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Looking into Limpy Creek in background, |
UNF 2002 Fire Season Comment
before April 2004
Percentages of 87,374 total acres burned: Low Intensity |
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Fire Page Excursion |
Last summer 88,000 acres in the Umpqua National Forest were enclosed within fire lines. According to the forest service, 82% of that had such a cool burn there was no change in the canopy and 6.5% were blackened with dead trees, mostly in tree plantations. See fire statistics above.
The Umpqua fire was close to a natural event, with two exceptions:
1) Limpy Creek (above the Apple Creek campground) had the biggest chunk of old-growth forests killed. This was due to a human-caused, possibly arson, ignition source when the conditions were perfect for a hot, fast burn.
2) Over a quarter of the fire area was previously clearcut and converted to tree-plantations. The Umpqua NF said these "plantations experienced a disproportionately high amount of stand replacement mortality caused by crown fires as compared to older, unmanaged forests. 74% of the plantations that were less than 20 years old were lost. Plantations had a tendency to increase the rate of fire spread and increased the overall area of stand-replacement fire effects by spreading to neighboring stands."
This is from the March 2003 "Wildfire Effects Evaluation Project" (WEEP) reported by the Umpqua NF. Even considering the unnatural landscape and possible arson, the mosaic burn of the fire was well within what is considered a "natural" and healthy burn, not "catastrophic". The WEEP report says, "The pattern of mortality in the unmanaged forest resembles historic stand-replacement patch size and shape."
Now what should we do?
In 1995, a team of respected scientists from Oregon State University wrote a report called "Wildfire and Salvage Logging: Recommendations for Ecologically Sound Post-Fire Salvage Logging..." known as the Beschta Report after its lead author, Dr. Robert Beschta. "A common thread throughout the recommendations is that most native species are adapted to natural patterns and processes of disturbance and recovery in the landscape and that preventing additional human disturbance generally will provide the best pathway to regional ecological recovery."
They agree with Bush that our forests are in decline, but that "Streamside development, logging, grazing, mining, fire suppression, removal of beaver and large predators, water withdrawals, introduction of exotic species, and chronic effects of roadbuilding have cumulatively altered landscapes to the point where local extirpation of sensitive species is widespread...." They show how "Western ecosystems evolved with and in response to fires. Fires are a part of the pattern of disturbance and recovery... Fires reset temporal patterns and processes... The "patchieness" of fire is a desirable characteristic, and many species depend on the environmental influences that fires create."
Should we salvage log?
Dr. Beschta and the team of OSU scientists make recommendations on salvage logging after a fire. They warn: "Human intervention on the post-fire landscape may substantially or completely delay recovery, remove the elements of recovery, or accentuate the damage."
"... there is little reason to believe that post-fire salvage logging has any positive ecological benefits... There is considerable evidence that persistent, significant averse environmental impact are likely to result from salvage logging... soil compaction and erosion, loss of habitat for cavity nesting species, loss of structurally and functionally important large woody debris."
"... some argue that salvage logging is needed because of the perceived increased likelihood that an area may reburn... We are aware of no evidence supporting the contention that leaving large dead woody material significantly increases the probability of reburn."
The scientists conclude that: "Although post-fire landscapes are often portrayed as "disasters" in human terms, from an ecological perspective, fire is part of the normal disturbance regime and renewal of natural forest ecosystems."
What is proposed in the Umpqua National Forest?
The Umpqua National Forest has announced they are doing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes to salvage log dead trees in the matrix of the North Umpqua and Tiller fires. Respectively called the Baked Apple EIS and Ash Creek EIS, they are asking for your opinion before the end of April, 2003.
So far, there is no official proposal to salvage log in any of the wildlife reserves (Riparian Reserves and Late Successional Reserves), or log in inventoried roadless area. However, the proposal to salvage log in the matrix is as harsh as it can get. The "preferred alternative" is to clearcut 60 mmbf (12,000 log truckloads) of mature and old-growth trees from 1,500 acres, leaving behind only 2, 6, or 12 trees per acre. The tiny number of trees left behind must provide shade for seedlings planted in black ground, for the wildlife dependent on snags, and to help heal and replenish nutrients in the soil.
Additionally, the Umpqua NF announced they are considering another EIS to salvage log in the Late Successional Reserves (reserves set aside for wildlife).
This is an excerpt from an article written by Francis Eatherington and
published in Umpqua Watershed's Spring Edition 2003 of 100 Valleys.
03/13/03
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A 30-year-old tree plantation High Intensity Burn |
"The young vegetation, including plantations,
experienced a disproportionately high amount of stand replacement mortality caused
by crown fires as compared to older, unmanaged forests. Seventy-four percent of the
plantations that were less than 20 years old were lost. Plantations had a tendency
to increase the rate of fire spread and increased the overall area of stand- replacement
fire effects by spreading to neighboring stands." taken from the UNF "Wildfire Effects Evaluation Project" (WEEP), p. 4 |
| 09/24/02 Over 80% of fires in the Umpqua National Forest were healthy, cool under-burns in older forests. The Oregonian reported September 1, 2002: "The Umpqua National Forest's Tiller fires raced through dense tree plantations with low branches that gave flames a helping hand into the treetops," said Karla Bird, a natural resources staff officer [on the Umpqua National Forest]. In more scattered natural stands, flames kept to the ground, spared many trees and did more good than harm. The Tiller Fire was started naturally by lightening while this year's Apple Fire was human caused. The Apple Fire reburned some of the 1987 Apple Creek fire. The unsalvaged part of the 1987 Apple Creek fire can be seen from Highway 138. |
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Across the North Umpqua River from the Apple Creek campground there was a cool underburn which killed few of the old-growth trees. On the ridgetop, there was a hotter fire that killed more trees. Because this is in the Wild and Scenic Corridor, it was not salvaged logged in 1987, and the same laws must apply today. In fact, salvage logging should NOT occur in any native, mature forest within this year's firelines. The vast majority of these areas were set aside for wildlife (LSRs), with only limited logging allowed. As of August 26, reserves (not usually open to timber production) and wilderness within fire lines was 91% of the area.
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Native Forests should NOT be salvaged. If most of the area within the fire line is usually reserved from logging, and only 10-15% of that area had overstory burn, should it be salvaged logged at all? Trees killed in these reserves are needed in streams and for cavity nesters. The Forest Service has traditionally "salvaged" burned areas by clearcutting trees that were dead and alive. So much salvage logging was done that we now have a huge deficient of dead wood for wildlife habitat. The 1996 Spring Fire in the Diamond Lake district was also never salvaged. |
| Like this year's Spring Fire also burned largely in reserved and roadless areas.
In 1997, the Forest Service proposed large salvage logging, 10 mmbf, and later reduced
it to only 4 mmbf on 102 acres. But even that was too much, according to the scientists
at the Umpqua National Forest. They cited the Northwest Forest Plan: "The reserves
represent a network of existing old-growth forests that are retained in their natural
condition with natural processes, such as fire, allowed to function to the extent
possible." The scientists argued that "large snags and down logs are crucial
habitat components for many late-successional forest-associated species..."
and concluded that "the Spring Fire salvage proposal does not meet the spirit
or intent" or follow the requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan. If our current
laws are allowed to continue to protect our reserves, the same conclusion should
hold for the forests within this year's fire lines. by UW's Forest Monitor, Francis Eatherington |
WildFire Basics in the Umpqua
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Our forests depend on fire for their natural ecosystems
to function. Fire has always been a part our forests and we will never be successful
in totally suppressing this natural process. The usual pattern of forest fire is a "mosaic" pattern, where some trees are killed and many are not. The thick bark of mature Douglas firs makes them particularly resistant to death by forest fire. Fires started by lightening or humans in older forests will crawl around the forest floor, consuming small trees and cleaning up debris. It's nature's way of house cleaning, as well as making small openings in the forest canopy to allow for a diversity of tree species and ages. The standing dead trees (called snags) left after a fire will explode with wildlife -- birds making cavity nests, and other creatures living in the openings afforded by the soft decaying wood. (Wildfires in even-aged plantations, on the other hand, often explode into dangerous hot fires that kill every planted tree in their path.) |
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| The watersheds of the Umpqua River are unique because we are in a transition zone
between two different types of natural fires, the fires of wetter, coastal/northern
forests, and the fires of drier, eastern/southern forests. Where the mighty Umpqua meets the ocean, it travels through the Coastal Mountains. These wet forests shrouded in fog burn hot only about once every 300 years or so. Because of the naturally dense brush near the ocean, the basic mosaic pattern of fires are larger, killing larger chunks of trees, resulting in a "stand replacement fire". (This is what the timber industry refers to when they say their clearcutting is like a stand-replacement fire. But, clearcutting doesn't leave bountiful wildlife snags and natural fires don't leave roads and compacted/eroded soils. A clearcut and a fire have virtually nothing in common.) On the other extreme of natural fire behavior, the South Umpqua River near Tiller flows through the south Cascade Mountains with less rainfall and more open pine forests. In this country, natural fires burn more frequently (perhaps as often as every 20 years), keeping the brush low, and producing smaller patches of dead trees. Typically fire kills less than 20% of the overstory trees, even during the most severe fire weather. This low level, patchy disturbance pattern increases the structural diversity of forest landscapes and sustains the astounding biodiversity that Southwest Oregon is famous for. |
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Native Americans often started fires in the inland valleys and lower Cascades to keep the brush down, create better habitat for the plants and animals they depended on, or to make travel easier. We can thank them for maintaining our beautiful oak forests and oak woodlands that surround our homes around Roseburg today. Early European settlers also influenced the Coastal Mountain range with a large number of human-caused stand-replacing fires during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the early 1900s the practices that were developed to manage European forests were adopted by American land managers and ushered in the period of aggressive fire suppression. While all fire must be suppressed around our houses and special areas, it is a mistake to continue to suppress fire in the backcountry. Suppressing fire is suppressing the life and growth of our native forests and wildlife. Some species of plants and trees can't even germinate until the wildfires have swept the forests clean and cracked open the seed pod. If a wildfire were to get through our massive suppression efforts (like this summer), we should not blindly "salvage" all dead trees, nature's offerings to the wildlife and new forest. by Francis Eatherington |
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In 1995, after the 1994 wildfires alarmed politicians, a team of respected scientists from Oregon State University put together a report called "Wildfire and Salvage Logging: Recommendations for Ecologically Sound Post-Fire Salvage Logging...". It became known as the Beschta Report, after its lead author, Dr. Robert Beschta. Following are some quotes by the scientists:
"This paper offers a scientific framework... to guide development of federal policy concerning wildfire and salvage logging... A common thread throughout the recommendations is that most native species are adapted to natural patterns and processes of disturbance and recovery in the landscape and that preventing additional human disturbance generally will provide the best pathway to regional ecological recovery."
"The entire range of land management practices is implicated in this region wide decline. Streamside development, logging, grazing, mining, fire suppression, removal of beaver and large predators, water withdrawals, introduction of exotic species, and chronic effects of roadbuilding have cumulatively altered landscapes to the point where local extirpation of sensitive species is widespread...."
| "Western ecosystems have evolved with, and in response to, fire. While some
have argued that fire is the major imminent "threat" to the health of the
region's forest ecosystems, it must be recognized that there are a number of threats
to the integrity of ecosystems.... Land management based on controlling fire will
not set the region on a course toward recovery, especially when conceived in a crises
mode." "The problem is not that we do not have the knowledge to control all disturbances. The problem is we have tried to control all disturbances rather than letting them play out -- the forests depend on disturbances to maintain their integrity just like rivers depend on floods and droughts coming along in irregular patterns." |
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"...continuing to simply manage fire risk without controlling the adverse effects of logging, grazing, roadbuilding, and mining is unsound resource management... Rather than focusing on fires -- before or after their occurrence - managers should focus on the pattern and consequences of current and proposed human manipulations and disturbances of all types at the landscape level." "...attempting to continue to manage fire and its consequences without altering or controlling other threats to ecosystem integrity is scientifically and pragmatically unsound." "Western ecosystems evolved with and in response to fires. Fires are a part of the pattern of disturbance and recovery... Fires reset temporal patterns and processes... The "patchieness" of fire is a desirable characteristic, and many species depend on the environmental influences that fires create." "With respect to the need for management treatments after fires, there is generally no need ... to act at all. By acting quickly, we run the risk of creating new problems before we solve the old ones. Ecologically speaking, fires do not require a rapid human response." "Making fire prevention a high priority management goal is a commitment to continuous fire suppression and a prescription for a long-term "Addiction." Such an attempt requires continual high cost inputs, and fails to capitalize on the self-repairing and self-perpetuating capabilities of ecosystems.... Land managers should be managing for the naturally evolving ecosystems, rather than perpetuating artificial ones we have attempted to create. By imposing management schemes structured to optimize timber production at the expense of other ecosystem attributes, we have suppressed certain disturbance regimes, (e.g., fire), while potentially increasing the effects of others, (e.g., floods). The net result is a loss of ecosystem function and loss of the values that ecosystems provide including high quality water and abundant fisheries."  "The overall management goal must be to preserve (and reestablish) the fire and other disturbance regimes that maintain ecological systems and processes, while protecting human life and property." Land management after fires: "Human intervention on the post-fire landscape may substantially or completely delay recovery, remove the elements of recovery, or accentuate the damage." "... there is little reason to believe that post-fire salvage logging has any positive ecological benefits, particularly for aquatic ecosystems. There is considerable evidence that persistent, significant averse environmental impact are likely to result from salvage logging... soil compaction and erosion, loss of habitat for cavity nesting species, loss of structurally and functionally important large woody debris. Human intervention should not be permitted..." "... areas that have experienced the effects of a severe burn and are likely to exhibit high erosion should not be subjected to additional management activities... Efforts should focus on reducing erosion and sedimentation from existing human-caused disturbances, e.g., roads, grazing, salvage logging." "... some argue that salvage logging is needed because of the perceived increased likelihood that an area may reburn... We are aware of no evidence supporting the contention that leaving large dead woody material significantly increases the probability of reburn." "Although post-fire landscapes are often portrayed as "disasters" in human terms, from an ecological perspective, fire is part of the normal disturbance regime and renewal of natural forest ecosystems." "Fires should be allowed to burn naturally when feasible. In some drier forest types... prescribed fires or underthinning to remove fire ladders (leaving the larger, fire resistant trees) may be considered.... Prescribed burning may be a useful tool in reducing fuels around developed areas and may make it easier to protect those areas." |
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 We're standing in "I-5 Timber Sale" clearcut, looking at the headwaters of Boulder Creek (South Umpqua River). |
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Tiller: Understory burned but old trees remain alive, exactly what a prescribed burn should do.
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Clearcut in South Umpqua Bolder Creek shows high intensity burn. Old Growth stand in background has only underburn.
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<<<--- The top of the tree. Photo taken Nov. 2002. (The photo
gets a little washed out against the sky, but there are plenty of green needles on
this old tree.) |
09/01/02 article from The Oregonian
"The Umpqua National Forest's Tiller fires raced through dense tree plantations with low branches that gave flames a helping hand into the treetops, said Karla Bird, a natural resources staff officer. In more scattered natural stands, flames kept to the ground, spared many trees and did more good than harm."
Fires could open new debates on salvaging
As satellites, land managers and scientists examine forests scorched by wildfires, they are learning something that belies this season of spectacular and fast-moving flames: Much of the land was only lightly singed or not burned at all.
Fewer than three in 10 acres burned in Washington and Oregon were charred severely enough to kill surface vegetation and extensively damage trees. Satellite images show a third or more of the acreage within the huge Biscuit fire President Bush toured last month remains untouched by fire.
"There is a lot of unburned area, and there's a lot that burned at a very low intensity," said Greg Clevenger, resource staff officer for the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests, where the Biscuit fire is widely reported as having burned about 500,000 acres.
"This is by no means 500,000 acres that has been wiped out," he said.
The lesson, say many researchers, is that while the media focus on roaring flames that remain a real but limited part of most fires, most flames are far less impressive and destructive. This summer's fires appear to have burned many acres mildly enough to sweep out overgrowth left by decades of fire suppression without turning forests into ruins.
In that way, the fires resemble natural blazes that long ago cleared Western forests and may clear the same tinder now targeted by Bush for thinning.South Umpqua River.
not everything burned.
"It's not to diminish that large fires are going to happen, but to temper it with the idea that these things are also accomplishing a lot of good that may turn out to help us," said Bruce McCammon, a hydrologist who oversees fire rehabilitation for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon and Washington.
Yet the varied blend of blackened, singed and unburned lands could also open the door to debate as foresters weigh whether to log singed trees that conservation groups say might survive and serve wildlife.
Officials at the Fremont and Winema national forests in Southern Oregon may salvage as much as 160 million board feet of wood or as little as one-eighth of that, depending on how much burned acreage they target. The higher figure would yield enough wood to build 12,300 three-bedroom houses or print more than 864 million daily newspapers.
The final number, said Steve Egeline, resource staff officer for the two forests, will depend on several factors: How severely the timber was burned, how accessible it is, the likelihood of insect infestation in surviving trees and the environmental effects of extracting the trees.
It may also depend on whether Congress exempts salvage logging from environmental rules. It did that following vast fires in 1994, provoking battles between activists, land managers and loggers.
In deciding how to handle burned areas, federal land managers form a Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation team of specialists to identify lands most severely burned and at greatest risk of contributing to damaging erosion and floods.
Their most useful tools include fire maps revealing which areas burned severely, moderately, lightly or not at all. The maps are typically based on photographs snapped by a NASA satellite and processed by the Forest Service's Remote Sensing Applications Center in Salt Lake City.
The satellite images almost always reveal what fire scientists and foresters have known for decades: Even where the tinder is thick and the trees dry, fires typically burn in a patchwork pattern-- fiercely here, lightly there, skipping some spots altogether.
Accumulated fuels today feed a larger share of intense blazes than Western forests once saw, threatening ever-spreading communities. But weather and terrain can also drive -- or subdue -- the flames. A fire may rage through tinder during the heat of the afternoon or when winds kick up, but then calm back down.
Even when a fire is roaring, it may suck up so much oxygen it suffocates itself and cannot burn every patch of ground, said David "Sam" Sandberg, the Corvallis-based head of a Forest Service team that studies fire dynamics.
"If you look at a big fire more closely, it's really a whole lot of smaller little fires doing their own thing," he said. "Often most of the land is hardly touched at all."
In all but one Northwest blaze surveyed this summer, more than half the acres were burned lightly or not at all. Taken together, an average of 69 percent of the acreage were burned lightly or not at all, with 19 percent burning moderately and 12 percent burning severely.
The severity rankings reflect damage to soil and the plants that hold it in place. Rehabilitation such as seeding to control erosion usually targets severe burns, where soil was cooked so deeply little vegetation survives.
Where fires burn lightly, though, flames gobble dry grasses and leave roots ready to spring back to life and trees untouched. In the Fremont and Winema forests, site of the Toolbox, Winter and Grizzly fires in July, charred willows and other plants are already resprouting.
The Umpqua National Forest's Tiller fires raced through dense tree plantations with low branches that gave flames a helping hand into the treetops, said Karla Bird, a natural resources staff officer. In more scattered natural stands, flames kept to the ground, spared many trees and did more good than harm.
Satellite images of the still-burning Biscuit fire in the last month have revealed roughly 200,000 unburned acres within the fire's 500,000-acre boundary. The fire, among the largest in modern Oregon history, severely burned less than 20 percent of the total acres, said researcher Annette Parsons.
For rehabilitation, Clevenger said, "we're looking at something a whole lot less than 500,000 acres."
by Michael Milstein: 503-294-7689; michaelmilstein@news.oregonian.com
Click here for an online link to this Oregonian article.
