So while the Forest Service fiddles and greens plot impediments to salvage sales, billions of board feet of usable wood will begin rotting in place this spring. Ever day that salvage is delayed will perpetuate what some see as an unconscionable waste of public resources. In South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest, for instance, Dombeck severely restricted the salvaging of wood burned in last summer's Jasper Fire, reportedly allowing as much as 52 million board feet to go to waste. Forest Supervisor John Twiss asked Washington for an emergency exemption from the usual harvest appeals process to speed salvage along, but Dombeck in typical fashion granted only a partial exemption, allowing limited cutting only on parcels approved for harvest before the fires. They oppose salvage sales because dead trees make good habitat for animals and harvesting them disturbs the ground, hastening erosion, and so have pledged to fight at least half a dozen other proposed salvage sales in the Southwest.
Fires create important habitat for a wide array of wildlife, especially our imperiled songbirds.
A salvage sale's relatively narrow window of opportunity, combined with anticipated opposition from environmentalists, led New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest to forego salvage projects on 48,000 acres burned by last year's Cierro Grand fire, according to one agency insider. A spot survey of national forests stricken by fire last year indicates that few will likely see salvage projects go forward this summer, if at all, due not only to impediments thrown up by greens, inside the agency and out, but to the gumminess of the decision-making process under NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act. The law lays out a lengthy, laborious, multi-layered process that must be followed before even trivial land management actions are taken. And agency insiders say it is one big reason why, nearly a year after some fires occurred, many national forests may still be months away from a decision on whether to salvage or not to salvage. An effort was made in the service several years ago to streamline the NEPA process, by waiving certain provisions in some clearly defined circumstances, including on small scale salvage sales.