Fire Policies to protect people, not logging corporations Statement of Dr. Mark Shaffer, Senior Vice President for Programs Defenders of Wildlife

Statement of Dr. Mark Shaffer, Senior Vice President for Programs Defenders of Wildlife

(08/21/2002) - It’s extremely disappointing that the White House’s response to forest fires is to increase logging and reduce public input into public forest management, neither of which will do anything to protect rural communities from the real threat of forest fires. This plan comes straight from corporate timber interests, which have yet to encounter a question to which more logging isn’t the answer.

Past logging of large, healthy, fire-resistant trees is a major reason some forests are full of fire-prone smaller trees and brushy understory. On top of that, the Forest Service has irresponsibly directed most of the funds intended to reduce fuel loads in our forests away from protecting people and communities, and toward logging large timber in the back country at the behest of the industry. Public input is the only tool we have to keep the Forest Service focused on the job at hand - protecting communities from forest fires - and to prevent the agency from squandering fire resources on unwise logging projects.

If the Bush Administration is serious about addressing forest fires and their impacts, it’s time to focus on protecting communities from fire. Rather than letting the Forest Service keep messing around in the back country and making matters worse by logging the healthiest trees, the president should ensure the Forest Service reduces unnatural fuel loads in and directly adjacent to communities, and helps communities fire-proof homes and buildings. He should also preserve the public’s right to challenge ill-advised logging projects.

We’ve offered a number of solid recommendations that go beyond simply logging or leaving forests alone, which we’ve presented in Defenders of Wildlife’s report "Thinning, Fire, and Forest Restoration."

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Contact(s):

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