Flame Before Chain Saw

Score one for the birds and the bears. After more than 10 years of study, the U.S. Forest Service has formally approved a landmark plan for managing 11 national forests in the Sierra Nevada for the good of the forests and their resident wildlife rather than for the gains of timber cutters.

The Bush administration deserves credit for this decision, though it was an easy one because the Sierra Nevada Framework is based on such strong scientific evidence. The framework grew out of a federally funded study of the Sierra, with 107 scientists participating to assess the health of the forests and the impact of commercial development on threatened and endangered species.

The framework does contain a potentially big loophole. The regional chief who oversees the California forests was given authority to adjust fire-control planning to mesh with a new national firefighting policy. The Forest Service must take care that any alteration of the framework is modest and designed only to protect mountain communities that might be endangered by fire.

Needless to say, timber interests oppose the plan and say they’ll sue to block its implementation. They should save their time and money. Because the framework is firmly reasoned, any challenge is likely to fail.

The goals of the plan generally are to preserve large old-growth trees to provide a safe environment for fish, wildlife and birdlife. These include threatened species such as the California spotted owl, the pine martin and the fisher, scattered through 11 million acres of federal forest from Oregon to the San Bernardino area. The framework also provides protection for dozens of other species including bear, mountain lion, elk and bighorn sheep.

Except in built-up areas, the plan calls for forest renewal through natural fires and planned burns. Logging associations often claim that all the forests must be thinned by timber cutting to reduce the danger of wildfires. Many inhabited areas do need a fire buffer that can be achieved only by thinning. But it is impossible to thin all of the millions of acres of forests. Nor is that necessarily desirable because ash nourishes the soil, flames clean up underbrush more efficiently than loggers, and regrowth after fire is more varied.

Approval of the framework aids the forest and its wild creatures. Californians who want to play or just find solace in the treasured Sierra will reap the result.