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Print This Article Monday, January 9th, 2006 Study strikes salvage logging beliefs Greg Bolt/The Register-Guard A new study by Oregon State University researchers suggests that burned-over forests recover on their own as well or better than those that are logged and replanted. What's more, it says salvage logging can increase fire danger rather than decrease it, at least in the short term. The results run counter to what many forest scientists and logging companies have long believed. They have argued that salvage logging and replanting after a fire is necessary to restore forest health and reduce the risk of new fires that would destroy young trees. A forest industry spokesman cautioned that the study only looked at a small area over a single year and said it is premature to draw conclusions from it. He said past history has shown that salvage logging and replanting lead to healthier forests. The study results are being published today on the Science Express Web site and will be included in a future print edition of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The lead author is OSU forestry graduate student Daniel Donato, who worked with fellow graduate student Joe Fontaine and three OSU researchers to analyze five plots burned in the 2002 Biscuit Fire in Southwestern Oregon. What the researchers found was that even severely burned plots on steep slopes that were left alone after the fire regenerated naturally and produced as many or more seedlings of the desired species as forest management plans specified. "The data revealed some real surprises," Donato said. "Even though most people assumed it wouldn't come back, you could say the forest sort of surprised us with its resilience. Our management goals for early conifer establishment were met even without any effort on our part." That happened even though the Biscuit Fire area is one where growing trees is particularly difficult and some of the five 2 1/2-acre study plots were "the stands that got cooked the hottest," he said. On plots that were salvaged, the study found that logging actually killed the seedlings that were regenerated naturally, Donato said. And the leftover branches and other debris, known as slash, made a second fire more likely because the material was left on the ground where it could readily ignite. "Contrary to what everyone expected, that actually resulted in an increase in fire risk because of this large pulse of woody material on the ground after logging," he said. Those results are challenged by the timber industry. Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, said the study only looked at one year's worth of data on relatively small plots and can't be used to draw conclusions about practices that involve very large areas. "This study and its conclusions are very premature," he said. "First of all, the fire just burned in 2002, and in most cases the salvage just occurred this last year and some of it is still occurring." West said that while salvage logging does result in some increase in slash on the forest floor, the material breaks down over a couple of years and is no longer a fire risk. And he said the study ignored longer-term problems, such as competition from brush that inhibits seedling growth. "We have examples across the West where timely salvage and restoration efforts create beautiful and vibrant ecosystems like the Tillamook forest," West said. Donato acknowledged that the study was limited to a single year's data and that it focused only on the effects of salvage logging, not on issues such as brush competition or post-logging treatments that remove forest-floor debris and protect seedlings. He said that's because sometimes funds aren't available for such efforts and in those cases logging is the only thing that happens after a fire. He also noted that there are other reasons to consider salvage logging, including the economic and social benefits of jobs and wood products. He said the study does not attempt to make recommendations on how forests should be managed. "We've been very careful in this paper to never say whether or not salvage is good or bad or to say whether the Biscuit plan was misguided or that natural forests are better than planted ones," Donato said. "There's nothing in the paper about any of that." He said he and Fontaine - along with OSU researchers John Campbell and William Robinson and professor Beverly Law - saw the study as a chance to fill in large gaps in what is known about salvage logging and post-fire regeneration. "So far, the debate has been carried out mostly on assumptions and there's almost no data on it," Donato said. He acknowledged more follow-up study is needed on longer-term effects and said the current work is simply meant to provide forest managers with data they can use in decision-making. "The big thing was that the forest can surprise us with its resilience, and certainly the Biscuit is a good case of that," Donato said. "It should open our minds to the possibility that big fires can and do regenerate." SOURCE Print This Article |
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Voice of the Environment is a 501 (c-3) not-for-profit Montana-based corporation formed in 1991.
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