Restoring Forests Nature’s Way : Government will let some trees burn--but it may be a hard sell
It’s hard to forget Smokey Bear’s plea that “only you can prevent forest fires,” or Bambi’s flight from menacing flames. But last week, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt essentially asked us to do just that.
Launching a major campaign to thin the fuel of nation’s forests by using more controlled burns, Babbitt said the time has come to view fire not as a threat to be prevented at all costs, but as a tool that can be used to build new forests by burning parts of old ones. The only way “to restore health and vigor to our forests,” he argued, “is to bring back their own ancient predator: wildland fire.”
He’s right. A coalition of usually contentious environmentalists and loggers has come to see Washington’s seven-decade-long policy of staunching all forest fires as quickly as possible as the principal reason for the increasing destructiveness of wildfires in America.
Prior to the policy, fires started when trees struck by lightning were often allowed to burn. This cleared undergrowth while leaving mature healthy trees undamaged, an ecological process essential to a forest’s health. Once the government began a campaign to aggressively extinguish all fires, however, it allowed undergrowth to accumulate into tinderboxes that, once ignited, could raze entire forests.
Despite the growing coalition in favor of controlled burning, Babbitt still faces opposition from two main interest groups. Community leaders worry that a fire deliberately lit to eliminate excessive fuel will burn out of control, threatening homes. Firefighters have occasionally “lost” fires they started, and U.S. Forest Service officials now recommend that controlled burns be used conservatively near populated areas, like the rapidly expanding communities in the Sierra Nevada range.
Some environmentalists also oppose the burns, pointing out that the smoke that can shroud towns and threaten health. The Interior Department is having a hard time finding middle ground.
Meanwhile, regional Forest Service managers have faced lawsuits filed by citizens who claim property or other damage due to controlled burns. In the case of gross negligence, such suits may be justified. But federal law should be reformed to grant a measure of protection from nuisance suits. Florida has such a law.
Government can do only so much, however. People who choose to live in or near forests and heavy brush must accept the risks. Communities in such areas, moreover, should establish their own fire brigades and write fire codes based on an understanding of their unique regional ecology.
Babbitt won’t have an easy time selling the public on the need for more fire. But our perceptions of this fatal force must change. For fire is far more than a simple danger to deer and bears. It’s a natural force as essential to a forest’s health as rainfall and sunlight.
