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Forest Journalism for a Sustainable Future

Diverse panelists to examine 2017 wildfire season at Tuesday, Oct. 24 event

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Neptune Aviation’s next-generation tanker fleet were among the aircraft employed to fight the recent wildfires in northern California. (Photo courtesy Jeremy Ulloa via Neptune Aviation Services Facebook page)

A diverse panel of nine professionals whose work involves wildfires and land management headline a Tuesday, Oct. 24 examination of this year’s wildfire season.

Sponsored by Treesource, the free public event will be held at the University of Montana’s University Center Theater. A pre-event reception is set for 6:30 p.m., with the panelists’ presentations beginning at 7 p.m.

The event will be streamed live via Treesource’s Facebook page for those who cannot attend in person. A video of the entire event also will be posted on the Treesource YouTube channel. [Read more…]

Still the provocateur: Jerry Franklin says Northwest forests need more logging

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In 1991, at the request of Congress, Jerry Franklin and three other leading forest scientists spent six weeks writing a sweeping plan to protect federal old growth across western Washington and Oregon, as well as northern California. Now he wants to revise the Northwest Forest Plan. Photo: University of Washington News

Editor’s note: As summer’s wildfires reluctantly release their hold on the landscape, the debate over the future of Western forests is vigorous this fall. That conversation includes a reassessment of the Northwest Forest Plan and the re-emergence of one of its chief authors. Science magazine writer Warren Cornwall recently spent some time with University of Washington ecologist Jerry Franklin and has this fascinating report. You’ll find that the passage of time has made Franklin no less the provocateur.

WESTERN OREGON — Jerry Franklin has spent much of his life in the company of giants. From his childhood in the woods of Washington state to a scientific career that catapulted him to international prominence, the towering trees of the U.S. Pacific Northwest have shaped his world. In the 1980s, the forest ecologist became a hero to many conservationists thanks to research that helped lead to a controversial 1994 plan protecting millions of hectares of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest from logging.

But one morning this past summer, Franklin stood on a dirt road in southwest Oregon gazing at a logged hillside that was the antithesis of a lush, old-growth forest. The chainsaws had left stumps, piles of tangled limbs, and a smattering of standing trees, along with bushes and grass. “The scene of the crime,” he declared, with a hint of irony.

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Responsible forest management reduces wildfire risk, severity

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My wildland fire experience began in 1973 at a U.S. Forest Service fire research lab, conducting early fire behavior studies. My time on firelines across Alaska and throughout the lower 48 states spans from 1978 to 2012.

I have been teaching about fire in one form or another since 2012 and continue today. That 44-year period is nothing compared to geologic time, but it has had an impression on me.

Overall, I have observed temperatures getting hotter earlier in the year, rising higher during the summer and remaining hotter later in the year. Humidity (air moisture content) has followed the same pattern: lower earlier in the year, staying low throughout the summer and later in the year. Nightly humidity recovery also does not seem to occur as it once did. [Read more…]

One-size-fits-all fire suppression doesn’t work

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The Lolo Peak fire just south and west of Missoula, Montana, caused one firefighter’s death and left two families without homes. Photo: U.S. Forest Service.

“For every complex problem, there is a simple solution … which is wrong.”

I learned long ago that there are as many expert opinions about an issue as there are people thinking about it. Every year, or every bad fire year, there are numerous opinions regarding what should be done to minimize the economic costs of fire, from loss of timber to loss of homes. They fall into roughly three categories; the Forest Service should cut more timber, federal lands should be given to the states to manage, and let the private sector take over the management of those lands.

The problem would be greatly simplified if all of those acres were similar and could be similarly managed, but they aren’t and they can’t be. Forest types are different throughout Montana ranging from the wet western forests to the drier eastern ones. Land contours are also different and control the management possible. In areas that are too rugged to fight fires it stands to reason that they are too rugged to log, nonetheless fires will start in them and timber will be lost. [Read more…]