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.
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.