Foresters urge more tree thinning

SHOW LOW, Ariz., June 29 (UPI) -- The old saying about fighting fire with fire is a truism that has grown closer to the hearts of professional foresters and the people who live in the fire-ravaged mountains of eastern Arizona this summer.

With the huge Chediski-Rodeo Fire still savagely churning in the parched Ponderosa pines around Show Low, the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and other mountain communities, there was a renewed clarion call this week for an accelerated program of tree cutting and prescribed burning to clean up the overgrown forest lands that have turned into a giant kindling box by four steady years of drought.

"The Ponderosa pine forests of the Southwest are here because of fire," explained Ed Collins, a District Ranger in the 2.2-million acre Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, which continued to be scarred by the nearly half-million acre Chediski-Rodeo Fire and pose a serious threat to hundreds of homes in the usually peaceful resort area.

Traveling along the bumpy dirt fire roads where the ground is black and the remnants of trees and shrubs still smolder, Collins told United Press International that pre-emptive clearing - known in the business as "treating" the forest - had dramatically limited fire damage to the pines as the flames spread through. Areas that were not treated, however, were burned to a darkened crisp by wind-driven flames that climbed up the dry brush and smaller trees to ascend into the upper branches of the larger trees, creating crown fires that are virtually impossible to stop.

Collins stood on a faint line in the dust and ash that illustrated the point. On one side of the line was a "moonscape" of trees charred by the intense crown fire that burned in an untreated stand of trees, dry grass and dead branches.

The other side was a smaller treated area in which saplings and brush had been cut out and then hauled away a few weeks before the fire started. Because there was more room between treetops, the fire went back to a more manageable ground level. The trunks of trees on that side were scorched, but the tops remained green, meaning most would recover and, in a few years, preside over a mountain meadow rich with wildflowers, songbirds and butterflies.

That's what scientists say the Ponderosa forests looked like in the western mountains until about 100 years ago when mankind stuck its nose into a process in which wildfires were critical and natural.

Because the area receives little rain in the summer, lightning over the centuries started ground fires that burned away dead brush on the forest floor and prevented saplings from crowding mature trees and creating the density that now leads to crown fires.

"It's like the deer and the wolf," said Wallace Covington, a professor of forest ecology at Northern Arizona University who is considered a fire-prevention guru to many western lawmakers and forestry officials. "You remove the wolf and the deer population explodes. Remove fire and the tree population explodes."

Covington has been working since the 1970s on developing a strategy to undo the past century through a program of thinning out smaller trees with chain saws and then lighting preventative fires that burn out the grass and dead limbs on the forest floor. Covington said that the increasing human population in the area was a "bit of a wild card" in the overall goal of fuels reduction, but opined that most people who live in the mountains are in favor of a tidy forest and reduced fire threat.

Forestry officials said repeatedly during the Show Low crisis that people who move to the mountains needed to accept the fact that they live in an area prone to wildfire, and that they had a responsibility to keep their property free of brush.

Visitors have been banned from the woods until the fire danger is diminished by rain.

"People need to use common sense," Fire Information Officer Jim Paxon said Saturday. "Until we get some rain, we are in peak fire situation."

Residents of the mountain areas and their elected representatives have indeed been staunchly supportive of treating the forests since it is their homes and businesses that are at risk from the huge fires that have become increasingly more common in the past few decades. Evacuees from Show Low grumbled to the news media about "tree huggers" and lawmakers vowed to seek more funding for fuel reduction and change the rules to limit legal challenges to treatment projects.

"We don't want to eliminate anyone's right to appeal," Sen. John Kyle, R-Ariz., told reporters at the Show Low fire camp. "But they can't just delay for the sake of delay based on technical objections."

Kyle said that blocking forest treatment plans should require a stronger burden of proof, and the review process should be streamlined so that fuel reduction goals can be met promptly.

"We're hoping in that way to treat larger areas," said Kyle, a self-described environmentalist and big fan of Covington's approach to forest management. "We'll still be cognizant of the environmental concerns that everybody has, but not so consumed by them that we can't make any progress on the ground."

A lot of environmental groups fully support the idea of thinning out fuels, but they fear precious wildlife habitat loss and are wary that contracting with timber companies to do the job could result in the larger trees being cut down for lumber instead of the smaller undesirable trees.

But it would be an oversimplification to boil down the dispute to a cut or no-cut argument. The trees that are removed are generally too small for lumber and there is no large-scale commercial use for the huge amounts of debris that would have to be hauled away.

"A lot of what we cut, we have trouble getting rid of," said Rick Lupe, a district manager for the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the 1-million Fort Apache Reservation. "There's no profit in it, so it is costing us quite a bit."

The Apaches on the reservation do about 30,000 acres of preventative burns each year, Lupe said, but the fire in the untreated forest was so severe that it blew like a freight train through treated areas, including trees that were slated for an upcoming timber sale valued at around $273 million.

There are also people who live in the mountains who are not anxious to live with the constant smoke produced by controlled burns that burns the eyes and aggravates asthma and allergies.

Lupe told reporters that the rules governing Indian land make it easier to burn out overgrown forests, although they still try to be accommodating to their neighbors.

"The public pretty much dictates how much smoke we can put out," he said with a hint of disappointment evident in his voice, gravelly from the smoke. "We need to do a lot more burning both on and off the reservation. People are going to have to be more tolerant of smoke."

There were calls from the mayors of the mountain communities for a meeting of the minds among the environmental community, tourism industry and Forest Service to produce a policy that would please everyone.

Sen. Kyle had vowed to press the fight in Washington, but he later admitted to a few reporters that some of his colleagues might not want to get involved in a political debate over forestry practices.

"Anything that has an environmental element connected with it, people just don't want to touch it," he lamented.

For the time being, mountain residents, be they aging retirees or people who spend 12 hours a day running a small business, will have to get out in the hot sun and clear out firebreaks around their homes and wait for the controversy to be resolved.

And the people like Ed Collins and Rick Lupe, who work in the woods that are both peaceful retreats and potential disaster areas, will have to soldier on within the rules and with the limited financial resources at their disposal.

"I feel frustrated," sighed Lupe, who predicted that the forests where he grew up would not fully recover in his lifetime.

Lupe warned: "The majority of it is going to turn to brush. And when you have brush under a Ponderosa pine, you are going to have a crown fire."

When I was a kid our family owned 60 acres in Michigan. The local timber company would come onto our property and take out the straightest and tallest trees for telephone poles. They would also keep the trail cleared so they could keep an eye on those trees they wanted. Even though the timber company frequented our property and took lumber from it they left it in good shape. They never did touch the large trees unless they were dying already. Our property was tree-climbing heaven. These environmentalists don't know their behinds from a hole in the ground.

You are a terrible and vile human being for killing those innocent little trees.

Now you will go to Druid Hell, and the tree huggers will be on your property to protest your serial murders of these beautiful Gods on Gaya, those innocent trees.

I know that Forester recommends this type of mass serial killing and gets paid for it. He is even worse than you! :)

Actually, Dave, I want to talk with Earth First and the tribes. We share something: a willingness to get our hands dirty doing what we think is right. We may disagree about methods, but that makes for a more interesting discussion than finger-pointing. I rejoice in the great privilege of caring for the land.

We also share a common concern about globalist thugs. The problem is that Stalin's "useful idiots" don't know that they are feeding fascist interests. Once they learn, they will desert the lawyer-driven NGOs like a puff of smoke. All we have to do is give them a place to go with their anger for having been used and betrayed and they could well end up as a potent force for liberty.

BTW, I didn't KILL anything, those trees are interconnected clones, shoots off the same root system.

Here's another pair of shots from a new chapter posting (about fuel) on the web-site:


Photo 7 - A Typical fuel load in our neighborhood from across the road. One has to use an opening such as a road because there is no way to photograph it otherwise. Fir, oak, French broom, hazelnuts, poison oak, vinca, madrone...	Photo 8 - Our property directly across from Photo 1. Look at the ground covers: ferns, maples, blackberries, poison oak, irises, yerba buena, hedge nettle...

When you live in Kali as long as I have and try to enjoy what we used to call our forests, that are now the Druid Cathedrals, you either join the envirals or stand against them.

I believe that they are even worse in Oregon and Washington. They have a higher concentration of ALFS/ELFS, PETAS and the Anarchists. Both Rat governors have stopped any state investigations of them, and these eco terrorist to many sheeple in those two states are viewed as heroes. Then, those same sheeple view a farmer, rancher, logger, logging truck driver, logging company or wood product company owner as criminals for trying to make an honest living harvesting what we need as a society to function.

Due to their Druid mismanagement of their Druid Cathedrals, we used to call them our forests, their no road and no brush removal polices have made many streams and rivers unapproachable on foot for fishing or just hiking along the water's edge.

Black berry bushes in Oregon grow at a phenomenal rate with all of the rain and mild summers. Streams and Rivers that I could hike into fly fish are now unapproachable due to massive berry overgrowth. Unless you are in a small water craft or wade, you can't get to the waters edge. If you are wading, and they decided to increase the flow of water. You can be in a very dangerous position quickly and before you realize what is happening.

Last but not least if you are in one of these briar patches/tinder boxes and a fire breaks out. You may spend a lot of time in that river or stream if you can get to it. If you don't act like an otter, you might become ashes.

These enviral eco nazis are truly dangerous people whom hate the rest of us. If all Americans of the conservative spectrum don't band together against them, they will win. That is unacceptable to me.

I believe that they are even worse in Oregon and Washington.

You are oh so right gramps! Not only did they stop our logging, cause our largest employer to move to North Korea, and leave us with dangerous overgrown unhealthy forests, they also sent their teachers into our schools and now the same stupid pointy headed brats whose parents are scrounging to make a living due to all this treehugging - are goosestepping along as new little envirowacko stormtroopers!

It is pretty. Here is another pair:

Photo 9 - Oak Parkland Forest After Thinning. It has taken approximately 6 years to develop any groundcover as the soils in this spot are too poor and dry to support much more than the most aggressive weeds.

Photo 10 - This was thinned and the open area stirred with a bulldozer. Note the verdant and diverse groundcovers and bushes. This is a north-facing slope with better soil.

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