August 3, 2004
Fire conference eyes scientific approach
Three Rogue Valley conservationists attend discussionin New York
By PAUL FATTIG
Mail Tribune
Three Jackson County residents are among 36 scientists from across the nation calling for a new, science-based approach for managing public lands when it comes to wildfires.
In telephone interviews following a news conference Monday at Columbia University in New York City, the three say a successful strategy to deal with wildfires must prioritize the types of fuels to be
removed as well as the target locations.
The approach is included in the August edition of Conservation Biology, an international peer-reviewed science journal.
"We’ve looked at the situation and realize the wildfires are getting worse — we need a new approach," said Jack Williams, a science professor at Southern Oregon University in
Ashland and former supervisor of the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests.
"We see more acres burning, and we are spending more money to fight these fires," he said.
He was among 36 scientists from 22 universities, government agencies and private organizations who co-wrote the special section in the scientific journal. The review looked at both pre-fire and post-
fire treatment.
Joining him locally was Cindy Deacon Williams, an ecologist with the Ashland-based Headwaters environmental coalition, and Dominick DellaSala, forest ecologist for the World Wildlife Fund’s
Ashland office. Cindy Williams is also the wife of Jack Williams.
DellaSala and Jack Williams were the report’s co-editors.
"What we’re asking for is to try to find broad-based solutions," Jack Williams said, noting that would include looking at forest health as well as a way for people to live safely with
wildfires.
They support sound scientific approaches that focus on long-term restoration of the integrity of forests while simultaneously preparing for fire through effective risk reduction measures, he said.
The scientists suggest the following land management zones:
Wildlands-urban inter-mix — In areas near communities, which typically are characterized by high road densities, the new approach recommends an emphasis on fuel treatments and wildfire
suppression to protect communities.
Restoration matrix — In areas not immediately adjacent to communities, but on which significant management activities occur and which can exhibit a variety of road densities, the scientists
propose an emphasis on restoration of healthy forest conditions and high biological integrity. Fuel treatments and prescribed fire would be used, but only as needed to protect significant resource
values that otherwise would be at risk from uncharacteristic fire.
Wildlands — In remote, mostly unroaded public lands, the proposal advises actions that would restore fire as a natural landscape disturbance agent. In these areas far from communities, fuel
treatments and fire suppression would have a low priority.
Thinning should be concentrated on lower-elevation forests nearest communities, not in remote areas, Williams said. Big trees, which generally survive fires better than small trees, shouldn’t be
cut.
"Wildfire is something, to some degree, that we have to learn to live with," he said.
That includes reducing the threat of wildfires immediately around rural homes, building homes of fire-resistant materials and allowing some fires to burn when they are not a threat to human activity,
he said.
The approach is scientific, not political, stressed Cindy Deacon Williams.
"In protecting the forest, one of the big points we were trying to get across is that to a certain extent, the biggest threat facing our forests is not the fire but how we respond in pre- and
post-fire management," she said. "We need to start thinking in terms of restoring ecological integrity."
DellaSala agreed.
"Fire suppression and the establishment of dense tree plantations have resulted in increased fuel accumulations," he said. "Logging and road building have replaced fire-resilient
forests with a landscape more susceptible to fire."
Reach reporter Paul Fattigat 776-4496 or e-mail him at
pfattig@mailtribune.com
