires are driven by weather/climate, not fuels.

To quote from one recent study: “Managing forest fuels is often invoked in policy discussions as a means of minimizing the growing threat of wildfire to ecosystems and  Wildlands Urban Interface (WUI) communities across the West. However, the effectiveness of this approach at broad scales is limited. Mechanical fuels treatments on US federal lands over the last 15 y (2001–2015) totaled almost 7 million Ha, but the annual area burned has continued to set records. Regionally, the area treated has little relationship to trends in the area burned, which is influenced primarily by patterns of drought and warming.”

The Forest Service is ignoring numerous scientific studies that find that dead trees are less flammable than live trees. What burns in wildfires are fine flammable fuels like needles, small branches, grasses, and shrubs—not tree boles. Logging/thinning typically adds more fine fuels to the ground surface, thus increasing the overall flammability of the forest.

Numerous studies do not support the hypothesis that bark beetle-killed trees will lead to more enormous wildfires.

A study published in Conservation Biology reported: “We concluded that fuel buildup in the absence of fire did not cause increased fire severity as hypothesized. Instead, the fuel that is receptive to combustion may decrease in the long absence of fire in the closed forests of our study area…”

One study in Colorado of beetle-killed trees’ influence on wildfire concluded: “Contrary to the expectation that bark beetle infestation alters subsequent fire severity, correlation, and multivariate generalized linear regression analysis revealed no influence of pre-fire spruce beetle severity on nearly all field or remotely sensed measurements of fire severity.”

Another study opined, “In contrast to common assumptions of positive feedbacks, we find that insects generally reduce the severity of subsequent wildfires.”

Many researchers question the idea that fuel reduction from logging/thinning or even prescribed burning is effective at reducing or stopping large blazes. This is a representative sample from a study by scientists at the Missoula Fire Lab. “Extreme environmental conditions. .overwhelmed most fuel treatment effects. . . This included all treatment methods, including prescribed burning and thinning … Suppression efforts had little benefit from fuel modifications.

This view was echoed by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which states in a report to Congress, “From a quantitative perspective, the CRS study indicates a very weak relationship between acres logged and the extent and severity of forest fires. … the data indicate that fewer acres burned in areas where logging activity was limited.

In testimony before Congress, Dr. Norm Christensen of Duke University’s School of Environmental Sciences and Policy had similar conclusions. “First, larger-diameter woody materials do not pose a significant threat for wildfire ignition or spread. It is largely the finer fuels (a few inches and less in diameter) that carry fire. More important, large, old trees actually provide protection from fire spread because they are resistant to fire, and their shade maintains favorable moisture conditions in the understory fuels. Too much thinning of the forest canopy can produce more rapid drying of such fuels and, thereby, more frequent and severe wildfire risk.”

In a letter to Congress, more than 250 scientists warned: “Thinning is most often proposed to reduce fire risk and lower fire intensity…However, as the climate changes, most of our fires will occur during extreme fire-weather (high winds and temperatures, low humidity, low vegetation moisture). These fires, like the ones burning in the West this summer, will affect large landscapes, regardless of thinning…”

The letter goes on to say: “Thinning large trees, including overstory trees in a stand, can increase the rate of fire spread by opening up the forest to increased wind velocity, damage soils, introduce invasive species that increase flammable understory vegetation, and impact wildlife habitat.”

Worse for our forests, which are suffering from climate warming, numerous studies note: “we find that thinning existing forests to reduce crown-fire risk increases net carbon emissions to the atmosphere for many decades… “

The final insult is that this level of forest manipulation depletes the forest ecosystem. High severity fires and beetle outbreaks that the Forest Service want to eliminate or reduce are the main factors that produce the snags and down wood critical for many species.

In a sense, many plant and animal species live in mortal fear of green forests. They depend on the dead and dying trees for their very sustenance.

Indeed, at least one study suggests as much as 2/3 of all wildlife species depend on dead or down wood at some point in their life cycle. That is one reason why the snag forests that result from fires and beetles often have the second-highest biodiversity after old-growth forests.

Dead trees are a biological legacy that sustains the forest for decades and centuries. Plus, they are major storage elements for carbon. Even burnt trees store more carbon than logged forests.

Finally, roadless areas are well documented as critical to sensitive wildlife and fisheries. Their destruction is an unaccountable loss. The Forest Service suggests temporary roads have few ecological impacts. But many scientific studies articulate the colossal environmental effects of roads—including temporary roads.

Roads are a significant vector for the spread of weeds. Logging equipment compacts soils, which reduces water infiltration and contributes to the creation of sedimentation that degrades streams and fisheries. Roads even closed roads provide access for Off-Road vehicles, mountain bikes, and even pedestrians, which disturb and displaces wildlife like elk.

Most human ignitions start on or near roads. More roads. More ignitions.

All of these are merely representative of the numerous studies that conclude that the 320,000 acres of forest desecration proposed by the Medicine Bow National Forest are both unnecessary and, more importantly, ethically deplorable.

I know the Forest Service is under tremendous pressure to “appear” like they are doing something, but destroying our forest ecosystems and roadless areas to give the appearance of “doing something” is not acceptable.

4 thoughts on “Medicine Bow NF Massive Logging Unacceptable

  1. This is fucking outrageous! The damned Forest Circus should be corralled, hog tied and, well, you know what cowboys do to male calves.

    I’ve spent many a pleasant day at Lewis Lake and thereabouts. Good country.

    Thanks for the article, I guess. I’ve been sleeping too well lately.

  2. Why does the FS continue to be a scourge to the public in mismanagement of our lands? This Snowy Range is my heart’s home. What’s the cost to public land owners like me who go to nature for hope, inspiration and renewal – and find THIS? This should be in appeal, correct? How can I help??

    Goddess willing, let a new administration truly reform this rogue agency to “care for the land and serve people”. Many bums need to be thrown out.

  3. A note on fire safety and the Camp Fire: As George has pointed out many, many times, there is a common notion that reducing “fuel” is the “great” fix for wild fires.

    This is most frequently a mindless,knee jerk reaction. Agencies and the citizenry just don’t think about other factors that influence the spread of fire nor do they seem to learn much from history. And when a group does suggest changes they are frequently ignored. The following are some facts relating to the Camp fire that leveled Paradise Ca. Think of the metaphor- Paradise lost so to speak.

    Historically,(since 1999) there were 13 large, destructive fires inside the boundary of where the Camp fire burned. There were also some “forest thinning” projects near the eastern portion of this boundary. Unfortunately, there is no mention of how logging in the past led up to dangerous fire conditions by drying out the ecosystems and turning what was once forested lands into giant brush fields. Well duh- logging sets back ecological stages-don’t mention it though because it would be against the “religion” of capitalism. The Camp Fire was really not a forest fire. The fuel consisted of mostly brush species and even though some timber had been previously thinned it did no good.

    In 2008 there was a large devastating fire (Lightning Complex fire- (also inside the foot print of the Camp Fire) which motivated a special body known as the Butte County Civil Grand Jury to write a report citing problems with fire safety, escape routes etc. and submit it to the Butte County Board of Supervisors. The Butte County Board of Supervisors wrote a reply (www.buttecounty.net/Portals/1/Grandjury/08-09/08-09).

    As an example I quote from “Finding #7. The grand jury found that “Butte County does not have a County Fire Code Ordinance specific to Butte County conditions”. Even with the general knowledge that Butte county was a fire prone area the Board of Supervisors stated that this was “outside the scope of their responsibility”. The grand jury also noted that the county general plan, which was supposed to be good until 2030, was deficient because it “does not adequately address all fire and safety issues in the foothills of Butte County”. The supervisors said that this was outside the “scope of their responsibility”.

    So in the wake of such an anemic response by local officials coupled with the lack of understanding of historical fire , logging , and real ecological and meteorological data, the folks in California (and else where) remain steadfast in the outdated belief that fuel reduction is the key to reducing wildfire.

    The present ideology is that dense forest is dangerous even though it keeps more moisture in the soil and in the micro habitats amongst the trees. Dense trees also block the wind which helps reduce evaporation (drying) of the vegetation. Relative humidity really does make a big difference in fire behavior.

    The way the general population supports this out dated ‘religion’ of logging and thinning, one would think that old growth forests, with huge trees, different age groups, spongy moist soils and high densities of trees must be fantasies of the demented and never existed. But they did exist…and the world was a much safer place.

    The solution is right in front of us. Let the forest grow to maturity and do what a forest is supposed to do. We need mature forests if survival means anything at all. And we need to kick local authorities hard enough and frequently enough to get them to listen to real science.

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