June 12 Issue of Wildfire Watch Released

6/12/2003

From: Chris Mehl of the Wilderness Society, 406-581-4992

WASHINGTON, June 12 -- The following is the June 12 issue of the Wildfire Watch released today by the Wilderness Society, National Resources Defense Council, American Lands Alliance, US PIRG and Earth Justice:

On Tuesday, June 10, 2003, Rebecca Watson, Assistant Secretary for Land and Mineral Management at the Department of the Interior, participated in an interview on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation. The topic of discussion was forest management and how to best combat wildfires this season and in the future. During the interview, Rebecca Watson made several inaccurate claims. Here are the facts:

1) Ms. Watson claimed that the Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative will "improve the amount of work that we can get done to prevent forest fires and rangeland fires."

Although the Administration claims that their initiatives will improve forest fire prevention, National Fire Plan budget data show that President Bush's latest budget request does not increase funding for wildland fire management over 2002 levels.

-- The budget President Bush submitted to Congress, following the announcement of his Healthy Forest Initiative in August 2002, requested the same level of total funding for wildland fire management as his first budget in 2002. (FY 2004 USDA/Forest Service Budget Justifications)

-- In addition, budget requests to fund the Department of Interior's Hazardous Fuel Reduction programs have seen absolutely no increases since FY 2002, when $186 million was requested. (USDA /Forest Service and Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Budget Justifications, FY 2002 to FY 2004)

According to the nation's top fire scientists, cutting large trees in remote areas, a type of logging likely to be promoted by the Administration's Healthy Forest Initiative, is not proven to reduce fire risk, and can even increase fire risk.

-- Forest Service research shows that "...timber harvest can sometimes elevate fire hazard by increasing dead-ground fuel, removing larger fire-resistant trees, and leaving an understory of ladder fuels." (U.S. Forest Service. "Roadless Area Conservation: Final Environmental Impact Statement - Fuel Management and Fire Suppression Specialist's Report," page 18. November 2000.)

-- A 2000 report from the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to the President warned that "the National Research Council found that logging and clearcutting can cause rapid regeneration of shrubs and trees that can create highly flammable fuel conditions within a few years of cutting." (Babbitt, B. and D. Glickman, "Managing the Impact of Wildfires on Communities and the Environment: A Report to the President In Response to the Wildfires of 2000," page 12, September 8, 2000.)

-- A group of the country's academic fire ecologists wrote the president last fall that "removal of small diameter material is most likely to have a net remedial effect ... (a)nd their removal is not so likely to increase future fire intensity, for example from increased insulation and/or the drying effects of wind." (Christensen, N., et al., "Letter to President Bush of 9/24/02" (copy available from NRDC)

-- Thinning remote areas often results in road construction, which increases the likelihood of manmade fires. (U.S. Forest Service. "Roadless Area Conservation: Final Environmental Impact Statement - Fuel Management and Fire Suppression Specialist's Report," Table 4, November 2000.)

According to recent reports by the General Accounting Office and Northern Arizona University, the existing public process that the Healthy Forest Initiative would eliminate, does not limit the fire prevention work that gets done.

-- On May 14, 2003, the GAO released findings on the analysis of fuel reduction projects conducted under the National Fire Plan in fiscal years 2001 and 2002. Only 1.5 million -- less than one third -- of the 4.7 million acres treated by the Forest Service for so-called hazardous fuel reduction projects were located within the wildland-urban interface. (GAO-03-689R, page 3-4)

-- The GAO also found that more than 95 percent of the 762 hazardous fuels reductions projects reviewed by the GAO -- covering some 4.7 million acres of federal forest lands -- were ready for implementation within the standard 90-day review period. (General Accounting Office, "Fuels Reduction Projects" GAO-01-1114R. August 31, 2002)

-- A recent independent study by the Northern Arizona University's Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) also found that appeals have not obstructed wildfire prevention efforts. The University's study found that appeals are on a downward trend since peaking in 1998. (Northern Arizona University, "Analayzing USDA Forest Service Appeals" Cortner, Teich, and Vaughn, 2003)

According to Jerry Taylor, The Cato Institute's Director of Natural Resource Studies, the "Healthy Forest Initiative" targets tens of millions of acres that do not need to be logged.

-- "A recent Forest Service report estimates there are just 1.9 million high-risk acres with homes and other structures near federal lands. To defend homes and communities, we should treat those acres and fireproof the homes. That could be done in just one or two years at a tiny fraction of the cost of the president's plan." (Administration's Forest Plan Doomed to Fail, "Forests Initiative" Will Leave 90 Percent of Acres Vulnerable to Fires, 5/20/03; http://www.cato.org)

2) Ms. Watson stated that the designation of thinning projects "have to comply with all environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, which calls for a great deal of public participation. So this would be open to everyone and it would be out in the public for public inspection."

However, on May 30, 2003, the Administration issued final regulations that severely limit opportunities for meaningful public involvement and limit NEPA review. Specifically the Administration's regulations will:

1) Eliminate all environmental review for many thinning and logging projects. Although the Administration placed limits of up to 1,000 acres per project, a) this is an enormous area, the size of approximately 930 football fields and b) it is nearly meaningless, as the rule does not impose limits on the number or location of these projects.

2) Allow fire recovery, such as restoration work, in burned areas of less than 4,200 acres, without conducting environmental reviews.

3) Eliminate the public's right to appeal for logging and wildfire recovery projects, and if an appeal of a salvage timber sale is filed, it won't halt the project if local managers determine that doing so would cause a loss of "resource value." (In other words, if local managers arbitrarily decide that delaying a project will cause a devaluation of timber that will make it less attractive to mills and result in a loss of value for the government, the project will move forward.)

And, the Administration is working closely with pro-logging members of Congress, such as Rep. Scott McInnis, on legislation to weaken NEPA.

-- Specifically, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HR 1904), backed by President Bush, would eliminate the NEPA requirement that the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management consider and evaluate any alternatives to their proposed hazardous fuels projects.

-- A May 16, 2003 letter from several law professors states that "the McInnis bill would eliminate meaningful environmental review and infringe on core functions of the judicial branch of government. It threatens to degrade federal agency decision-making - with potentially far-reaching on-the-ground consequences - to undermine the integrity of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and to raise concerns about separation of powers."

For more information on wildfires, and previous volumes of Wildfire Watch, please visit: http://www.wildfirecentral.org or contact: Craig Noble, National Resources Defense Council, 415-777-0220; Lisa Dix, American Lands Alliance, 202-547-9105; Tiernan Sittenfeld, US PIRG, 202 546 9707 ext 311; Chris Mehl, The Wilderness Society, 406-581-4992; Cat Lazaroff, Earth Justice, 202-667-4500 ext 213