| <html> | |
| <title> - FOREST HEALTH CRITERIA</title> | |
| <body><pre> | |
| [House Hearing, 105 Congress] | |
| [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] | |
| FOREST HEALTH CRITERIA | |
| ======================================================================= | |
| OVERSIGHT HEARING | |
| before the | |
| SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREST AND FOREST HEALTH | |
| of the | |
| COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES | |
| HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | |
| ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS | |
| FIRST SESSION | |
| on | |
| CRITERIA TO DETERMINE IF A FOREST IS HEALTHY OR UNHEALTHY, AND HOW TO | |
| IMPROVE OR MAINTAIN FOREST HEALTH | |
| __________ | |
| MARCH 18, 1997--WASHINGTON, DC | |
| __________ | |
| Serial No. 105-6 | |
| __________ | |
| Printed for the use of the Committee on Resources | |
| <snowflake> | |
| U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE | |
| 40-351 cc WASHINGTON : 1997 | |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office | |
| Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 | |
| COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES | |
| DON YOUNG, Alaska, Chairman | |
| W.J. (BILLY) TAUZIN, Louisiana GEORGE MILLER, California | |
| JAMES V. HANSEN, Utah EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts | |
| JIM SAXTON, New Jersey NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia | |
| ELTON GALLEGLY, California BRUCE F. VENTO, Minnesota | |
| JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee DALE E. KILDEE, Michigan | |
| JOEL HEFLEY, Colorado PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon | |
| JOHN T. DOOLITTLE, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American | |
| WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland Samoa | |
| KEN CALVERT, California NEIL ABERCROMBIE, Hawaii | |
| RICHARD W. POMBO, California SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas | |
| BARBARA CUBIN, Wyoming OWEN B. PICKETT, Virginia | |
| HELEN CHENOWETH, Idaho FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey | |
| LINDA SMITH, Washington CALVIN M. DOOLEY, California | |
| GEORGE P. RADANOVICH, California CARLOS A. ROMERO-BARCELO, Puerto | |
| WALTER B. JONES, Jr., North Rico | |
| Carolina MAURICE D. HINCHEY, New York | |
| WILLIAM M. (MAC) THORNBERRY, Texas ROBERT A. UNDERWOOD, Guam | |
| JOHN SHADEGG, Arizona SAM FARR, California | |
| JOHN E. ENSIGN, Nevada PATRICK J. KENNEDY, Rhode Island | |
| ROBERT F. SMITH, Oregon ADAM SMITH, Washington | |
| CHRIS CANNON, Utah WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts | |
| KEVIN BRADY, Texas CHRIS JOHN, Louisiana | |
| JOHN PETERSON, Pennsylvania DONNA CHRISTIAN-GREEN, Virgin | |
| RICK HILL, Montana Islands | |
| BOB SCHAFFER, Colorado NICK LAMPSON, Texas | |
| JIM GIBBONS, Nevada RON KIND, Wisconsin | |
| MICHAEL D. CRAPO, Idaho | |
| Lloyd A. Jones, Chief of Staff | |
| Elizabeth Megginson, Chief Counsel | |
| Christine Kennedy, Chief Clerk/Administrator | |
| John Lawrence, Democratic Staff Director | |
| ------ | |
| Subcommittee on Forest and Forest Health | |
| HELEN CHENOWETH, Idaho, Chairman | |
| JAMES V. HANSEN, Utah MAURICE D. HINCHEY, New York | |
| JOHN T. DOOLITTLE, California BRUCE F. VENTO, Minnesota | |
| GEORGE P. RADANOVICH, California DALE E. KILDEE, Michigan | |
| JOHN PETERSON, Pennsylvania ---------- ---------- | |
| RICK HILL, Montana ---------- ---------- | |
| BOB SCHAFFER, Colorado ---------- ---------- | |
| Bill Simmons, Staff Director | |
| Anne Heissenbuttel, Legislative Staff | |
| Liz Birnbaum, Democratic Counsel | |
| C O N T E N T S | |
| ---------- | |
| Page | |
| Hearing held March 18, 1997...................................... 1 | |
| Statements of Members: | |
| Chenoweth, Hon. Helen, a U.S. Representative from Idaho...... 1 | |
| Peterson, Hon. John, a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania. 47 | |
| Radanovich, Hon. George, a U.S. Representative from | |
| California................................................. 48 | |
| Statements of witnesses: | |
| Dombeck, Michael, Chief, Forest Service, U.S. Department of | |
| Agriculture................................................ 3 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 52 | |
| Holmer, Steve, Campaign Director, Western Ancient Forest | |
| Campaign, Washington, DC................................... 35 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 55 | |
| Kane, Kenneth, Keith Horn, Inc., consulting foresters, Kane, | |
| PA......................................................... 33 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 58 | |
| Lynch, Dr. Dennis L., Professor of Forest Sciences, Colorado | |
| State University, Fort Collins, CO......................... 18 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 108 | |
| Moore, Martin, Director, Community Development and Planning, | |
| Apache County, AZ.......................................... 20 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 96 | |
| Muckenfuss, Ed, Regional Manager, Westvaco Company, | |
| Summerville, SC............................................ 38 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 63 | |
| Schoenholtz, Dr. Stephen H., Associate Professor of Forest | |
| Resources, Mississippi State University.................... 24 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 50 | |
| Wall, Bill, Wildlife Biologist, Potlatch Corporation, | |
| Lewiston, ID............................................... 40 | |
| Wiant, Harry, President, Society of American Foresters, | |
| Morgantown, WV............................................. 23 | |
| Prepared statement....................................... 48 | |
| Additional material supplied: | |
| Little, Jane Braxton: Article on ``How to manage healthy | |
| forests''.................................................. 121 | |
| Society of American Foresters: A Framework for Considering | |
| Forest Health and Productivity Issues...................... 69 | |
| Communications received: | |
| Pfister, Professor Robert D. (Univ. of Montana): Letter of | |
| March 14, 1997, to Hon. Helen Chenoweth.................... 116 | |
| MANAGEMENT OF OUR NATION'S FORESTS AND CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING HEALTHY | |
| FORESTS | |
| ---------- | |
| TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 1997 | |
| House of Representatives, | |
| Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, | |
| Committee on Resources, | |
| Washington, DC. | |
| The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:05 p.m., in | |
| room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C., | |
| Hon. Helen Chenoweth (Chair of the Subcommittee) presiding. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. The Subcommittee on Forests and Forest | |
| Health will come to order. The Subcommittee is meeting today to | |
| hear testimony on what criteria should be used to determine if | |
| a forest is healthy or unhealthy, and what management tools | |
| would be considered the most appropriate to maintain or improve | |
| forest health. | |
| Under Rule 4(g) of the committee rules, any oral opening | |
| Statee ments at hearings are limited to the Chairman and the | |
| ranking minority member. This will allow us to hear from our | |
| witnesses sooner and help members to keep their schedules. | |
| Therefore, if other members have statements, they can be | |
| included in the hearing record under unanimous consent. | |
| STATEMENT OF HON. HELEN CHENOWETH, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM | |
| IDAHO; AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FORESTS AND FORESTS HEALTH | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I am pleased to be conducting this hearing. | |
| The Subcommittee has invited a broad range of witnesses to | |
| testify on the criteria to determine if a forest is healthy or | |
| unhealthy, and how to improve or maintain forest health. | |
| It is my desire to use this forum as an education tool for | |
| the Subcommittee to listen to a broad range of interests as | |
| well as to substantiate and to form a hearing record. | |
| We are fortunate to have with us today the caliber of | |
| witnesses representing the Forest Service, academia, local | |
| government, industry, and the environmental community. The | |
| subject of forest health has become a matter of great concern | |
| to us all. Forest health has been defined in many different | |
| ways to express important values obtained from forests. | |
| Many attitudes and policies during the past century have | |
| contributed to the forests' present condition. The forests that | |
| seem to be at most serious risk today are those developed under | |
| a historic cycle of high-frequency, low-intensity wildfire. | |
| Nearly 100 years of fire exclusion following thousands of years | |
| of management of the same forests by the use of fire by Native | |
| Americans has led to many crowded and unhealthy forests. Rather | |
| than the high-frequency, low-intensity wildfires of those days, | |
| today's wildfires are larger, hotter, more lethal to | |
| vegetation, more damaging to topsoils, and exceptionally | |
| dangerous to human settlements and property. | |
| Although the majority of forest health problems and the | |
| resulting large, damaging fires are found on the public lands | |
| of the west, introduced non-native forest pests such as the | |
| gypsy moth and Dutch elm disease in the east have also created | |
| serious threats to forest health across the United States, | |
| including all of these criteria. | |
| It is my desire to obtain information from this hearing | |
| that will be helpful to the Subcommittee as we move forward | |
| with improving the health of our nation's forests. I would also | |
| like to point out that it was my desire to have as broad a | |
| range as possible of interests and expertise represented at | |
| today's hearing. Although as I pointed out, we have a highly | |
| qualified list of witnesses, I would like to note that I | |
| extended invitations to more members of the environmental | |
| community to testify, but because of reasons known to them | |
| only, only one representative could attend today, and we | |
| certainly welcome him. | |
| I look forward to the testimony and will recognize the | |
| ranking minority member when he does get back from New York. | |
| Representative Hinchey is on his way in from New York, and will | |
| be joining us when he arrives. | |
| At this time, I would like to recognize Mr. Kildee for any | |
| opening statement he may have. | |
| Mr. Kildee. Thank you, Madame Chairman, for recognizing me. | |
| I really have no opening statement, just look forward to | |
| learning what we can learn about the genuine health of our | |
| forests, part of our national patrimony, and thank you for | |
| having the hearing. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Kildee. I would like to | |
| introduce the new Chief of the Forest Service, Michael Dombeck, | |
| and his assistant, Director Ann Bartuska. As explained in our | |
| first hearing, it is the intention of the Chairman to place all | |
| outside witnesses under oath. | |
| This is a formality of the committee that is meant to | |
| assure open and honest discussion and should not affect the | |
| testimony given by witnesses. I believe all of the witnesses | |
| were informed of this before appearing here today, and they | |
| have each been provided a copy of the committee rules. | |
| Mr. Dombeck, if you will stand and raise your right hand, I | |
| will administer the oath. | |
| Do you solemnly swear or affirm under the penalty of | |
| perjury that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and | |
| nothing but the truth, so help you God? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I will. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you. Let me remind the witnesses that | |
| under our committee rules they must limit their oral statements | |
| to five minutes, but that their entire statement will appear in | |
| the record. We will also allow the entire panel to testify | |
| before questioning the witnesses. | |
| The Chairman now recognizes Mr. Dombeck, and, without | |
| regard to what the rules say, we are anxious to hear from you. | |
| STATEMENT OF MICHAEL DOMBECK, CHIEF, FOREST SERVICE, UNITED | |
| STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; ACCOMPANIED BY ANN BARTUSKA, | |
| DIRECTOR, FOREST HEALTH PROTECTION | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Thank you for that introduction, and I have to | |
| say I am pleased to appear before the Subcommittee for the | |
| first time as Chief of the Forest Service. I want you to know | |
| that Dr. Ann Bartuska here with me is here as an expert. She is | |
| our director of the forest health protection staff and knows | |
| all of the details. | |
| I would like to begin my testimony by giving three brief | |
| examples just to demonstrate that we do have tools and we know | |
| many of the things we have to do. I would like to start out | |
| with an example from the south. | |
| The southern pine, the longleaf pine, was considered | |
| probably the most valuable in terms of wood quality products, | |
| aesthetically pleasing, fire-resistant species, resistant to | |
| insect diseases and attacks. | |
| In pre-settlement times, we had something in the | |
| neighborhood of 60,000,000 acres of longleaf pine stands. By | |
| the early 1900's, that was reduced to about 3,000,000 acres due | |
| to fire exclusion and conversion of forest lands to agriculture | |
| uses. Because of the management technologies today, the Forest | |
| Service is making progress in restoring the longleaf pine | |
| ecosystems and it is a priority in that part of the country. We | |
| are establishing new stands that provide a wide array of social | |
| and economic benefits as well as just the beauty of the forest. | |
| The second example I would like to give has to do with | |
| white pine blister rust. From 1909 and 1910, white pine blister | |
| rust came to this country and contaminated nursery stocks. It | |
| first affected Idaho and was discovered around Coeur D'Alene in | |
| about 1923. Then it spread throughout the west, Washington, | |
| Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, and as you know, the white pine was | |
| often known as the tree that built America from the standpoint | |
| of its value. | |
| In the 1950's, we began a successful effort, a breeding | |
| program to develop blister rust-resistant stocks because many | |
| of the original stands have been decimated as a result of this | |
| disease. Today, we are restoring white pine stands and white | |
| pine ecosystems in many ares of the west, so this is another | |
| example of genetics and the importance of disease and those | |
| kinds of studies that are going on. | |
| The third example I would like to mention is an issue that | |
| you are so familiar with in your home State. Last week, I spent | |
| some time in the west looking firsthand at some of the forest | |
| health issues, and you have already described in your opening | |
| statement some of the problems associated with overstocked | |
| stands. | |
| In the Boise National Forest in your State, they are moving | |
| ahead with a wide variety of tools to get on top of the issue, | |
| and I would like to say that it is important that we use all of | |
| the tools at our disposal to deal with the forest health issues | |
| from salvage logging to thinning to fuel reduction to | |
| prescribed burning. | |
| I looked at examples of mowing when I was out in Deschutes | |
| National Forest, and one striking thing that I saw there that | |
| also applies to the entire west is the Skeleton Fire, on the | |
| outskirts of Bend where 19 homes burned in the wildland/fire | |
| interface. | |
| We spent some $1,600 an acre suppressing that fire, whereas | |
| many of the management practices we could have used to avoid | |
| that type of situation as we move forward are much less costly | |
| than that. | |
| For example, we can do prescribed burning in some cases for | |
| $20 to $50 an acre, so I just list those as examples to say | |
| that we do have the tools and we need to use all the tools and | |
| we need to work with communities in a positive way. | |
| I guess the message I would like to leave the Subcommittee | |
| with is that we can accelerate the healing of our forests, and | |
| we can do so in a balanced and measured way. Because the | |
| consequences of inaction far outweigh the fiscal costs of the | |
| needs for restoration, catastrophic events, fires, floods, | |
| landslides seem to be occurring at increasing frequencies with | |
| ever more devastating consequences. | |
| Noxious weeds are diminishing the productivity of hundreds | |
| of thousands of acres of public land. The devastating fires are | |
| increasingly encroaching on the urban/forest interface. Last | |
| year alone, over 6,000,000 acres of public land burned. | |
| Healthy forests provide the resiliency to minimize the | |
| severe consequences of these events, and without decisive | |
| actions, these problems will only get worse. I want to say that | |
| restoration will not be quick, and in fact will be expensive, | |
| but we must look to these sorts of activities as investments in | |
| the land, investments that will immediately reduce the cost of | |
| catastrophic fire and, in the long run, greatly enhance forest | |
| productivity, health, and diversity. | |
| It took many decades to get where we are today, and it will | |
| take years to get to where we need to go. With that, I would be | |
| happy to answer any questions you have. | |
| [Statement of Michael Dombeck may be found at end of | |
| hearing.] | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Chief Dombeck. I appreciate | |
| hearing from you. Dr. Bartuska, do you have any comments to | |
| make or are you here to assist in any questions that might need | |
| your expertise? | |
| Ms. Bartuska. I am primarily here to assist in any | |
| questions. I will make one comment as to the criteria with | |
| regard to understanding what the health of the forests are. | |
| We have programs in place to try to describe that so we | |
| know what the current condition is and where we are going in | |
| the future, and I think that is particularly critical in order | |
| to identify the areas of highest priority and highest risk, and | |
| part of our understanding on the national forests helps us do | |
| that, but also, we are trying to put that into national context | |
| using the Santiago Agreement which is a way internationally to | |
| define what the health of forests are and sustainability of | |
| communities. | |
| So part of our criteria for understanding where these | |
| forests are going is to identify current conditions and trends. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Can you tell me what the Santiago Agreement | |
| may list as far as criteria for healthy forests? | |
| Ms. Bartuska. It involves a whole combination of biological | |
| criteria such as productivity of the forest lands, extent of | |
| forest lands, whether or not you have high fire risk. | |
| It also speaks to the stability and sustainability of | |
| communities, so there are economic factors. The ability to | |
| sustain small communities and large communities, the | |
| contributions to the GNP would be included, so it is a whole | |
| array of criteria dealing with health of ecosystems but also | |
| health of communities. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Dr. Bartuska, when we think of actual | |
| forest health, which I think we have tried to confine our | |
| thinking in this committee to include community stability as it | |
| so very important to us, but in terms of restoring forest | |
| health to the forests, can you give me a little more detail | |
| with regard to the Santiago Agreement, if that is the criteria | |
| that you will be looking at? | |
| Ms. Bartuska. I don't have all the details of those | |
| criteria. We can send that to you. | |
| I will say that of seven main biological criteria, there is | |
| one specifically dealing with forest health, and the measures | |
| of that include extent and condition of the forest lands, | |
| mortality balanced against growth, conditions of soil | |
| productivity, so it would be fairly traditional within our own | |
| monitoring programs, traditional measures, but there are also | |
| some dealing with other criteria, other characteristics of the | |
| system, and I don't have all those details with me. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. In terms of having our own chief be able to | |
| make the decisions about the forests, what would the Santiago | |
| Agreement do with regard to his ability to make decisions on | |
| our forests in America? Chief Dombeck. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I look at Ann as the expert on the Santiago | |
| Agreement, but I look at it as more of the umbrella concepts, | |
| sort of the macro approach that then we would build those or | |
| other concepts that we would apply to different geographic | |
| areas based upon differences in species composition, | |
| differences in precipitation, differences in elevation, and all | |
| those other types of things then become nested in those | |
| overall, overarching concepts that apply broad-scale. | |
| I see it as an umbrella that is as much a communication and | |
| education tool. We are, I believe, in the United States with | |
| the academic institutions, such as places like the University | |
| of Idaho--who I understand did the bulk of the research along | |
| with the Forest Service on the white pine blister rust issue | |
| that I used as an example, along with the Forest Service and | |
| industry and many others--we in this country are the experts on | |
| this issue, and many, many other countries look to us for | |
| technical expertise, for advice on these kinds of issues, and I | |
| have got to say one more thing about your home State where the | |
| national interagency fire is another example of, these are the | |
| experts from the standpoint of wildland fire fighting and | |
| incident command. We have this level of expertise in this | |
| country that is sought after by the international community, | |
| and it is something that we should be proud of. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I think you can probably gather from the | |
| line of questioning that you are receiving that we want you to | |
| have authority and be unencumbered to make decisions about | |
| forest health in the future. I would be very interested in | |
| receiving more information with regard to the relationship | |
| there. | |
| We have a situation in northern Idaho right now that I | |
| might use as an example to see if it is something that could be | |
| moved ahead, and that is that on November 29, we had a very | |
| interesting phenomenon that occurred with regard to the | |
| weather. We had a very, very cold air inversion that settled in | |
| the northern part of Idaho and northeastern Washington, and | |
| then we had warm rain above, and the rain came through and | |
| rained ice for eight hours. We had ice buildup in the trees. | |
| By the time the ice buildup reached up to two and a half | |
| tons in the crowns of these trees, sometimes trees 175 to 200 | |
| years old, so they were native species, the trees would break | |
| right below the last green limb, and it also occurred in the | |
| trees averaging 30 to 50 years old. They all broke about 30 | |
| feet off the ground, and that presents an emergency situation | |
| with regard to forest health, because we don't just have the | |
| normal fuel load on the forest floor. We have 25 to 30 percent | |
| of the forest on the floor now from that ice damage spanning | |
| Mr. Nethercutt's district as well as mine and some moving into | |
| Montana. | |
| Are we in a situation where a decision can be made at your | |
| level or the level of Missoula, Montana, and Portland, Oregon, | |
| where we can get in and clean that up so we won't have a lot of | |
| fire damage and insect and disease moving in which would happen | |
| in this circumstance? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Let me say that actually, I saw some of that, | |
| not the damage in the area that you speak of, but damage | |
| similar to that when I was in eastern Oregon, and it is not | |
| unlike the hurricanes that hit the southeast that will take a | |
| swath through the forest. | |
| My hope is that our policies are such that our experts are | |
| on the land, that we have the ability and the flexibility, the | |
| processes to make these kind of decisions by the resource | |
| managers on the land working with the local people in that | |
| situation. | |
| Now, I assume that that would be in Regional Forester | |
| Salwasser's area and I will check with him, but I assume that | |
| he and the forest supervisors and rangers are taking a look at | |
| that situation as we speak. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you very much, and welcome to your | |
| new job. I have appreciated working with you and your staff | |
| very much. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I would like to call on the gentleman from | |
| Colorado now. Mr. Schaffer. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Thank you, Madame Chairman. I have a couple | |
| questions and I would like to start out just on the whole topic | |
| of controlled burns, a big issue out in my State of Colorado, | |
| as you may well imagine. | |
| We have great concern over air quality, and there are many | |
| communities in the range of the State that are in any given | |
| year just one or two days away from being considered | |
| nonattainment areas, and when Secretary Babbitt had mentioned, | |
| for example, the increased effort on forest burns and a | |
| considerable portion of our State includes federally managed | |
| lands, and that affects that range. | |
| I would just like to find out first, your thoughts about | |
| that particular management practice in the first place, but | |
| secondly, what I need to hear is just some assurances that the | |
| air quality standards in our State are being considered, that | |
| there is a plan to accommodate those standards and help us | |
| maintain our attainment of those standards, and that there is a | |
| commitment to work with our State hand in hand just as these | |
| projects may be carried out. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Let me say that air quality has been a | |
| significant issue associated with prescribed fire, that has | |
| been broadly discussed, and the one reality is that in using a | |
| prescribed fire, we do have control over fires, oftentimes. | |
| They are planned with the particular wind direction in mind and | |
| to work within windows of opportunity based on whatever the | |
| local conditions are, whereas, if we deal with the disaster of | |
| the uncontrolled fire that we just have Mother Nature take its | |
| course, that leads us then into a situation where we have no | |
| control, no ability to manage the situation. | |
| What we have been doing is working with the Environmental | |
| Protection Agency. Our local folks are working with the State | |
| agencies to work with the windows of opportunity, to identify | |
| the windows of opportunity that they have so we make sure all | |
| of the situations, the air quality, the safety precautions, all | |
| of those kinds of things are taken into consideration. It is | |
| very important that we do that. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Colorado is in the process right now of | |
| passing State legislation that would give the State authority | |
| that was granted to States under the Clean Air Act to require | |
| Federal facilities to reduce emissions coming from Federal | |
| lands. | |
| Are you familiar with that legislation or that effort among | |
| affected States and do you see any reason that there would be | |
| any kind of controversy or conflict at all? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I am not familiar with Colorado's specific | |
| legislation and much of the clean air issues, of course, fall | |
| under the jurisdiction of the EPA, but what I will say is that | |
| the direction that we are going in, and I believe fairly | |
| aggressively, and the State of Colorado has been in the lead in | |
| this issue, is the Federal agencies are working with the States | |
| and the counties from the standpoint of planning, of having | |
| fire management plans of knowing how they are going to respond | |
| to situations in advance based upon dialog and plans and the | |
| interaction of the Federal agencies, the BLM, the Forest | |
| Service, as well as the appropriate State agencies, the | |
| counties, and from the standpoint of not only fire planning, | |
| but also from the standpoint of how they are going to respond | |
| in the most efficient and effective manner. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. I would also like to ask just with respect to | |
| planning and plotting out these burns and how they occur, some | |
| of those forests are so dry right now that it is very easy to | |
| see how--in fact, I have heard some people in the Forest | |
| Service refer to burns that exceed the plan. They are called | |
| bonus burns in the industry vernacular of sorts. | |
| I am curious as to how many of your staff are trained in | |
| fire suppression. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Let me first say that no, there isn't a burn | |
| that is not dangerous and shouldn't be taken very, very | |
| seriously whether it is a natural fire or a prescribed burn, | |
| and as a result of 1988, and the tragedies of '94 that I was | |
| personally involved in, we have enhanced training and safety to | |
| an all-time high, I believe, I was with the Bureau of Land | |
| Management at that time, but also within the Forest Service | |
| from the standpoint of the programs that we had with the Forest | |
| Service as they kicked off a program called Fire-21, which | |
| takes a look at the issues across the board associated with | |
| fire, the funding, the training, the safety, because we should | |
| never, ever let anyone believe that fire is not--can be a very | |
| dangerous situation, especially in extreme weather conditions | |
| as we have learned the hard way many, many times, so the | |
| standpoint of training, the standpoint of safety is I think at | |
| an all-time high. | |
| But our workforces are changing, and the numbers of | |
| employees that are perhaps in line positions that 30 or 40 | |
| years ago maybe a greater proportion of them would have been | |
| smoke jumpers, would have been trained specifically in fire, | |
| where now, I believe a lesser proportion of some of our people | |
| have that training. | |
| Therefore, the action that we have to take is to make sure | |
| that we provide it so that we don't have those gaps in skills | |
| and training. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I thank the gentleman from Colorado, and we | |
| will have another round of questioning, if you have any other | |
| questions in mind. | |
| The chair now recognizes Mr. Kildee. | |
| Mr. Kildee. Thank you, Madame Chairman. What programs that | |
| would lead to forest health is the Administration seeking to | |
| give greater emphasis to in the 1997 budget? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. The following initiative would be--we are | |
| looking at timber stand improvement increases, I believe about | |
| an $11,000,000 increase in timber stand improvement. The acres | |
| treated would increase by about 30,000. | |
| We are looking at about $10,000,000 for insect disease | |
| prevention and suppression, and increased emphasis in fuel | |
| treatment, and increased emphasis in the watershed restoration. | |
| These are in addition to other activities that we are involve | |
| in, the training, the monitoring, the research and all these | |
| areas. | |
| I think the point that I want to make is that we realize | |
| that in many cases we have to make investments in watersheds | |
| and those investments include a wide variety of things. We have | |
| got roads sometimes that need to be put to bed, sometimes that | |
| need to be brought up to standard; noxious weed issues that we | |
| have to deal with; a whole variety of forest management | |
| practices that could include anything from salvage logging to | |
| thinning to a prescribed burning. | |
| When I was out in Deschutes National Forest last week, they | |
| showed me some mowing projects they were involved in, and one | |
| thing I would like to call your attention to is something that | |
| I have put in your folders just to give you a visual of some of | |
| the forest health situation. I think that it describes in | |
| pictures some of the things I am trying to describe. | |
| The first picture, and this is in Shasta County, | |
| California; the first picture shows about 1,500 stems per acre. | |
| It is a situation that is very dense, and in low humidity | |
| situations, very flashy from the standpoint of the historical | |
| situation would have been, these would have been probably | |
| Ponderosa pine, and because of fire suppression over the last | |
| 100 years, you have had an encroachment of fir species, and a | |
| significant fire risk. | |
| The second picture shows work after some management has | |
| taken place there, and let me just describe the management that | |
| has occurred here, and that is about 2,000 to 3,000 board feet | |
| per acre of saw logs were removed, along with about 35 to 40 | |
| tons per acre of nonmerchantable material, and what we have | |
| done here now is reduce this to about 100 trees per acre | |
| compared to 1,500 on the previous photo. | |
| Now, here, we have a photo that is eight years later, and | |
| what we are ready to do there is, we are ready to go in with a | |
| prescribed burn, giving the right weather conditions, to | |
| further reduce some of the fuel loading that is there because | |
| of the suppression that has occurred there for about 80 years. | |
| I guess my point is again, it is important that we use | |
| every tool at our disposal when we deal with this issue that we | |
| have. On the national forest system, we are estimating | |
| somewhere in the neighborhood of 39,000,000 acres is at high | |
| risk to catastrophic fire. | |
| Mr. Kildee. At one time when I was growing up, fire was | |
| always the enemy in the forest. Now, you can use fire as a | |
| friend, as helpful? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. With great respect. Fire is a natural part of | |
| the ecosystem and depending on where you are, the typical | |
| situation in the intermountain west is that it burned every | |
| seven to 15 years in a low-intensity situation. | |
| The large, catastrophic fires may have occurred in the | |
| cycles in centuries rather than decades like the low-intensity | |
| fires, and these are the way these ecosystems evolved. Through | |
| extensive and overzealous, if you will, fire suppression, the | |
| stands have changed in composition, leaving us with a | |
| significant issue to deal with, a serious issue compounded by | |
| the urban/wildland interface. | |
| If you go around Lake Tahoe or the front range or the west | |
| slope or the Sierras where you have got lots of houses, and in | |
| many cases, very expensive houses, interspersed in these dense | |
| forests. The education issue that is facing us is, in some | |
| cases, you see cedar shake shingles on these houses. You see | |
| people that are used to a visual that is very dense, much like | |
| photo number one, when the historical situation would have been | |
| more like photo number three. | |
| So there is this education problem that goes along with the | |
| visual landscape, and the fact that over the last several | |
| decades, we have preached to put every fire out, and yet, we | |
| have got to be very respectful of fire, because we can never | |
| assume that it cannot be very, very dangerous. | |
| Mr. Kildee. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madame | |
| Chairman. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Kildee. The chair now | |
| recognizes Mr. Vento. | |
| Mr. Vento. Thanks, Madame Chairwoman, and I welcome our new | |
| chief. I really am looking forward to working with you and I | |
| appreciate your testimony today. This is a tough topic, but one | |
| I think that merits education and I hope that we can come down | |
| with policy that reflects the science rather than what actually | |
| favors our own interest. | |
| I appreciate your effort to come here and the Chairwoman's | |
| effort to put forth the hearing on an educational basis. | |
| What was the time lapse between these two photographs, | |
| photo number two and three? Ten years? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Eight years. | |
| Mr. Vento. Eight years. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I believe. | |
| Mr. Vento. I was reminded--I was at a meeting on Saturday | |
| evening, and I was reminded by one of the foresters from the | |
| Superior National Forest in Minnesota. He said they had two | |
| fires up there this past year. One was a prescribed burn, and | |
| one was a natural fire that they tried to put out. | |
| Anyway, on the prescribed burn, they spent some $30,000 to | |
| $40,000, maybe even less than that. I don't remember. It might | |
| have been $18,000, but on the fire that they tried to put out, | |
| they spent $1,200,000. | |
| This is one of the problems that we have, Chief, in terms | |
| of when we get into firefighting, we are spending an awful lot | |
| of money. For the short-term, I suppose because of the urban | |
| interface and some other factors we have to deal with that. | |
| I don't know what they did to the air quality, but I guess | |
| they were obviously doing that in compliance with the laws that | |
| deal with air quality. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. From the standpoint of prescribed fire, | |
| oftentimes we can deal with somewhere in the neighborhood of | |
| $20 to $50 per acre in many situations; sometimes a little more | |
| than that, but when we get a catastrophic situation to deal | |
| with, it could go upwards to $4,000 an acres. | |
| The fire that I reviewed earlier, last week in the | |
| Deschutes National Forest that burned 19 homes in Bend at the | |
| urban/wildland interface there, we spent about $1,600 an acre. | |
| From the standpoint of management in advance, you can do a lot | |
| for $1,600 an acre. | |
| We need to start shifting our management practices so we | |
| can begin to make investments to prevent problems before they | |
| occur. It is sort of like watch our cholesterol before we have | |
| a heart attack. | |
| Mr. Vento. No one is suggesting that in life or limb. I | |
| think in Superior, that was not the case. I think it was just a | |
| regular fire that they were trying to put out. But I think that | |
| the urban interface, no one is suggesting that when those | |
| incidents arise that you don't try to deal with it in terms of | |
| life and personal property and as I said, health. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Let me just add that part of the importance of | |
| planning that we talked about associated with Colorado I think | |
| applies here, because it is important that we know in advance | |
| what we are going to do. | |
| It is just like having the closest force as the most | |
| efficient way to deal with a fire, it is also important that we | |
| know what we need to do. | |
| I was at a situation, and this one happened to be in | |
| Arizona where we had a trailer park of about 1,000 residents in | |
| a very remote area that has a serious fire almost every year, | |
| and the average expenditure is about $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 | |
| dealing with suppression of that fire. | |
| Now we have a management plan that actually creates a | |
| mosaic of vegetation types to dampen the effects of the fire as | |
| well as through a prescribed burn or natural fire depending on | |
| where the lightning strikes are to actually create a zone | |
| around the community so that we have protection from that. | |
| So planning in advance and knowing how to deal with these | |
| situations is the way to go versus having to react in the | |
| emergency role. | |
| Mr. Vento. It is a problem. I think that obviously it may | |
| not look as aesthetically pleasing if you happen to want to be | |
| in the middle of a dense forest, but that is part of the | |
| management that we have to advocate, I guess at the same time, | |
| and work with local communities to try to make certain they | |
| understand. | |
| Forest health is a very interesting issue. I have followed | |
| it in detail, but mostly there is an emphasis on salvage | |
| logging that tends to override everything else. There is a role | |
| for salvage, is there not? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Yes, and I think it is important that we use | |
| all the tools and logging is certainly a tool, but what do you | |
| do when you are in an area where the timber values are not | |
| there to carry the cost of management? | |
| Mr. Vento. Very often, these types of salvage logging | |
| efforts--because of the way receipts are divided--are actually | |
| below-cost sales. They are money losers unless we get extremely | |
| high costs. If you are going to do this right, you should be | |
| using some of the new forestry type of plans in these areas, | |
| shouldn't you? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Yes, and I hope--that is certainly the | |
| direction I would like to have again, as I emphasized using all | |
| the tools. | |
| It is important that we educate people to the fact that | |
| there is an appropriate place for salvage logging. There are | |
| timber companies that say to me, we would like to retool and | |
| use some of the lower value woods available, looking for new | |
| technologies. | |
| At our forest products laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, we | |
| have probably 275 Ph.D.'s, some of the best minds in wood | |
| technology developing techniques to use lower value or poorer | |
| quality fiber for things in a wide variety of efficiencies. | |
| Mr. Vento. We are using all our aspen in Minnesota, let me | |
| tell you, for fiberboard and other products. I might also say, | |
| of course, the road restoration issue, mixed species types of | |
| reforestation, watershed management, road restoration, these | |
| are enormously important if you look at the damage that is | |
| occurring in terms of these forests. | |
| I think getting this on a cost basis is what the ultimate | |
| solution is. As I say, this is a good hearing. I am sorry I am | |
| going to be running back and forth, because we have another | |
| hearing on my Committee on Banking that Congressman Hansen is | |
| interested in. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Dombeck, Chief. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Vento. For a second round of | |
| questioning, I have just a couple of questions, Mr. Dombeck. | |
| I wonder, in your opinion, how would you describe modern- | |
| day timber harvest practices with regard to the overall health | |
| of the forest? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I think there are, like in all areas, a wide | |
| variety of practices developed in everything from helicopter | |
| logging to techniques that are less soft on the land than that | |
| sort of thing. | |
| In fact, I was reading about not too long ago, some mom- | |
| and-pop operations, like those used when I was a kid in | |
| northern Wisconsin, where they were still skidding logs with | |
| horses. | |
| I am not the logging, the engineering expert, but I hope | |
| that in logging technologies, just like all of the things we | |
| have been talking about here where there is management that we | |
| continually strive for the best and most efficient technologies | |
| available to use. We are a society that the development of | |
| technology is something important. | |
| We encourage that and are solidly behind that, and there | |
| are lots of good, progressive timber operators out there. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I assume from your answer that you really | |
| don't feel--I don't want to put words in your mouth. Do you | |
| feel that good, solid timber harvest practices could in any way | |
| be in conflict with ecosystem management plans? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I think maybe they could in some situations, | |
| but I would venture to say that it is probably a social issue | |
| more than it is a technology issue. From the standpoint of the | |
| debate that I know that you are very familiar with whether we | |
| talk riparian zones, roadless areas, those kinds of things, and | |
| I think it is one of the most important things that the Forest | |
| Service can do. I would hope that the Subcommittee here and | |
| that all the interests would move to the areas first where | |
| there is the least controversy, and that as we begin to build | |
| credibility and build trust on these issues and confidence, | |
| because the things that we don't know when we end up in these | |
| protracted debates and end up in the court system, that money | |
| spent on litigation doesn't necessarily benefit the land or | |
| restore the ecosystem or restore the health of the forest. | |
| I see this in a sense as more of a social issue than it is | |
| a technology issue, but by that I don't mean to diminish the | |
| need to continue the search for new and better, more efficient | |
| and effective technologies. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I am also very interested in knowing how | |
| you feel about grazing practices on the national forest, | |
| because you mentioned that over in the Deschutes Forest, they | |
| were mowing some of the meadows, which I think is something | |
| that can be dovetailed into the whole picture of fire | |
| suppression. | |
| I know Teddy Roosevelt envisioned using the livestock | |
| industry to help keep the fuel load on the forest floor down in | |
| terms of grazing practices. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Well, the specific situation that I looked at | |
| on Deschutes was in the coniferous forest and not a situation | |
| where it didn't appear that there were opportunities for | |
| grazing in that forest. | |
| But from the standpoint of reducing fuel loading and that | |
| sort of thing, grazing is also a tool, and yet some of the | |
| forest health issues associated with--again, like the long-term | |
| fire suppression where we have encroachment of rangelands by | |
| pinion and juniper, for example, there is already a shortage of | |
| water and the competition for water by the plants is there, and | |
| sometimes--these gradual changes over time based upon the way | |
| we have managed the | |
| ecosystems, we need to reverse through active management | |
| practices. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I know it must have been just as | |
| fascinating for you as it was for me when I first went into the | |
| Deschutes National Forest to see how an emerging forest | |
| establishes itself with the pinion pine being a pioneer | |
| species, and then behind that, we see the graduated growth of | |
| the forest following. | |
| I see I still have just a minute left. I do want to ask | |
| you, how many of your staff are actually qualified in fire | |
| suppression activities, actually qualified as fire suppression | |
| trained technicians? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I don't know the exact number. I don't know if | |
| Ann does, but we would be happy to provide that information to | |
| you. I am proud to say that I carried a red card at one time, | |
| and one of my goals this spring was to get qualified again, but | |
| with the pace of everything I have to do, I am not sure I am | |
| going to have the time to spend out jogging or in the gym to | |
| pass the tests. | |
| Again, as I said in the beginning, I am proud of the fact | |
| that we have among the best wildland firefighters in the world | |
| employed in the Forest Service, and I am real proud of the work | |
| that they do. They are very respected in the communities that | |
| they work, and it is an interesting group of people doing work | |
| that is very satisfying to them and at not very high pay. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Dombeck. The chair now | |
| recognizes Mr. Vento, if he wants a second round of questions. | |
| Mr. Vento. Thanks, Madam Chair. Just briefly. I note that | |
| an interagency task force or group was put together to examine | |
| the memorandum of understanding under which salvage logging | |
| took place, and there are a number key findings. | |
| Some of them, I think, in fairness are positive. The | |
| involvement of the Fish and Wildlife Service in the salvage | |
| logging plan added to rather than duplicated the efforts of the | |
| Forest Service and BLM regarding compliance with the ESA. | |
| That is a good one, but some of the others are not. They | |
| have a negative effect on pre-existing efforts to improve | |
| collaboration among agencies--a negative effect on pre-existing | |
| efforts because it overrode them, I take it, which is common | |
| sense. This was an emergency, and so the existing channels of | |
| communication that existed were suppressed. | |
| One of the concerns is that it destroyed the neutrality of | |
| dealing with forest health. I think I am saying this right in | |
| terms of this finding, Mr. Dombeck. I know that you | |
| participated in this or at least some of your associates did. | |
| It said current budget processes within BLM and Forest | |
| Services act as an incentive for field units to resort to | |
| salvage logging to generate money to pay for forest health | |
| projects, even when other projects may be more appropriate. | |
| I would assume that they are talking about forest health | |
| here, and that is to say that maybe road restoration would be | |
| more important than forest health, watershed restoration, | |
| diversified planting of mixed species, prescribed burns. | |
| Obviously, this law put in place specific quotas. I think it | |
| did mandate cuts, but others will argue that it didn't. | |
| Do you have any comment on these task force | |
| recommendations? I notice the final draft of an action plan was | |
| due in February. I don't know if it is out or not, but you | |
| might want to comment on that as well. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Let me say, I think we did learn several | |
| things from the exercise. Number one, I think it got a lot of | |
| our policy people from the Washington staff and the various | |
| agencies out on the ground to look at things firsthand, and I | |
| think that was a positive. | |
| I think from the standpoint of endangered species | |
| consultations and things like that, the whole exercise | |
| demonstrated that we could--by starting the processes up front, | |
| and rather than having the consultation processes in series, it | |
| was valuable to us knowing what the rules are and what data was | |
| required as soon as we started collecting it. | |
| We coordinated better than ever. There were a variety of | |
| positives, but from the standpoint, I think, of some of your | |
| latter comments, we have got to understand that sometimes, we | |
| need to make investments and that we shouldn't always rely on | |
| the value of the fiber that is there to carry the cost, because | |
| you have roads, sedimentation problems that you might have to | |
| deal with; noxious weeds issues you might have to deal with; | |
| stream restoration; high densities of low value or virtually no | |
| value wood, those kinds of things, and we need to look at it | |
| from the watershed approach versus the values of the | |
| merchantable timber that is there as the driver so that in the | |
| long haul, that will generate benefits. | |
| Mr. Vento. One of the problems, of course, is at the same | |
| time when timber revenues are down, the various funds that | |
| respond to conservation are also flat. So you are appealing to | |
| Congress for additional appropriations, modest as they may be, | |
| for prescribed burning, for watershed restoration, for road | |
| restoration, a host of things, the noxious weed issues that | |
| make up this forest health, is that correct? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Yes, and I think more and more we are | |
| learning, and if it is in agriculture or forest management or | |
| whatever, that there are all sorts of interactions, and the | |
| thing that we would like to be able to do is use the broadest | |
| variety of tools and technologies available in the best and | |
| most efficient combination for the long-term benefit of the | |
| land. | |
| Mr. Vento. One of the criticisms that often is raised, of | |
| course, is that there is a great controversy about the | |
| suppression of fire and whether or not that suppression is | |
| actually responsible for in fact the buildup of fuel loads in | |
| the forest. | |
| I know that someone is going to come through and say, well, | |
| this is what the forest looked like 120 years ago. It was | |
| barren and there was nothing there, and now this is what it | |
| looks like today. It is in much better condition, obviously | |
| under those circumstances. | |
| What is the scientific state of the majority of scientists | |
| with regards to forest health today versus what it was in the | |
| past? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Well, from the standpoint of the proportion of | |
| forests that are healthy versus those that are not is a really | |
| tough question, because then--what proportion of the tress and | |
| the condition of the trees and so on. | |
| But I might say from the standpoint of monitoring and | |
| technologies, the sooner that we can identify the problems, the | |
| better. Rather than waiting until we have a catastrophic fire | |
| situation or rather than waiting until we have got this insect | |
| infestation, the more that we can detect this coming, our early | |
| warning system is sort of, you know, keep your cholesterol down | |
| and get plenty of exercise to avoid the heart attack, and that | |
| is the direction that we really need to be heading in. | |
| Of course, from the standpoint of science and technology, | |
| we are learning more and more about the interactions of things | |
| and we just need to apply those and I hope we can do it in a | |
| good, balanced context, and one of the things that I am looking | |
| for is being able to move with a broad support base as we fix | |
| our forests, because we do know that inaction is not the | |
| solution. In fact, the costs will increase. | |
| Mr. Vento. My time has expired and I have to leave. Thank | |
| you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Vento. The chair recognizes | |
| the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Schaffer. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Thank you, Madame Chairman. Before I start, | |
| Dr. Bartuska, could you tell me where you came from before you | |
| ended up with the agency? Tell me about your background. | |
| Ms. Bartuska. I am originally from Pennsylvania and I got | |
| my degrees in Ohio and West Virginia, and spent nine years in | |
| North Carolina before I came up here working in research in the | |
| Forest Service and the university community and then most | |
| recently here with the forest health protection staff. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Thank you. Going back to this prescribed | |
| burning, on the forests where you know you want to do | |
| prescribed burning now, how soon would you start? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Well, let me say first that I am not the | |
| prescribed--the fire ecologist, but what we look for basically | |
| is the window of opportunity from the standpoint of fuel | |
| moisture levels. | |
| We always, and there are very strict guidelines that I | |
| would be happy to send you if you wish that our experts follow | |
| from the standpoint of weather conditions, relative humidity, | |
| fuel moisture, the time of the year, all of those kinds of | |
| things. | |
| I was again out west last week. They were telling me about | |
| a situation, where if they would burn that the direction of the | |
| smoke would go over the interstate, then they could not burn | |
| because of the air quality as well as the public reaction to | |
| that. | |
| So these are things that--every situation within a certain | |
| set of parameters is probably different. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. What percentage of these lands would you | |
| estimate have to have fuel removed ahead of time mechanically? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Before they would be burned? | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Yes. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I would ask Ann to--I would just have to | |
| almost take a wild guess. I am not sure. | |
| Ms. Bartuska. It is highly variable obviously depending | |
| upon the geographic area. | |
| For example, in the south, they almost never are | |
| mechanically removing things, and it is a very active program, | |
| but in certain parts of the west, mechanical treatment is going | |
| to have to be a very high priority first, and it could be ten | |
| to twenty percent before you go in and actually do any | |
| prescribed burning. | |
| A lot of it is dependent on how much fuels there are, as we | |
| mentioned earlier with the urban/wildland interface, there will | |
| be conditions where we will not, even though prescribed burning | |
| might be the most desired approach because of the communities | |
| there will have do mechanical treatments primarily. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Let me ask a more general question. Some of | |
| the Forest Service personnel that I have met with in Colorado | |
| believe that they are insufficiently funded to accomplish | |
| forest health projects. | |
| Do you think they are right and how do you think we would | |
| deal with this? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I think the answer is yes, and it is a matter | |
| of where we make--you know, as a society where we make--our | |
| investments and the priorities that you and the U.S. Congress | |
| in consultation with the Administration. | |
| Let me say that as I mentioned, in national forests, we | |
| assume now that about 39,000,000 acres are at significant | |
| threat of fire, and as I look at the management practices, and | |
| I have the numbers here someplace, and I believe we are making | |
| process to the tune of about---- | |
| Mr. Schaffer. How many million acres a year? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. We would like to be at about 3,000,000 acres a | |
| year of treatment and management to get on top of the problem, | |
| and I guess--let me say I will respond in writing with the | |
| specifics, but I think we are somewhere in the neighborhood of | |
| 700,000 acres treated per year is about where we are at now, | |
| and we would like to be at about 3,000,000. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. In your prepared comments, you mentioned the | |
| importance of gathering good data and giving us a good picture | |
| of our ecosystems and conditions and so on. | |
| I would like to find out what kind of information does the | |
| forest inventory and assessment program provide for our | |
| national forest lands? | |
| Ms. Bartuska. If you are speaking about the forest | |
| inventory analysis program, we have very good coverage in | |
| determining what the standing volume is as well as other | |
| structures of the forest. | |
| For most of the national forests in the east and throughout | |
| the west, that combined with forest monitoring gives us a | |
| really good handle on some of the trends going on with other | |
| components like soils, condition of the forest. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Thank you, Madame Chairman. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I just found the numbers here, sir. The | |
| President's budget allows for treatment of between 800,000 and | |
| 1,200,000 acres of high priorities for fiscal year 1998, and | |
| from the standpoint of planning and so on, we would like to be | |
| able to get up to about 3,000,000 or so per year to begin to | |
| gain on the issue. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Schaffer. The chair now | |
| recognizes Mr. Peterson. | |
| Mr. Peterson. Good afternoon and welcome to Washington. I | |
| was interested in knowing your familiarity with the Allegheny | |
| National Forest located in northwestern Pennsylvania. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Well, I have been there. I have never worked | |
| there, and I grew up in the Chequamegon National Forest in | |
| northern Wisconsin not far from Lake Superior, 25 miles from a | |
| town of 1,500, so I am somewhat familiar with the eastern | |
| forest landscape and species and so on. | |
| Mr. Peterson. You are the custodian of maybe the finest | |
| hardwood forest in North America? | |
| Mr. Dombeck. I have heard about it and this is--I am into | |
| my second month on the job, but I hope to get up there and see | |
| it. I want to get out on the ground as much as I can and not | |
| only talk to the employees but talk to the local people that | |
| are there and be able to solve as many of the problems that we | |
| have locally as well as celebrate the successes. | |
| Oftentimes, I think in the business of natural resource | |
| management, we don't spend nearly enough time celebrating the | |
| successes because the positive reinforcement and encouragement | |
| of employees and constituencies and so on is I think a very | |
| powerful educational tool that we can use and should be using a | |
| lot more. | |
| Mr. Peterson. I guess just to quickly familiarize you, it | |
| is a forest that I think contributes $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 | |
| a year to the treasury while only cutting about half of the | |
| recommended cut by the last forest plan, and I guess I would | |
| just like to ask you if you support the multi-use concept that | |
| has been there which I think has pretty successfully balanced | |
| recreation, water quality, hunting, timbering, and oil and gas | |
| exploration. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Yes. I believe that the multiple-use concepts | |
| are among the cornerstones that we have and the fact of the | |
| matter is, we know how to do these practices and we know how to | |
| do them right in many cases, and in virtually all cases, and | |
| from the standpoint of the wide variety of demands and uses of | |
| national forests. | |
| Recreation is in a tremendous growth phase today. Forest | |
| health is an issue that we have to deal with. The wildland fire | |
| issue is an issue we have to deal with. Some of the eastern | |
| pest and disease problems are issues that we have to deal with, | |
| but from the standpoint of overall balanced use, I believe that | |
| is where mainstream America is. | |
| Mr. Peterson. I just wanted to share with you that it is | |
| very much a part of our growing economy in that area. It is the | |
| finest hardwood forest in North America. | |
| It is a mature forest. We had a sense a few years ago that | |
| there was a move on the national level to really limit or stop | |
| cutting, which most people that you might hear later today | |
| think would be a mistake, because it is a mature forest that | |
| needs harvesting, much of it or a lot of it. It is not, as some | |
| would say, that we are cutting down the rain forest. That is | |
| just not the case, but it is a mature forest. It is a very | |
| important asset economically to the area, and I look forward to | |
| you coming up this summer, if that is possible. | |
| I would love to have the chance to spend some time with | |
| you, because it is not only a very valuable resource | |
| economically, it is a very beautiful forest, and it is just a | |
| nice place to visit and a pretty part of Pennsylvania, and we | |
| would look forward to your coming. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Thank you, I accept. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Dombeck, I thank you for being here in | |
| the committee with us. I saw a very interesting article in the | |
| Washington Times yesterday about timber harvest practices in | |
| Brazil. | |
| A representative from the World Bank was indicating that in | |
| Brazil, we need to realize that we don't need to set aside vast | |
| chunks of land exclusively for one use, that really, everyone | |
| is better off, including the communities, the logging industry, | |
| the environmentalists, everyone is better off when we can all | |
| work together using the same land, and actually, we achieve a | |
| higher standard. | |
| I share with you the fact, Chief, that we have quite a | |
| mountain to overcome socially, but together, I think that we | |
| can do that and welcome to your new job. | |
| Thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Dombeck. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. The committee will recognize the second | |
| panel. On the second panel, we have Dr. Dennis Lynch, Professor | |
| of Forest Science, Colorado State University from Fort Collins, | |
| Colorado; Martin Moore, Director of Community Development and | |
| Planning from Apache County, Arizona; Harry Wiant, President, | |
| Society of American Foresters, Morgantown, West Virginia; and | |
| Dr. Stephen Schoenholtz, Associate Professor of Forest | |
| Resources, Mississippi State University, Mississippi. | |
| Before we get started, I want to ask you to stand and take | |
| the oath. Would you raise your right hand? | |
| Do you solemnly swear or affirm under the penalty of | |
| perjury that your statements and responses given will be the | |
| truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. | |
| Without objection, I will now recognize Mr. Schaffer from | |
| Colorado to introduce Dr. David Lynch. Mr. Schaffer, thank you | |
| very much for bringing Dr. Lynch to us. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Thank you, Madame Chairman, and I appreciate | |
| the opportunity to introduce a constituent, and a noted one | |
| within his industry and profession as well. In spite of the | |
| material in front of us, his name is Dennis Lynch. | |
| Dr. Dennis Lynch has been a professor of forestry and | |
| scientist at the Colorado State University in Fort Collins for | |
| the past 23 years. Previously, he spent 15 years with the U.S. | |
| Forest Service as a forester, district ranger, planning leader, | |
| and three years working at Colorado State Forest Service and | |
| Land Use Planning Commission. | |
| Dr. Lynch holds a Bachelor of Science in forestry, a | |
| Master's degree in business, and a Ph.D. in natural resources | |
| administration, all from Colorado State University, I might | |
| add. | |
| He has received numerous awards and honors over the years | |
| for his work in the area of forestry. I appreciate him coming | |
| here today and look forward to his testimony. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Schaffer. Let me remind the | |
| witnesses that under our committee rules, they must limit their | |
| oral statements to five minutes, but that your entire statement | |
| will appear in the record. | |
| We will also allow the entire panel to testify before | |
| questioning of the witnesses, and now the Chairman recognizes | |
| Dr. Lynch for the first testimony. Dr. Lynch. | |
| STATEMENT OF DR. DENNIS L. LYNCH, PROFESSOR OF FOREST SCIENCES, | |
| COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY, FORT COLLINS, COLORADO | |
| Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Madame Chairman and members of the | |
| Subcommittee. I appreciate your inviting me here to present my | |
| views on forest health and management as these relate to the | |
| Central Rockies. | |
| At the outset, I want to say that I am attempting to | |
| present what I believe are points of consensus gained from | |
| discussions with a number of professional forestry colleagues | |
| in Colorado and Wyoming, so I am indebted to my fellow faculty | |
| members, to the Wyoming State Forester and the Colorado State | |
| Forester and his management staff and fire division staff. | |
| I am indebted to the Colorado Timber Association Director, | |
| the Wilderness Society forest ecologist, and the Chairman of | |
| the Colorado-Wyoming State Society of American Foresters. | |
| In discussing issues of forest health and management | |
| related to the Central Rockies, it is important to review the | |
| historical interaction of people and forests, as I do in my | |
| written testimony. | |
| There are several key points that I would like to draw from | |
| that summary. The first is that the forests that we have today | |
| in the Central Rockies are a result of a long history of human | |
| disturbance and use. | |
| Second, these previously disturbed areas of the past have | |
| grown up under protection into today's mature forests. | |
| Third, each time period from pre-history to the present has | |
| been accompanied in its own unique way with a society sense of | |
| forest health. In other words, definitions of forest health | |
| have subjective societal values interwoven with our ecological | |
| estimates. | |
| Fourth, this long period of custodial care and protection | |
| in Colorado and Wyoming appears to have allowed shifts in | |
| understory plant species, the buildup of forest fuels, | |
| increased numbers of trees, and less overall forest diversity. | |
| It is important to recognize that there are distinctly | |
| separate forest types in the Central Rockies, and that these | |
| vary uniquely from one another and from forests in the other | |
| parts of the United States. Therefore, generalizations about | |
| forest health may be of only limited application when | |
| addressing specific forest situations. Each forest should | |
| properly have its own specific criteria related to health and | |
| management, and as I will explain later, our approach to the | |
| restoration of these forests must change. | |
| In my invitation to testify, I was asked to respond to the | |
| question what criteria would you use to determine if a forest | |
| is healthy or unhealthy. From my previous testimony, I think | |
| you can see why that question is very difficult to answer. | |
| However, from my discussions with colleagues, I have | |
| attempted to find some areas of complete or general consensus | |
| about overall criteria. The first criteria that we agree upon | |
| is an unhealthy forest condition is outside the range of normal | |
| forest conditions. | |
| Second, an unhealthy forest does not have a diversity of | |
| age classes and successional stages over large areas. | |
| Third, an unhealthy forest does not have a diversity of | |
| plant and animal species. | |
| Fourth, natural disturbances are more severe and frequent | |
| in unhealthy forests. | |
| Fifth, dead trees and woody debris accumulations are much | |
| greater than decomposition rates and removals in an unhealthy | |
| forest. | |
| Sixth, an unhealthy forest does not provide a balanced flow | |
| of benefits to sustain our society. | |
| I have also been asked to respond to the question, what | |
| management tools would you consider most appropriate to | |
| maintain or improve forest health. | |
| There is always the option of doing nothing, but I would | |
| like to point out that doing nothing carries a price tag. | |
| Currently, fire suppression cost per acre in the Central | |
| Rockies greatly exceeds the cost we have experienced in | |
| demonstration forest restoration projects. | |
| The first management tool that seems appropriate to us is | |
| the use of prescribed fire. The results can be quite good in | |
| achieving desired changes or they can be quite variable. | |
| Prescribed fire is not a precise tool. | |
| Another management tool we believe is quite appropriate in | |
| achieving forest health is the use of mechanical equipment to | |
| prepare areas for prescribed fire, to thin forests to desired | |
| stocking levels, and to remove forest products for our use. | |
| Some critics would quickly point out that this is just | |
| traditional logging or timber harvesting. | |
| The key point I wish to make is that forest restoration is | |
| not traditional logging or timber harvesting. Mechanical | |
| removal can be more precise than the use of fire alone. It can | |
| achieve results in different forest types that prescribed fire | |
| cannot. | |
| I also wish to note that current Forest Service procedures | |
| related to timber sale layout, administration, and pricing do | |
| not work very well in forest restoration situations. | |
| Lastly, there are combinations of prescribed fire and | |
| mechanical restoration techniques that are especially | |
| appealing. Mechanical removal can extract materials for use | |
| while preparing the fuel bed for follow-up prescribed fire. It | |
| gives the manager options when air quality concerns, for | |
| example, preclude using fire to fully accomplish a project. | |
| The Forest Service needs some new authorities for changing | |
| the way it does business in dealing with forest restoration | |
| projects. We suggest that the Subcommittee look careful at the | |
| potential for stewardship contracting on national forest lands. | |
| This concludes my testimony. I will attempt to answer any | |
| questions the Subcommittee members may have. | |
| [Statement of Dennis Lynch may be found at end of hearing.] | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Dr. Lynch, thank you very much for that | |
| valuable testimony. The chair now recognizes Martin Moore for | |
| his testimony. | |
| STATEMENT OF MARTIN MOORE, DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND | |
| PLANNING, APACHE COUNTY, ARIZONA | |
| Mr. Moore. Thank you, Madame Chair, members of the | |
| committee. I come before you today in the capacity of director | |
| of environmental planning and research for Apache County, | |
| Arizona. I am also at the dissertation stage of a Ph.D. at | |
| Northern Arizona University, specializing in western forest | |
| resource policy and management. I also serve on the Arizona | |
| delegation to the Western Governors' Drought Task Force, and I | |
| have worked as a member of the interagency coordinating group | |
| on wildland fire with the western governors in tandem with the | |
| Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Policy Review Team. | |
| Currently, we are facing a serious forest health crisis | |
| throughout the western States, which threatens adverse | |
| ecological, safety, and economic impacts on an increasingly | |
| catastrophic scale. These concerns are centered around a | |
| definition of forest health that includes the vitality and | |
| balance of wildlife populations, health of the forest resource, | |
| balance of multiple uses, and levels of catastrophic fire. | |
| A number of scientists, including Dr. David Garrett and | |
| Drs. Wallace Covington and Margaret Moore have performed | |
| research showing alarming trends in forest resource health in | |
| Ponderosa Pine ecosystems. | |
| Drs. Covington and Moore, with comparisons from 1867 to | |
| 1987, show a 994-percent decrease in herbage production, a 26- | |
| percent reduction in streamflow, and an increase from 24 to 843 | |
| trees per acre. | |
| Concerned about the implications of Dr. Covington's | |
| research, Apache, Greenlee, and Navajo Counties in Arizona | |
| commissioned an independent, scientific study by Dr. Garrett of | |
| the health of the Ponderosa Pine ecosystem in the Apache- | |
| Sitgreaves National Forest, with comparisons to other | |
| southwestern forests. | |
| This study includes a compendium of major scientific | |
| research with the full cooperation and assistance of the | |
| Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, utilizing the latest forest | |
| stand inventory data, and is watershed-based research. | |
| Dr. Garrett's conclusions, building on Covington and | |
| Moore's research, shows from 1911 to 1994, a 391 percent | |
| increase on the Apache-Sitgreaves Forest of trees per acre four | |
| inches or greater in diameter, with several stands exceeding | |
| more than 1,000 trees per acre. | |
| Average maximum stand density index forest-wide is | |
| approaching a high danger level with several areas exceeding | |
| the high danger threshold. | |
| Herbage biomass has plummeted to its low production levels, | |
| largely because of high tree densities. Water yields per acre | |
| will further decrease, resulting in continued stream flow | |
| reductions and water quality problems. | |
| Fuel loads will rise from the current 20 tons per acre to | |
| well over 30 tons, and fuel ladders will dominate the | |
| landscape, leading to increasing numbers and intensity of | |
| catastrophic wildfire. | |
| This continued downward spiral of forest ecosystems | |
| threatens the health and sustainability of recreation | |
| opportunities, wildlife and wildlife habitat, timber resources | |
| and water resources. | |
| Another forest health indicator is level of fire intensity. | |
| Apache County, alarmed about fuel load buildups identified by | |
| Dr. Garrett and the Forest Service, conducted a comprehensive | |
| study of wildfire hazards and potential impacts throughout | |
| Arizona and New Mexico. The results of the study show that more | |
| than 224,000 homes are at high to extreme risk, threatening the | |
| safety of over 600,000 citizens. | |
| Over 5,000,000 acres are at high to extreme risk of loss | |
| and potential costs of fire in relationship to timber | |
| resources, livestock, homes, and drains on the Federal treasury | |
| could exceed $35,000,000,000. | |
| Dr. Garrett's research shows that the number of | |
| catastrophic fires has doubled in 20 years and will continue to | |
| rise. | |
| Concerning the vitality and balance of wildlife | |
| populations, a third forest health indicator, Drs. Covington | |
| and Moore show that instead of wildlife geared toward open, | |
| park-like forest, types and numbers have shifted toward | |
| wildlife favoring closed canopy structures. This stresses | |
| wildlife adapted to open-space environments, threatening the | |
| survival of these species. | |
| In addition, ungulates such as elk have erupted in | |
| population, eating forest meadows down to the roots, creating | |
| erosion and forage reproduction problems, in turn, destroying | |
| the grazing resource base for other ungulates and competing | |
| wildlife. | |
| Another important indicator of forest health is the ability | |
| of the forest to provide for multiple uses. Current laws, | |
| regulations, court decisions, and most significantly, unhealthy | |
| forest resource conditions combine to form a serious threat to | |
| the continuation of human and natural multiple uses. | |
| Based on this testimony and a preponderance of research, it | |
| is our contention that every aspect of multiple use is placed | |
| in serious jeopardy over the next 50 years in southwestern | |
| forests unless the current forest condition is reversed. | |
| The overwhelming body of research shows a need to return | |
| forests to a healthy state for the sake of the total forest | |
| ecosystem, forest resources, public protection from wildfire, | |
| healthy wildlife populations, and every other aspect of forest | |
| health including multiple use and human survival. | |
| To accomplish this, Dr. Garrett provides a 50-year | |
| prescription which should dramatically improve forest | |
| conditions across the landscape. These improvements include | |
| increased water yield; doubling of herbage production; increase | |
| in average tree size from less than six to 16 inches in | |
| diameter; healthy maximum stand density index for healthier, | |
| more disease and insect-resistant trees; and a 50-percent | |
| reduction in fire fuel load with a return to healthy, low- | |
| intensity fires. | |
| This time line includes thinning, prescribed burning, and | |
| overstory harvest of high hazard, unhealthy, and overly dense | |
| trees of all diameter classes with emphasis on trees 20 inches | |
| and smaller, as this would not include healthy old-growth | |
| trees. Returning every ten years to treat and control burn is | |
| vital to this effort. | |
| Dr. Garrett shows that this prescription, in which | |
| mechanical harvest is an imperative player, would result in a | |
| per-acre net value of $155, nearly ten times the $16 net value | |
| if we continue on our present course. | |
| Added to this is the multi-billion dollar savings of | |
| treatment over destruction by catastrophic fire, tree-stand | |
| die-offs and drought. | |
| Currently in place, and I will wrap this up very briefly. | |
| Currently in place on the Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto National | |
| Forest is an ecosystem demonstration project agreement which we | |
| are part of. This agreement, if funded, would help facilitate | |
| implementation of forest health projects on these forests. | |
| Madame Chair and members of the committee, the threat to | |
| our natural and human environments is real, and the solution is | |
| straightforward and affordable. To ignore them is | |
| unconscionable from either a scientific, ecological, social, | |
| ethical, or economic point of view. It is our plea that all | |
| sides will come together to make the tough choices and act to | |
| preserve this nation's forests for ourselves and our posterity. | |
| Thank you for this time, and I look forward to any | |
| questions. | |
| [Statement of Martin Moore may be found at end of hearing.] | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Moore, I thank you for your very | |
| interesting testimony. I have been in touch in conversations | |
| with Mr. Mark Killian as well as the dean of Northern Arizona | |
| University there at Flagstaff. | |
| It is fascinating, the work that has been done there, and I | |
| thank you for bringing that to the committee. Thank you very | |
| much. | |
| At this time, the chair recognizes Harry Wiant from the | |
| Society of American Foresters. Mr. Wiant. | |
| STATEMENT OF HARRY WIANT, PRESIDENT, SOCIETY OF AMERICAN | |
| FORESTERS, MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA | |
| Mr. Wiant. Thank you. I am President of the Society of | |
| American Foresters, which is the largest professional forestry | |
| organization in the world, over 18,000 members. | |
| It is a real honor to speak before this committee. I am | |
| serving on a related committee that is a scientific panel for | |
| Congressman Charles Taylor's forest health committee, and that | |
| has been a real pleasure also. | |
| I am going to speak with two hats on, first as president of | |
| the Society of American Foresters, and second, as a private | |
| citizen and forester. They will differ a little bit. | |
| The Society of American Foresters has studied the forest | |
| health issue for many years. You will find a written report in | |
| my testimony. | |
| We conclude that there are serious forest health and | |
| productivity problems in the U.S., but also, forest health is | |
| an informal and a very inexact term. | |
| An assessment of forest health has to consider not only the | |
| condition of the forest but what do you want out of the forest, | |
| the management objectives. Very importantly, forest health is a | |
| local issue. A single national prescription is inappropriate. | |
| Now, I am going to express my personal views which aren't | |
| too different, but perhaps stated a little different than some | |
| of these. Please note in the record that I am not speaking for | |
| the Society of American Foresters at this time. | |
| As humans, we experience, all of us, the joys of birth, the | |
| vigor of youth, the slowing down with age (and I have gone | |
| through several of those stages myself), and finally death. | |
| Very few of us would accept the idea that the hands-off | |
| approach is appropriate to maintain human health. | |
| Trees and forests are similar. I want to make two main | |
| points. A well-managed forest is the healthiest possible, | |
| number one, and number two, there is no opportunity to address | |
| declining health in an unmanaged forest. | |
| I want you just for a moment to picture a well-managed | |
| forest of 5,000 acres. The species are well adapted to the | |
| site, and we are going to grow trees until they are about 50 | |
| years old, and then we are going to cut them in what is called | |
| a final harvest. We call it the rotation age. | |
| If we had a forest like that and managed it for 50 years, | |
| what would it look like at the end of 50 years? You would have | |
| 100 acres ready to plant or to regenerate naturally. These 100 | |
| acres might be scattered around in the forest, but you would | |
| have 100 acres like that. You would have 100 acres with one- | |
| year-old seedlings, 100 acres with two-year-old seedlings, | |
| etc., and you would have 100 acres with mature trees ready to | |
| harvest. | |
| You would have logging and access roads that are well- | |
| engineered; regeneration you want to be prompt; and soil | |
| productivity is maintained. You would have intermediate cuts-- | |
| we call them thinning to help other trees in the stand to grow | |
| to a greater size quicker. | |
| Biodiversity would be great because you would have a good | |
| distribution of age classes, and that has been mentioned | |
| before. Fires, insects, and diseases tend to be most damaging | |
| to trees of certain ages, so this will minimize the danger from | |
| fire, from insects and diseases. | |
| Thus, you have the good access roads, appropriate species, | |
| good age-class distribution, and good forest management. That | |
| is the criteria of a healthy forest. | |
| Likewise, the management tools necessary to have a healthy | |
| forest are obvious. One, you would have to have an adequate | |
| cadre of professionals. I am talking about foresters, | |
| engineers, wildlife managers, and others. | |
| Two, you would have to have the flexibility to manage the | |
| forest unhampered by poorly conceived environmental laws, by | |
| frivolous appeals, and by tax codes that discourage long-term | |
| management. | |
| Three, you need to have a strong forest research program in | |
| the Forest Service and universities and in the private sector. | |
| Four, forest management has to remain science-based with a | |
| complete tool kit, and that has been mentioned previously, but | |
| I want to mention some of the things we can't afford to lose. | |
| Prescribed fire, herbicides, selection cutting, clear cutting, | |
| seed-tree cutting, we need all those tools. | |
| To put it in a few words, the answer to the forest health | |
| problem is more and not less forest management, and the primary | |
| responsibility for managing our forests should be in the hands | |
| of those best qualified for the job, foresters. Thank you. | |
| [Statement of Harry Wiant may be found at end of hearing.] | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Wiant, thank you very much, and the | |
| chair recognizes Dr. Schoenholtz. | |
| STATEMENT OF DR. STEPHEN H. SCHOENHOLTZ, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF | |
| FOREST RESOURCES, MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY | |
| Mr. Schoenholtz. Madame Chairman, committee members, thank | |
| you for the opportunity to present my views on forest health | |
| this afternoon. | |
| Forest health means different things to different people | |
| depending on their forest management objectives and | |
| philosophies. | |
| There is general agreement that our well-being and the | |
| well-being of future generations depend on productive, healthy | |
| forests. However, some perceptions of forest health may vary | |
| depending on individual preferences for forest use. | |
| To maintain and manage our forests in an acceptable state | |
| for future generations requires us to define forest health | |
| broadly enough to encompass the many facets of forest | |
| ecosystems. | |
| What do we look for when we try to assess forest health? An | |
| assessment of forest health should consider key indicators that | |
| can be measured or described periodically to identify trends. | |
| We must remember that some key indicators of forest health may | |
| vary among different forest ecosystems. | |
| For example, in many forests of the West, water limits | |
| plant growth at least for part of the growing season, but | |
| excess water may be the limiting factor in southern forested | |
| wetlands. | |
| Key indicators may also vary among different management | |
| objectives. For example, I would argue that health indicators | |
| for intensively managed production forestry might differ from | |
| indicators used in managing for wilderness values. | |
| Often, the primary concern when assessing forest health is | |
| the vegetation itself. Forest ecosystem health must include a | |
| level of acceptable plant productivity and biological diversity | |
| which, in turn, depend on the ability of the soil to supply | |
| necessary nutrients and water. | |
| Forest vegetation indicators of productivity and diversity | |
| would include age, particularly of the overstory trees; | |
| structure, which is the vertical and horizontal arrangement of | |
| vegetation (a critical component of wildlife habitat); crown | |
| condition; foliar injury levels in the crown and the leaves; | |
| species composition which is very important for diversity and | |
| also for assessing forest product values; species diversity | |
| itself which translates into wildlife diversity by providing | |
| habitat diversity; growth rates; mortality rates; regeneration | |
| rates; species replacement patterns; presence of insects or | |
| disease; and presence of exotic species. This is just a partial | |
| list of some key indicators looking at the vegetation. | |
| There is also a large range of soil attributes such as | |
| chemical, physical, and biological properties that can be used | |
| as part of the assessment of forest health. Some of the basic | |
| soil indicators would include soil texture, which is the | |
| proportion of sand, silt, and clay (soil texture indirectly | |
| affects many other soil properties). | |
| We can look at maximum rooting depth where we have deeper | |
| soils producing more productive forests and more resilient | |
| forests. | |
| We can look at soil bulk density and water infiltration | |
| rate. These are related to water and air movement. We can look | |
| at plant available water capacity; total organic carbon and | |
| nitrogen, which are very importantly related to organic matter; | |
| also nitrogen is often a limiting factor in forest ecosystems. | |
| We can also look at pH, which indirectly controls many of | |
| the soil chemical reactions in the forest, and finally, we can | |
| look at soil strength, which indicates physical damage, | |
| particularly compaction-type damage from heavy machinery. | |
| We have a good understanding of expected changes in | |
| vegetation over time (and we mentioned the U.S. Forest | |
| Service's forest inventory process earlier today) in many of | |
| our forest ecosystem types. | |
| We also have a well developed data base of inherent soil | |
| properties from our Natural Resource Conservation Service. We | |
| have this for much of the country. | |
| If these vegetation and soil criteria indicate deviations | |
| from expected trends or levels, then management practices to | |
| maintain or enhance forest health should be considered. These | |
| management alternatives would include removal of undesirable | |
| species, thinning to appropriate tree density or appropriate | |
| number of trees per acre, supplemental plantings, use of | |
| controlled or prescribed burning, manipulating vegetation to | |
| create specific habitat, possibly imposing stricter air quality | |
| standards, and fertilization. | |
| Monitoring forest health will require manipulations of | |
| large volumes of spatial and time-dependent environmental data. | |
| This aspect of monitoring should be developed within a | |
| geographic-information-system environment that can accommodate | |
| incorporation of new variables and can be developed as an | |
| adaptive management tool. | |
| Avoiding degradation of forest health is achieved by | |
| accepting management techniques that do not adversely affect | |
| the forest or the quality of the environment in which the | |
| forest grows. The forest management decision process should be | |
| based on potential impacts to indicators of forest ecosystem | |
| health. | |
| It is essential that experience, feedback, and adaptability | |
| play prominent roles in any assessment of forest health and the | |
| management of forests. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Dr. Schoenholtz. Now, we will | |
| proceed to questioning of the panelists. Each member will have | |
| five minutes for their questioning. | |
| I will open with a question to Martin Moore. You mentioned | |
| the effects on water resources caused by the high density of | |
| trees, and you also noted that more than 5,000,000 acres of | |
| forest lands are at high or extreme risk of loss to | |
| catastrophic fires. | |
| You mentioned 240,000 homes, perhaps 600,000 humans. That | |
| is startling. Could you explain further how fires on these | |
| lands will impact water sources and wildlife, and the second | |
| question is, what will the impact on the Mexican Spotted Owl be | |
| if nothing is done to mechanically remove some of the excessive | |
| fuels? | |
| Also, have they yet seen a Mexican Spotted Owl? | |
| Mr. Moore. Unfortunately, Apache County probably hosts most | |
| of the Mexican Spotted Owls in Arizona. There are approximately | |
| 220-some-odd Mexican Spotted Owls in the Apache-Sitgreaves | |
| Forest in our area that we understand. Some are near interface | |
| communities, some are not. | |
| If you don't mind, I will answer the second question first. | |
| There was a fire called the HB fire over in New Mexico. It | |
| destroyed--they don't know, they are still inventorying, but it | |
| did destroy some Mexican Spotted Owl nesting sites. | |
| We had the huge 60,000-acre fire up in the Four Peaks | |
| Wilderness area that destroyed the entire Mexican Spotted Owl | |
| habitat on top of the Four Peaks Wilderness. | |
| We know of approximately four Mexican Spotted Owl habitat | |
| territories that were burned in the 1980's in what was called | |
| the Dude fire near Payson, Arizona. | |
| By the way, this is approximate--I believe it is 5,470,000 | |
| acres at risk, or something like that was arrived at from the | |
| data gathered by the Forest Service from their fire management | |
| and fire risk report, and their methodologies largely centered | |
| around interface areas that would include campgrounds, near | |
| roadways, and near communities. It may not be reflective of | |
| some areas of the interior forest that are away from these | |
| areas. | |
| As far as some of these numbers on impacts on streams and | |
| that type of thing, the basic process works like this. You get | |
| a catastrophic wildfire. A catastrophic wildfire, and I | |
| describe it in the written testimony a little bit, is the type | |
| of wildfire that burns large acreages, sterilizes soil, | |
| destroys land-based and aquatic wildlife, and threatens human | |
| life and destroys the regenerative capacity of the ecosystem. | |
| Basically what we have got is a situation where you get a | |
| waxy layer down under the soil. You get a heavy rain that comes | |
| along behind that and it just happened that those conditions | |
| happened just right, or wrong in this case, with the Dude fire. | |
| The Dude fire came. They had heavy monsoon rains right after | |
| that. There was a lot of tearing up of the riparian bottoms. A | |
| lot of soil was washed downstream, and there are a couple of | |
| communities downstream, actually out of the forest where a lot | |
| of this soil washed in and flattened out the stream beds, and | |
| they have had incidents of flooding where homes and bridges | |
| were destroyed and that kind of thing. | |
| That is basically what you would be looking at. Then it | |
| would destroy the long-term ability of the soil to regenerate. | |
| When you sterilize the soil like that, an ability for trees and | |
| that type of thing to regrow, especially Ponderosa Pine, is | |
| very difficult. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. We have some areas that were burned in | |
| Idaho in 1910, and they still don't have any regenerative | |
| ability. | |
| Mr. Moore. Yes. As a matter of fact, if anyone is in | |
| Flagstaff and takes a look at the hot fire that burned on I | |
| think it was the north side of Mount Eldon, you can see that | |
| they have tried time and again to replant trees up there and | |
| they just cannot get them to take hold. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Very interesting. Mr. Wiant, given the | |
| criteria you described, maintaining soil productivity, a whole | |
| list of very, very interesting, very good criteria, would you | |
| say that forest health conditions tend to vary by ownership | |
| types with regard to State forests, private forests? | |
| Mr. Wiant. Yes. I think they tend to vary by the amount of | |
| management that it is possible to do on them. Unfortunately, I | |
| think that some of our national forests are in terrible shape | |
| because we have been able to do very little management and able | |
| to do less every day, it seems. | |
| I think some of the lands that are in best shape are those | |
| held by corporations who have managed them intensively with | |
| good forest management, and then our private landowners still | |
| need a lot of education, so there are some in between those | |
| extremes, I suspect. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. You mentioned the importance of providing | |
| flexibility to use a variety of management tools. How do | |
| current Federal laws limit a landowner's flexibility to do what | |
| is necessary to maintain or improve forest health? | |
| Mr. Wiant. Certainly, our national forests are impacted by | |
| the amount of documentation that is necessary before they can | |
| do anything. It is extremely expensive to the taxpayers out | |
| there, and I happen to be one of them, and I kind of resent | |
| that. | |
| Certainly, some of the laws make it very difficult for | |
| people. There was a letter by Carl Winger, who was at one time | |
| a station director for the Forest Service, in the Journal of | |
| Forestry recently, and he was talking about one of the laws, | |
| and I think we all know it is very important. | |
| He describes what the country looked like at the turn of | |
| the century, and you have seen pictures at the time of the | |
| Civil War in the east at least. It looked like the battlefield, | |
| the French forests after the battles of the first World War. | |
| The lands were really desolate, hardly any timber left, and | |
| I won't read that part to you, but I want to read one part of | |
| this letter, the conclusion, and I think it is very important. | |
| He says that current land management practices are | |
| threatening or endangering 1,300 species of the survivors of | |
| that period, as claimed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, | |
| is simply not believable. How can we claim that the land | |
| management practices taking place, at least in the east today, | |
| can be threatening species that survived that catastrophic | |
| period at the turn of the century? It just doesn't make sense. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Wiant. It doesn't. How has | |
| the Society of American Foresters addressed the question of the | |
| legal entanglements that we find ourselves in? | |
| We talked about the socioeconomic problems that we must | |
| overcome. What about the legal entanglements that you see? Will | |
| any recommendations be forthcoming either from your | |
| organization as a whole or what do you recommend? | |
| Mr. Wiant. I think the Society of American Foresters is | |
| trying to stay apolitical, and that limits their ability to | |
| address some of these things, so my answer to that previous | |
| question was my answer not SAF's. I should label or maybe | |
| underline it somehow here verbally. | |
| But we have studied some of them, and I think that you | |
| would find that we have policy statements that indicate that | |
| none of these should limit our ability to practice good | |
| forestry, and that should always be kept in mind by policy- | |
| makers. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Wiant, how diverse is the membership of | |
| the Society of American Foresters? | |
| Mr. Wiant. It is very diverse. It ranges, I would say | |
| probably there are a few members that think you shouldn't cut | |
| any trees and a few members who think you can cut them all and | |
| not worry about the environmental consequences, but most | |
| members are somewhere toward the center of that distribution, | |
| so it is quite a varied organization. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you. For my final question, I would | |
| like to ask Dr. Schoenholtz. | |
| You noted that it is not possible nor is it necessary to | |
| consider all aspects of a forest ecosystem in order to assess | |
| its condition, yet the Forest Service decisions are frequently | |
| challenged because they are not based on the very latest and | |
| newest information. | |
| Is this a reasonable standard to hold the Forest Service | |
| to? What are your feelings and your thoughts on that one? | |
| Mr. Schoenholtz. My feelings are, if we try to assess or | |
| measure the health of all the components of an ecosystem, it | |
| would just be an impossible task if you consider air quality, | |
| water quality, soil quality, vegetation, wildlife habitat, | |
| soils, the various components and how they interact. | |
| My goal in presenting today was to try to pick indicators | |
| that integrate those various aspects, and in my opinion, the | |
| vegetation and the soil are two key general indicators that | |
| integrate a lot of the processes that go on in the system. | |
| I don't mean to state that any of them are less important | |
| than others. That is a value judgment, but we need to find | |
| indicators that integrate many of these processes, and in my | |
| opinion, vegetation, including growth rates, diversity, and | |
| structure of that vegetation, is an integrator of the soil, | |
| water, climate, atmospheric stress, et cetera. | |
| It also provides habitat for all the wildlife species that | |
| we are concerned with. So if you are going to spend limited | |
| funding, you have to pick key indicators that integrate many of | |
| the processes. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Dr. Schoenholtz. The chair now | |
| recognizes the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Schaffer. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Thank you again, Madame Chairman. I have a | |
| first question for Mr. Wiant. You mentioned a number of | |
| restrictions and impediments that the Federal Government | |
| represents from time to time in purposes of private forestry, I | |
| presume. | |
| I would like you--you mentioned tax policy as well, just in | |
| general, but I would like you to be a little more specific if | |
| you could. | |
| What are some areas that we might consider within the | |
| context of tax policy that either promote or impede private | |
| forestry? | |
| Mr. Wiant. All of a sudden, I am having a slip of memory | |
| here. The tax that has been discussed so often that they are | |
| hoping is changed, the tax law right now that deals with | |
| investments, capital gains. | |
| The capital gains change was made several years ago and has | |
| had a great impact on private forestry. They are always very | |
| interested in seeing that change to be more favorable to them. | |
| That would be the main one I would think of. | |
| This is a long-term investment. You are talking about | |
| perhaps 50 years or so before you can recognize any return. An | |
| example of this is, I know of a case in California recently | |
| where they had 500 acres of forest land that had been managed | |
| by a landowner, and after he died, there was a disagreement | |
| about the value of the estate. So the Internal Revenue Service | |
| required that it be evaluated and a forester attorney, a man | |
| who has both qualifications, was able to show that in | |
| California because of all the restrictions on forest management | |
| and the necessary plans that had to be turned into the State | |
| before you could do anything, he was able to show that 500 | |
| acres of California forest land had a negative value. As I | |
| understand from his report to me, he was told by IRS that you | |
| can't show a negative value, but he did win when it got into | |
| court. | |
| That is showing kind of the extreme, but when you can show | |
| that 500 acres has a negative value because of regulation, | |
| there is something wrong with the system. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Dr. Lynch, I have a couple questions for you | |
| with regard to my local concerns that I bring here. | |
| Specifically, what forest conditions in the Central Rockies | |
| concern you the most? | |
| Mr. Lynch. I think from this consensus and discussion that | |
| I mentioned in my talk, the things that really are of concern | |
| to a number of us would be first the fuel buildup that we see | |
| in the forests because of protection and custodial care. | |
| We are concerned about the overstocking that exists in | |
| these stands. Currently, I believe that we are at a point where | |
| we may have more trees than we have ever had on the landscape | |
| and certainly, comparative photo studies by Thomas Veblen at | |
| the University of Colorado; Ric Laven, our own forest | |
| ecologist, pictures of the Manitou Forest, for example, | |
| indicate that we have tremendous numbers of trees now that we | |
| did not historically have. | |
| We are concerned about the shift in the age classes. Many | |
| of our stands are reaching an over-mature, old category and the | |
| concern of everyone, the general consensus, was that we need to | |
| have a diversity of forest types across landscape areas that | |
| would consist of a number of successional stages and certainly, | |
| a number of age classes, and we just don't have those. | |
| Another concern would be the species shifts where we see | |
| trees that are shade tolerant and understories that | |
| historically were not there, at least in our studies, and we | |
| are concerned about the presence of exotics. We have a number | |
| of exotic species that are in these forests, insect life | |
| particularly, that are of concern. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Could you comment on the prescribed burning | |
| proposal, how you think it may affect Colorado and other | |
| western States? | |
| Mr. Lynch. Yes. Prescribed burning is not a precise tool. I | |
| think that is the overall message to carry. It has some | |
| limitations. | |
| The manager of fires can control the amount of fuel and he | |
| can control the ignition time and type of ignition. He can't | |
| control fuel moisture. He cannot control wind. | |
| So there are limitations here to the use of this tool that | |
| are significant. If we are talking about forest restoration of | |
| the type that we believe needs to be done in the Central | |
| Rockies, we are talking about really burning thousands of acres | |
| of land, and we are talking about smoke management problems | |
| that are of significant concern, particularly air quality | |
| problems in our front range area where we have air quality | |
| concerns that are significant now. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Thank you, Madame Chairman. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Schaffer. The chair recognizes Mr. | |
| Peterson from Pennsylvania. | |
| Mr. Peterson. Thank you. I have a general question. Mr. | |
| Wiant raised the issue, but I think I kind of sensed it in all | |
| of your testimonies. | |
| You sort of rated who was managing the land the best, and I | |
| think you gave the best grades to the corporations and maybe | |
| lower grades to the Federal Government and private landowners, | |
| small private landowners. | |
| Is this the sort of common theme I have heard here from all | |
| of you that as the Federal owner of a lot of land in this | |
| country, we are custodian but we are not really managers; we | |
| are not really managing the resource? Did I sense anybody that | |
| wasn't saying that in some way or another? | |
| Does anybody want to say that is not what you said? | |
| Mr. Moore. To comment briefly, I think, at least from our | |
| perspective, our concern isn't so much about the ability and | |
| capability of the Federal land managers, the silviculturists | |
| and that to do their job. | |
| I think our concern is possibly more about the paperwork, | |
| need for paperwork requirements, other types of restrictions, | |
| endangered species consultations, court cases and other types | |
| of forest plan restrictions built by political processes that | |
| are tying the managers' hands, and that is the complaint that | |
| we have heard from a number of managers in our area. | |
| There are so many things that they see that they would like | |
| to have done on the ground. They would like to see a good | |
| streamlining of the processes, and we are certainly not | |
| advocating the total destruction of the processes, because | |
| there are important environmental considerations to take into | |
| concern, but at the same time, we are not only destroying the | |
| natural ecosystem. We are destroying the communities that are | |
| built up around these natural ecosystems because their | |
| economies are collapsing. | |
| We have a number of areas back in our part of the State | |
| that are having this difficulty, so I would say our answer is | |
| help the managers to be able to get out there and manage in the | |
| field. | |
| I think Mr. Dombeck's testimony was well taken. They see a | |
| number of things that they would like to do to help matters | |
| happen. We have seen, for example, we have a wildlife biologist | |
| under me on staff, and we see months and months and months of | |
| appeals on small timber sales, before you get on the ground and | |
| make something happen, so those are definite concerns that we | |
| see. | |
| Maybe private landowners or corporate entities may not be | |
| faced with nearly as much. | |
| Mr. Peterson. Anyone else? | |
| Mr. Lynch. Yes. I would like to comment because I was a | |
| Federal forest manager for a number of years, 15 years. I was a | |
| district ranger, and as I look at the responsibilities of the | |
| past now that relate to the bureaucratic process, and I really | |
| mean that, the bureaucratic processes that are in place, | |
| managers do not have the flexibility to confront the problems | |
| that they once did. | |
| In Colorado, we see private landowners that manage very | |
| intensively. We see landowners that have very little education | |
| and do virtually nothing and have unhealthy forests as a | |
| result. | |
| But when we look at State and Federal ownerships, for | |
| example, we have State forest side by side with Federal | |
| forests. The State people can address the problems, move | |
| quickly, have the opportunities and flexibility and policy to | |
| deal with those, where the Federal forest managers just cannot | |
| get out of the morass that they are bound with. | |
| These are competent people. I don't in any way wish to | |
| malign them. Many of them were my students, and what I see is | |
| that the processes have reached the point where they do not | |
| have the flexibility they once had. | |
| Mr. Wiant. I would like to second that. I think the Federal | |
| lands are suffering from unclear objectives. They really don't | |
| know exactly what they should be managing for, the products | |
| they need to be producing. | |
| The timber expertise in the Forest Service is decreasing | |
| all the time. They are hiring fewer and fewer foresters and | |
| they have been doing that for a number of years. So people that | |
| really know how to evaluate timber, to manage timber, are | |
| decreasing. | |
| The loss of production capacities is impacting us all. In | |
| the northwest, the mills haven't just shut down. Many of them | |
| have moved out, and once we lose those production capacities, | |
| even if we have use for smaller materials, it is going to be a | |
| terrific investment over a long time to ever recapture that | |
| loss. | |
| Mr. Moore. I would like to add one more thing briefly. We | |
| appreciated, we understood that Congressman Pombo had | |
| introduced a bill in relationship to flood control, because I | |
| guess California is having severe flooding problems, and to | |
| streamline environmental and particularly endangered species | |
| processes, to be able to get those projects moving and to get | |
| that happening. | |
| We wondered if a similar bill would be a possibility, | |
| especially in the extreme areas of wildland/urban interface | |
| hazard and possibly a drought situation, if that is something | |
| that couldn't be looked at also. | |
| Mr. Peterson. If I could just respond for a moment. I come | |
| from the east, but a lot of the managers in ANF have come from | |
| the west. | |
| I agree with you. They are highly skilled individuals and | |
| fine quality people, but I guess it appears that the political | |
| pressures from whoever have sort of veered us from what was | |
| normally a good management practice and a multi-use practice of | |
| the tremendous amount of land owned by the Federal Government. | |
| A lot of the rhetoric that has been out on the street is | |
| far from the fact, but somehow, we need to have a meaningful | |
| dialog so the general public understands the real issues, and | |
| when we deal with the real facts, we usually do the right | |
| things. | |
| I guess I would like to commend all of you for coming here | |
| today and sharing, but I guess somehow, we need to form a plan | |
| of getting away from the political pressures and back to | |
| allowing good, true managers to manage our national forests, | |
| part of our heritage, and one of our most renewable resources. | |
| I hope you will help us do that. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Peterson, thank you very much. | |
| Gentleman, I thank you very much for taking your time and | |
| coming out here, and sharing with us this most valuable and | |
| instructive information. | |
| I would invite you to stay for the third panel, if you | |
| possibly can, and you are now excused from the witness table, | |
| and we will call the third panel. | |
| I call to the witness table Kenneth Kane from Keith Horn, | |
| Incorporated, consulting foresters, from Kane, Pennsylvania; | |
| Steven Holmer, Campaign Director of the Western Ancient Forest | |
| Campaign, Washington, D.C.; Ed Muckenfuss, Regional Manager, | |
| Westvaco Company, Summerville, South Carolina; and Bill Wall, | |
| Wildlife Biologist, Potlatch Corporation, Lewiston, Idaho. | |
| I would like to call on the gentleman from Pennsylvania, | |
| Mr. Peterson, to introduce Kenneth Kane. | |
| Mr. Peterson. Thank you, Madame Chairman. First, I would | |
| like to submit for the record because I was not here when the | |
| hearing started, so I would like to submit this statement for | |
| the record. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. With no objection, so ordered. | |
| [Statement of Hon. John Peterson may be found at end of | |
| hearing.] | |
| Mr. Peterson. Secondly, Madame Chairman, I want to thank | |
| you for first holding this oversight hearing and for giving me | |
| the opportunity to introduce a constituent and friend of mine | |
| who we are very pleased to have travel here from Pennsylvania | |
| today. | |
| I want to commend you for holding this hearing so we can | |
| get advice in finding solutions to the threats on the nation's | |
| forests. It is an important issue to many of us. | |
| I have the good fortune of representing the Allegheny | |
| National Forest, the only national forest in the Commonwealth | |
| of Pennsylvania. | |
| For that reason, I am especially pleased to have with us a | |
| constituent from Pennsylvania's fifth congressional district, | |
| Mr. Kenneth Kane. Mr. Kane is vice president of Keith Horn, | |
| Incorporated, a small private forest consulting business in | |
| Kane, Pennsylvania. | |
| Mr. Kane brings to this hearing a professional background | |
| of 13 years as a private forest manager, coupled with an in- | |
| depth understanding of the health and management of the | |
| resources on and in the Allegheny National Forest. | |
| He is also chairman of the Pennsylvania Division of the | |
| Society of American Foresters. He is chairman of the | |
| Pennsylvania chapter of Association of Consulting Foresters in | |
| America. | |
| At this time, I would like to welcome Mr. Kane, and I want | |
| to thank you for making the journey down here. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Kane, excuse me. Before you begin your | |
| testimony, as a committee policy, we have all of our witnesses | |
| take the oath, so would you all stand, please, and raise your | |
| right hand. | |
| Do you solemnly swear or affirm under the penalty of | |
| perjury that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and | |
| nothing but the truth, so help you God? | |
| Thank you. Mr. Kane, please proceed. | |
| STATEMENT OF KENNETH KANE, KEITH HORN, INC., CONSULTING | |
| FORESTERS, KANE, PENNSYLVANIA | |
| Mr. Kane. Thank you, Congressman Peterson, for the very | |
| nice introduction. | |
| Madame Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I | |
| appreciate the opportunity to join you this afternoon to | |
| discuss forest health in the Allegheny region, which includes | |
| the Allegheny National Forest. | |
| Let me turn now to the two questions which you have asked | |
| us to reply to. | |
| Question one, what criteria determines if a forest is | |
| healthy? To answer this question for the Allegheny plateau, you | |
| must remember that essentially the entire forest in the region | |
| was clear-cut between 1880 and 1930. The vast clear-cutting of | |
| that era virtually eliminated the beech, hemlock old-growth | |
| forest of the region. The hardwood forest which emerged did so | |
| naturally without planting. | |
| So, within the forests of the Allegheny region and other | |
| second-growth forests in the eastern hardwoods, forest health | |
| is typically determined by answering some basic questions. | |
| One, what is the condition of the crown, stem, root, and | |
| leaf of the tree? | |
| Two, is there an adequate diversity of trees, shrubs, | |
| flowers, and other plant species present in the forest? | |
| Three, are there trees of various sizes? | |
| Four, are preferred tree and other plant species | |
| regenerating naturally, or are nonpreferred species becoming | |
| dominant? | |
| It is important to emphasize that forest health criteria | |
| are defined by the landowner. Public forestry issues are very | |
| dynamic, because the objectives of the public change | |
| constantly. That is not the case in the private sector, where | |
| most forest landowners have two primary objectives, production | |
| of wood products and continuity of ownership. | |
| So where do we stand? At present, forest health in the | |
| Allegheny region is threatened by native and exotic insects, | |
| disease, and mammals. | |
| In addition to those problems, the forests of the region | |
| are simply growing old. | |
| Hardwood forests change dramatically between 125 and 150 | |
| years of age. Specifically, species diversity drops from a wide | |
| variety of shade intolerant species to a handful of shade | |
| tolerant species. This decrease in tree species diversity is | |
| one measure of an unhealthy forest. | |
| The forests of the Allegheny region are recognized | |
| internationally for the high quality hardwood timber they | |
| produce. The unique unglaciated soils of the region produce the | |
| world's best quality black cherry in stands that reach economic | |
| maturity at 80 to 100 years of age. | |
| We have reached the point in time where the Allegheny | |
| plateau's biological and economic maturity coincide. Thus, we | |
| must address the needs to regenerate these forests for both | |
| financial and biological reasons. | |
| But in addition, the public generally prefers to hunt, | |
| camp, hike in maturing 70-year-old Allegheny hardwood forests | |
| rather than decadent 150-year-old forests. | |
| Having examined the criteria for a healthy forest in our | |
| region of the country, let me turn now to your second question, | |
| which is what management tools are most appropriate to maintain | |
| or improve forest health. | |
| As a practicing forester, I recommend that landowners take | |
| certain actions to maintain the health and vitality of the | |
| forests within the Allegheny region. | |
| One, employ sound silvicultural practices and professional | |
| forestry. | |
| Two, use modern silvicultural methods in timber harvesting | |
| scenarios. These practices are site-specific and model natural | |
| occurrences. | |
| Three, employ qualified resource managers to monitor forest | |
| conditions closely. This is necessary to follow insect | |
| populations and assess the effects of disease, drought, and | |
| other phenomena. | |
| Four, control large deer populations, increasing the use of | |
| silvicultural regeneration tools such as fence enclosures and | |
| herbicides. Promote sport hunting to reduce deer | |
| overpopulation. | |
| Five, use aerial application of natural pesticides. This is | |
| necessary to control exotic and abnormal native insect | |
| infestations. | |
| In addition to these tools that are available to the | |
| resource manager, I believe that Congress and the | |
| Administration have continuing roles to play, and given this | |
| opportunity, I offer two concluding suggestions for your | |
| consideration. | |
| First, you must continue to fund and promote forest | |
| research. Research at the Forest Service's Northeast Experiment | |
| Station in Warren, Pennsylvania, has provided the modern | |
| silvicultural methods used throughout the Allegheny region. | |
| Over 1,100 forest managers have attended the training sessions | |
| offered by the station. | |
| Second and finally, there is a pressing national need for | |
| education programs for forest landowners, professionals and the | |
| public. Professionals need to better understand the modern | |
| tools available to them. Landowners and the public need to | |
| better understand the forest ecosystem and the necessity of | |
| using sound science as the basis for management decisions. | |
| Thank you for the opportunity to present this statement. I | |
| will be happy to answer any questions. | |
| [Statement of Kenneth Kane may be found at end of hearing.] | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Kane, for your very | |
| interesting testimony, and I would like to now call on Steve | |
| Holmer for your testimony. | |
| STATEMENT OF STEVE HOLMER, CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR, WESTERN ANCIENT | |
| FOREST CAMPAIGN, WASHINGTON, DC | |
| Mr. Holmer. Thank you, Chairman Chenoweth. Thank you for | |
| this opportunity to testify. | |
| The Western Ancient Forest Campaign represents | |
| organizations and individuals nationwide who are dedicating to | |
| protecting forest and aquatic ecosystems on the national | |
| forests. | |
| I would like to begin by saying that I totally disagree | |
| with the statement that only managed forests are healthy | |
| forests. Our forests did just fine for millions of years before | |
| management was invented, and to put it plainly, the lack of | |
| humility before God's creation to make that kind of statement, | |
| I find rather astounding. | |
| There is increasing evidence that demonstrates that over | |
| the past three decades, our national forests have suffered too | |
| much logging, too much road building, and too much cattle | |
| grazing and fire suppression with little concern about the | |
| impact these activities have on our clean water supplies, fish | |
| and wildlife, recreational opportunities, and the ecological | |
| integrity of forest ecosystems. Too much management is the | |
| problem, not the solution. | |
| A recent mapping project by the World Wildlife Fund | |
| concluded that only two percent of the original forests remain | |
| in the lower 48 States. The Eastside Forests Scientific Society | |
| panel report concluded that the few remaining roadless areas in | |
| eastern Oregon and Washington are still threatened, and that | |
| very little of the old growth Ponderosa Pine ecosystem remains. | |
| The scientists' report recommends no logging of old-growth | |
| forests or trees of any species older than 150 years or greater | |
| than 20 inches in diameter; no logging in aquatic diversity | |
| areas; and to establish protected corridors along streams, | |
| rivers, wetlands, and lakes; no logging or road building in | |
| roadless areas. | |
| Both the PACFISH and INFISH Federal interim guidelines for | |
| protecting imperiled fish stocks concurred with the conclusion | |
| that we need to protect roadless areas in riparian zones to | |
| restore declining fisheries. | |
| These are the critical first steps toward proper management | |
| and rehabilitating faltering forests and aquatic systems in the | |
| inland west. The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project report came to | |
| similar conclusions, and also stated that timber harvest | |
| through its effect on forest structure, local microclimate, and | |
| fuel accumulation has increased fire severity more than any | |
| other human activity. The notion that we can salvage-log the | |
| forest to reduce fire risk is not supported by any empirical | |
| scientific evidence. | |
| The State of Idaho has over 960 streams which are polluted | |
| and rated as water quality limited by the Environmental | |
| Protection Agency because of too much contamination in the | |
| streams. Over half these streams are being degraded by logging. | |
| Flooding, exacerbated by logging and road building in the Coeur | |
| D'Alene watershed is steadily sending millions of pounds of | |
| lead contaminated sediments into Lake Coeur D'Alene and | |
| ultimately, into the city of Spokane's watershed. | |
| In Oregon, seven people were killed this year as a result | |
| of mudslides. Numerous scientific studies have been published, | |
| including one by the U.S. Forest Service that conclude logging | |
| and road building increase the risk of severity of landslides | |
| and flooding. | |
| Across the west, fish stocks continue to decline, and many | |
| species, such as the Coho Salmon and Bull Trout are being | |
| considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act. | |
| The private and public forests of the southeast United | |
| States are threatened by unsustainable logging. There are now | |
| over 140 chip mills in the southeast, and according to industry | |
| and the Forest Service, the growth-to-harvest ratio of | |
| softwoods in the south went negative in 1991. Further, hardwood | |
| forests are expected to exceed growth within the next two to | |
| ten years. | |
| This is not only evidence that the industry is | |
| unsustainable, but that chip mills are depleting the forests, | |
| thereby impacting water quality, habitats, ecosystem health, | |
| and local forest-dependent businesses. | |
| These are the facts as presented by the scientific | |
| community, industry, and government agencies. These are the | |
| real forest ecosystem health problems which this committee has | |
| chosen to ignore in favor of arguments that all come to the | |
| same conclusion, more logging. | |
| Claiming to address the overstocking and fuel loading | |
| problems caused by fire suppression and grazing cattle, the | |
| 104th Congress passed the Salvage Logging Rider which suspended | |
| environmental laws and the citizens' right to have those laws | |
| enforced and participate in how their own lands were being | |
| managed, but no effort was made to address the more fundamental | |
| problems of too much grazing and too much fire suppression. | |
| Under the rider, we witnessed the logging of ancient | |
| forests that have been protected by the courts. Under the | |
| rider, the guise of logging dead and dying trees was used by | |
| the Forest Service to log large, live green trees. | |
| Unroaded areas, which represent some of our nation's last | |
| unprotected wilderness were entered and logged. The | |
| government's own interagency report on the implementation of | |
| the rider confirmed these abuses. | |
| In the aftermath of the rider, several lessons are clear. | |
| Our environmental laws and public processes should never again | |
| be suspended. Ancient forests, roadless areas, and riparian | |
| zones need permanent protection, and the U.S. Forest Service | |
| needs to be reformed and made more accountable to the public. | |
| To address these threats to the health of our forest | |
| ecosystems, we would like to make several recommendations which | |
| we would urge the committee to adopt. | |
| Prohibit new road building on the national forests and | |
| prohibit the use of purchaser road credits to build new roads; | |
| prohibit logging and road building on unstable and potentially | |
| unstable national forest land; restore accountability by | |
| reforming or abolishing off-budget funds. | |
| As Representative Vento mentioned, the interagency report | |
| concluded that the salvage fund created an incentive for the | |
| agency to choose logging projects when other activities such as | |
| prescribed fire or stream restoration would have been more | |
| appropriate, and this is because they get to keep most of the | |
| receipts by choosing salvage operations. | |
| The next point is to end money-losing timber sales. The | |
| annual report of the White House Council of Economic Advisors | |
| shows that the Forest Service spent $234,000,000 administering | |
| the timber sale program than were returned in receipts. | |
| Generally, the Forest Service subsidizes timber extraction | |
| from public lands by collecting less revenues than it spends on | |
| timber program costs, the report says. We urge the committee to | |
| end subsidized logging in the national forests. | |
| At Senator Craig's recent forest management workshop, the | |
| GAO testified that during 1995, the Forest Service spent | |
| $215,000,000 of the taxpayers' money that they cannot account | |
| for. We urge the committee to use its oversight authority to | |
| find out what happened to the taxpayers' $215,000,000. | |
| Further, we urge the committee to look at the full range of | |
| values our forests provide, such as clean water, fish and | |
| wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities. | |
| According to the Forest Service's resource and planning | |
| assessment, by the year 2000, recreation in the national | |
| forests will produce over $1 billion for the economy while | |
| logging will only produce $3,500,000. The value of clean and | |
| stable water flows from our forests is estimated in the | |
| trillions. | |
| Recently, Chief Michael Dombeck testified, ``The | |
| unfortunate reality is that many people presently do not trust | |
| us to do the right thing. Until we rebuild that trust and | |
| strengthen those relationships, it is simply common sense that | |
| we avoid riparian, old growth, and roadless areas.'' | |
| We urge the committee to support Chief Dombeck's effort to | |
| reform the agency and restore the public's trust by adopting | |
| his common-sense recommendation and the other recommendations | |
| in this testimony including the restoration of eastern old | |
| growth, since there is almost no old growth left in the east. | |
| The idea that we need to cut down the eastern old-growth | |
| forests is simply absurd. We need to restore old growth | |
| ecosystems in the eastern United States. | |
| In closing, I would like to quote a Republican president | |
| who helped make this a great nation by protecting some of our | |
| national forests, Teddy Roosevelt, who said, ``The nation | |
| behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which | |
| it must turn over to the next generation increased and not | |
| impaired in value.'' | |
| I believe the United States is a great nation, but I feel | |
| that we are now risking that greatness by lacking the foresight | |
| and courage that made us great to begin with. We can choose to | |
| squander our remaining unprotected wild places, or we can be | |
| revered by future generations as Teddy Roosevelt is for having | |
| the vision and greatness to protect our nation's natural | |
| heritage. | |
| Thank you for this opportunity to testify. | |
| [Statement of Steve Holmer may be found at end of hearing.] | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Holmer. The chair would now | |
| recognize Ed Muckenfuss, a regional manager from Westvaco | |
| Company. | |
| STATEMENT OF ED MUCKENFUSS, REGIONAL MANAGER, WESTVACO COMPANY, | |
| SUMMERVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA | |
| Mr. Muckenfuss. Madame Chairman and members of the | |
| Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to contribute my | |
| ideas on what constitutes a health forest and what management | |
| practices contribute to establish and maintain them. | |
| My name is Ed Muckenfuss, and I am Southern Regional | |
| Manager of Westvaco Corporation's Forest Resources Division. In | |
| my Region in South Carolina, we manage nearly 500,000 acres of | |
| company forest and advise private landowners who own another | |
| 400,000 acres. | |
| Westvaco owns forest land primarily to provide a | |
| sustainable source of wood fiber for its mills. We also manage | |
| them to provide habitat for wildlife and clean water for the | |
| lakes and streams that adjoin them. | |
| The key word here is manage. We firmly believe that in | |
| order for a forest to be healthy, it must be actively managed. | |
| Healthy forests are forests that are growing vigorously and | |
| that have a diversity of age classes and forest types which | |
| enables them to resist disease and insect epidemics and helps | |
| to reduce the intensity of wildfires when they occur. The | |
| diversity of forest ages and types also provides a range of | |
| habitats for wildlife. | |
| While some percentage of old-growth habitat is desirable, | |
| extensive areas of old-growth conditions or any single age | |
| class condition puts the entire forest at risk for catastrophic | |
| insect attacks and wildfires. | |
| The photograph you see here is an aerial view of some of | |
| our forest in Kentucky. This forest is actively managed to | |
| maintain healthy tree densities and various forest types | |
| interspersed across the landscape. | |
| We consider this a healthy forest that achieves our | |
| objectives of providing a sustainable supply of wood fiber for | |
| our mill, diversity of wildlife habitats, and protection of the | |
| lakes and streams adjacent to the forest. | |
| There are criteria that we use to determine the health of | |
| our forests. Number one, suitability of tree species to the | |
| site; two, the density of the trees relative to the ability of | |
| the site to support them; three, diversity of age classes | |
| across the landscape; four, the amount of fuel loading on the | |
| site; five, the condition of riparian areas for protecting | |
| lakes and streams; six, diversity of forest types across the | |
| landscape; seven, the relative abundance of noxious insects and | |
| the disease incidence rate; and eight, the availability of | |
| nutrients to sustain vigorous tree growth. | |
| As I have said, healthy forests are the result of good, | |
| active management. Older forests eventually become overcrowded | |
| and lose their vigor, making them susceptible to disease and | |
| insect epidemics. Without management, these conditions set the | |
| stage for catastrophic events like the fires in Yellowstone | |
| National Park. | |
| Here are the management practices that we use to improve or | |
| maintain forest health. Number one, good inventory information; | |
| two, landscape scale planning that provides for protection of | |
| riparian areas and diversity of age classes and forest types; | |
| three, provisions to regenerate with tree species appropriate | |
| to the site; four, intermediate stand treatments to control | |
| density and fuel conditions; five, careful inclusion and | |
| management of old growth or overmature stands; six, soil | |
| amendments as necessary to maintain productivity for intensive | |
| management; and seven, effective control of insect and disease | |
| epidemics. | |
| In many ways, forests are like people. When they are young | |
| and growing, they usually can withstand pathogens and parasites | |
| with their natural defenses. As they grow older, they become | |
| increasingly susceptible, and therefore, require more care. | |
| Inadequate management has put many forests in the United | |
| States at risk. In some forests, neglect has skewed forests | |
| toward stands of older age classes and allowed many stands to | |
| become overcrowded and overloaded with fuels. | |
| In other forests, poor management practices have removed | |
| most of the healthy and vigorously growing trees, leaving the | |
| old and weak. | |
| In either case, these forests are ripe for epidemic of | |
| disease and insects and the catastrophic wildfires that often | |
| follow. | |
| We believe that by applying the management practices I have | |
| outlined, these forests can be returned to healthy conditions | |
| and provide for the needs of many generations to come. Without | |
| adequate levels of management, however, they will increasingly | |
| fall victim to catastrophic events which will result in losses | |
| that will deprive our children of their benefits. | |
| Thank you again for this opportunity to express my views on | |
| this important subject. | |
| [Statement of G. Edward Muckenfuss may be found at end of | |
| hearing.] | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you very, very much. That is a very | |
| impressive picture, and I thank you for your testimony. | |
| The chair now recognizes Bill Wall, from my own district in | |
| Idaho, an outstanding wildlife biologist, and I thank you very | |
| much for being here with the committee this afternoon. | |
| Dr. Wall. | |
| STATEMENT OF BILL WALL, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, POTLATCH | |
| CORPORATION, LEWISTON, IDAHO | |
| Dr. Wall. Thank you, Madame Chairman and members of the | |
| Subcommittee. I currently serve as chair-elect of the AF&PA | |
| Wildlife Committee, and for the past five years, have worked to | |
| develop landscape management processes Potlatch Corporation in | |
| Idaho. | |
| I would like to share with you some thoughts, and I am | |
| going to share four key points up front, and then get into | |
| answering the two questions that were asked of the panel. | |
| First, I think we should consider that forest health should | |
| be equated with sustainable forest system health, not merely | |
| green trees. | |
| Second, the intermountain west is a forest system in a | |
| health crisis and is right now beyond acceptable biological | |
| risk. The application of active forest management including | |
| timber harvest and controlled fire or silvicultural tools for | |
| restoring forest system health, and analysis tools which are | |
| the new ones that we have been generating over the past ten | |
| years or so. Our capabilities have really expanded, such as | |
| ecological landscape classification systems, GIS-based | |
| landscape planning, watershed analysis are all tools that we | |
| can use to help guide our active forest management to restore | |
| health in our forests. | |
| Third, forest health criteria must be defined on the | |
| ecological capability where forested landscapes are located. | |
| Ecologists have described how physical land characteristics, | |
| weather disturbance factors interact to define different types | |
| of forest ecosystems across the country. | |
| Fourth, each region will have a different criteria which | |
| affects risks to various forest values, thus general health | |
| criteria must be applied specifically within the ecosystem one | |
| is addressing. | |
| Health and management criteria must also address several | |
| spacial scales from forest stands to watersheds to broader | |
| landscapes. We must not reach an either/or scenario of healthy | |
| trees or other forest values such as wildlife habitat. Rather, | |
| we should take an approach of both-and, healthy, diverse forest | |
| landscapes, healthy watersheds, as well as wildlife habitats. | |
| To answer the first question on some of the criteria for | |
| considering healthy systems, the appropriate ecological | |
| representation of all the floral composition and structure | |
| across landscapes is one key. Each forest system has a broad | |
| range of conditions which are necessary for healthy forest | |
| systems. A healthy system is one that has a full, diverse array | |
| of those forest structures and communities. | |
| Sustainable site productivity is the next key. Maintenance | |
| of soil characteristics which sustain the productive resilience | |
| of forest systems is critical. Sustainable and functional | |
| watersheds, quality stream conditions for salmon and fish, at | |
| least in our area, are dependent on functioning riparian | |
| habitats. | |
| A healthy forest is one that maintains a full complement of | |
| functional habitats for native species across broad landscapes | |
| which encompass a variety of ownerships and land management | |
| objectives, and finally, acceptable risk from catastrophic | |
| disturbance such as wildfire, disease, insect outbreaks, as | |
| well as flooding. | |
| Disturbance to forest systems, whether natural or manmade | |
| is necessary to maintain functioning and specific values of | |
| timber, water, and wildlife. | |
| Now, some suggestions on some of the analysis tools and | |
| management techniques which can be applied to achieve those | |
| sorts of goals. | |
| One, it has been interesting that industry has taken a lead | |
| role in the northwest in developing watershed analysis | |
| capabilities. These can be used to define risks to watershed | |
| functions from unhealthy forest conditions, to develop site- | |
| specific best management practices for the specific watersheds | |
| in which they are applied rather than a cookie-cutter approach | |
| which we have seen out of the Federal agencies, and define | |
| restoration and active forest management needs for reducing | |
| risks within those watersheds. | |
| Ecological landscape classification systems help us to | |
| define the ecological capability of the ecosystem in which we | |
| are working, to understand historical disturbance regimes | |
| resulting in stand and landscape conditions, and to help us | |
| define appropriate ecological representation accross | |
| landscapes. | |
| A GIS-based landscape planning process is the new tool that | |
| is allowing us to begin planning for those various conditions. | |
| Finally, timber harvest and silvicultural methods that | |
| recognize the needs within these ecosystems that help us create | |
| the right structure and composition of vegetation across the | |
| landscape in addition to providing for wildlife habitat, | |
| functioning watersheds, and the types of economic returns that | |
| we need to maintain our communities in the west. | |
| Finally, the thing that has really impressed me in the | |
| opportunities that exist relative to this issue and many other | |
| forest and natural resource management issues are the new | |
| partnerships that are beginning to develop, those that are | |
| being developed between public and private. | |
| I have participated in quite a few and have been very | |
| excited about the outcomes of those. Also, the ability of | |
| industry to work at times with the Forest Service to develop | |
| new types of information, new tools, and to apply those to | |
| reach the ecological as well as economic goals that we are | |
| attempting to across landscapes. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Dr. Wall, very much, and I thank | |
| the panel for their testimony. | |
| We will now recognize the members for questions, and I want | |
| to remind the members we have five minutes for questioning, and | |
| I would like to first recognize the gentleman from Colorado, | |
| Mr. Schaffer. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Let me start by going back to a question that | |
| I had asked earlier with respect to prescribed burns. I would | |
| like to hear you all respond to this whole topic, the Babbitt | |
| proposal that has been announced and just where you see this | |
| fitting in in sound forest management practices, in particular, | |
| for Mr. Holmer's comment that no forest management would be | |
| preferable. | |
| What about this Babbitt proposal of management by | |
| prescribed burn? | |
| Mr. Holmer. Our concern has been that there has been an | |
| overemphasis on management. We support the idea of prescribed | |
| burning, and we will support thinning in the urban/wildland | |
| interface. | |
| We do feel that the old growth areas, the unroaded areas, | |
| the riparian zones need to be put off limits as the key first | |
| step to restoring the ecosystems, and I think that you will | |
| find that if those steps are taken, it will also do a great | |
| deal to help deal with the problem of polarization, because the | |
| most contentious timber sales that people deal with are in | |
| these critical areas, and so by realizing the ecological | |
| importance as well as the social conflict that is surrounding | |
| these areas, by resolving that, I think you will find that it | |
| is easier to come to grips with how to manage the rest of the | |
| landscape, and again, I think prescribed burning and | |
| restoration of national fire regimes is the only way that in | |
| the long run we are going to be able to accomplish that. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Any of the others? | |
| Dr. Wall. Fire in many of our forest systems has always | |
| been a natural disturbance factor, and there are many species | |
| that depend on fire being introduced, but fire can also be | |
| catastrophic and destroy wildlife habitat as well as the types | |
| of riparian zones that Steve is wanting us to protect and | |
| maintain. | |
| It is a judicious use of fire that we are looking for and | |
| one that we can control in most cases, not to say that on | |
| occasion, wildfires will occur, especially in wilderness areas, | |
| et cetera. | |
| To back up and say that we should exclude fire again I | |
| think would be a definite mistake. Fire is an integral tool, | |
| and as was suggested earlier in this panel, we need to have all | |
| the tools in our toolkit, and we need to be able to use those | |
| appropriately in the appropriate times. | |
| Mr. Muckenfuss. Fire is an absolutely essential tool in the | |
| southeast. It is a matter of timing and conditions. There is no | |
| question that fires will burn in the southeast sooner or later. | |
| Through the judicious use of prescribed fire, we are able | |
| to apply this very important management tool with proper timing | |
| and under conditions which create low-intensity fires that help | |
| reduce fuel loading as well as to create additional benefits | |
| from the standpoint of habitat for wildlife and so forth. | |
| Fire has traditionally been used in the southeast by | |
| Indians and early settlers to do the same things that we | |
| accomplish with fire, and should we lose fire, it will change | |
| the entire ecosystem of the east coast for the worse. | |
| There is not a tool that is more important to manage | |
| forests and that applies no matter what snapshot in time you | |
| would like to pick as to what kind of forest you would like to | |
| have. It is extremely important for longleaf, wire-grass | |
| ecosystems as it is for plantations. | |
| Mr. Kane. I would concur that the use of fire is a critical | |
| tool; however, in the east, it is not as widely used as it is | |
| in other parts of the country because in our area, we have | |
| approximately 11 fire days that would qualify for prescribed | |
| burning. | |
| However, it is going to be used to a limited extent in our | |
| area to reestablish some species that were lost because with | |
| the advent of science and the internal combustion engine, the | |
| wildfires that ran through the east during the steam years from | |
| the steam locomotives really allowed more species diversity and | |
| allowed the oak species to be more prevalent in the current | |
| forest than what we believe it can be in the future forest, | |
| because of just the nature of the species. | |
| We are going to use prescribed burning even in the east, so | |
| it is a critical tool. | |
| Mr. Schaffer. Madame Chairman, I don't have any more | |
| questions. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Schaffer, thank you very much. The | |
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Peterson. | |
| Mr. Peterson. Mr. Holmer, if you were suddenly appointed by | |
| the President and confirmed by the Senate to be the czar over | |
| all of public land, when and where would we cut timber? | |
| Mr. Holmer. Excuse me? Would I support---- | |
| Mr. Peterson. If you were given the role of being in charge | |
| of our national forests, you were just absolutely in charge, | |
| where and when would we cut timber, or wouldn't we? | |
| Mr. Holmer. That is an interesting question. Our | |
| organization does not support any specific level of timber | |
| target. We have not taken a position on no logging, but what we | |
| do support is the use of conservation--biology, and the latest | |
| scientific information. | |
| They are a few examples of this being conducted on a | |
| limited scale such as the Northwest Forest Plan. There is a new | |
| report out on the Sierra Nevada ecosystem, another process | |
| underway in the inland west in Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon | |
| and Washington. | |
| We would want to look at the whole ecosystem. In our view, | |
| our forests have been seriously overcut for the past three | |
| decades, so it could be quite possible that we are in a deficit | |
| situation right now, which would mean giving the forest time to | |
| heal. | |
| Another key problem is the lack of protection for critical | |
| components of the ecosystem, such as old growth, roadless | |
| areas, and riparian zones, so restoring those areas and | |
| protecting those areas would be my first priority. | |
| Mr. Peterson. What part of the country are you from and | |
| where have you spent most of your personal time in the forest? | |
| Mr. Holmer. Actually, mostly in the east. I went to high | |
| school in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia, and I went to | |
| college at Penn State, so I have spent a fair amount of time on | |
| the Allegheny, and as my resume there says, I have been to | |
| national forests in 14 different States, and I have also had | |
| extensive experience with overflights and having a chance to | |
| see our forests from the air. | |
| Mr. Peterson. Do you believe the Allegheny National Forest | |
| has been overcut? | |
| Mr. Holmer. I am not familiar enough with the situation in | |
| the Allegheny to say that. I would say from my personal | |
| experience there, I was shocked at how many roads I saw. You | |
| can travel down certain roads seemingly in the middle of | |
| nowhere, but it seemed like it was a suburb because there were | |
| so many spur roads going off to the side to drill pads or | |
| timber sales or one activity after another. | |
| I would have to say I was somewhat shocked at how | |
| industrialized that forest was. | |
| Mr. Peterson. Who do we own the forest for? | |
| Mr. Holmer. Well, the forests are owned by the American | |
| people, and the mandate is fairly clear, to protect the full | |
| range of values on public lands, and there is abundant evidence | |
| that not all the values are being protected right now. | |
| When you look at the problem of clean water, when you look | |
| at the problem of declining biodiversity, there is every | |
| indication that not all the values are currently being | |
| protected, and when you look at the root cause, things like | |
| road building, logging, and grazing repeatedly come to the | |
| front as the reasons why these other values are being | |
| diminished. | |
| Mr. Peterson. I guess having spent my entire life very | |
| close to the ANF and often in the ANF, I would take some | |
| exception to you. I am an avid hunter myself, love to hike and | |
| spend time in the woods, in the forest, and I guess I would | |
| like to ask you how many people will go five miles off a road | |
| today? | |
| When you talk about these huge blocks that are to be locked | |
| up, you are talking about a minute number, part of the society | |
| today that will travel a mile from their car because they are | |
| afraid. | |
| I believe in having some real diversity, having some old | |
| growth, but how much, how big, for whom? I want to tell you, it | |
| is a very small part of the population that get five miles from | |
| their car under any circumstance in any forest. | |
| Mr. Holmer. I understand what you are saying, but I think | |
| that one of the values that these forests provide are | |
| fundamental ecological services, so recreation isn't always the | |
| key factor to look at. | |
| We get a lot of clean water supplies off our national | |
| forest lands. This last year, the city of Salem, Oregon, had to | |
| close down their water treatment facility because there was so | |
| much sediment in their streams. | |
| When you look at the full range that the forests provide, | |
| roadless areas are the key refuges for our biodiversity and | |
| they help control our water flows and help prevent flooding by | |
| remaining intact. | |
| There is a lot of fundamental services that most people | |
| don't even think about, and most economists have been unable to | |
| quantify up to this date. | |
| Mr. Peterson. I guess I am here to say for the record that | |
| the Allegheny River and the Clarion River that flow from the | |
| ANF are the finest quality water-wise today than they have been | |
| in many, many years, and I think it is because of good | |
| practices, a lot of good environmental policy. | |
| We have made great progress, and I can't let you get away | |
| with saying that we are not going in the right direction, that | |
| we haven't improved water quality in that region, because we | |
| have. | |
| Mr. Holmer. I appreciate you saying that, and I do know | |
| that there are some very beautiful places on the Allegheny that | |
| I enjoy visiting very much. | |
| Mr. Peterson. A quick question for Mr. Kane. You mentioned | |
| about education for the private landowner. The largest part of | |
| timber, at least in the east--I don't know that it is true in | |
| the west, is still owned by private landowners and small plots. | |
| Is government playing an adequate role in helping people | |
| understand the value of their forests? | |
| I know of cases where somebody only owned 20 acres. They | |
| sold it for a pittance, but it was worth quite a lot of money | |
| if it would have been marketed properly and cut properly. | |
| Mr. Kane. That is exactly the case. The education is truly | |
| a moving target. In the computer age as information is doubling | |
| in less than a decade, there is so much for people to know out | |
| there, and they own a piece of property for income and to pass | |
| something on to their children and for many reasons, but they | |
| don't take the time to truly understand the ecosystem. | |
| I think the education process is not only for the | |
| landowner, but for the general public. Very few people in the | |
| general public truly understand the forest and what it provides | |
| to them and how, and how managing the resource is so much more | |
| important than just hands off, because there is no way with the | |
| population of our society and the impacts our society has had | |
| on the forest ecosystem that we can say hands off, because even | |
| by standing back, we have touched it. | |
| Mr. Peterson. I would like to thank you personally and all | |
| of you for coming today. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Bill Wall, I have | |
| some questions for you. That doesn't surprise you, does it? | |
| Dr. Wall. Not at all. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Among the criteria that you described, you | |
| mentioned the state-of-the-art forest management practices and | |
| controlled fire. What practices are you referring to | |
| specifically for the record, and do both public and private | |
| landowners have these practices available for their use? | |
| Dr. Wall. Yes, they do have them available for their use, | |
| but at this point, I think the timber industry has figured out, | |
| has taken the lead in figuring out some of the tools that we | |
| are applying to landscapes in understanding how to use computer | |
| technology and have the actual data in hand in order to apply | |
| those techniques. | |
| We have some historical mistakes to correct, and we are | |
| learning very rapidly with those, and I would also suggest that | |
| our abilities to gather data, process that information and | |
| develop an overall feedback and learning process as we apply | |
| these things, the buzzword is adaptive management, is there | |
| inside industry and they are taking those sorts of lead roles | |
| at this point. | |
| We have the opportunity to work with our neighbors on | |
| public lands to help generate the types of information that we | |
| need and to work to apply that information. | |
| The specific techniques on the ground that are beginning to | |
| be applied are a completely different way of road building as | |
| well as timber harvesting techniques that are far more | |
| sensitive, that take into consideration physical site | |
| characteristics, and then turn around and apply specific types | |
| of applications to specific types of land that historically, we | |
| were not able to quantify or classify in the past. | |
| Using those sorts of techniques has allowed us to | |
| understand much better how to manage our forest resource and to | |
| apply that, not only to the timber values that we are seeking, | |
| but also to maintenance of biodiversity of wildlife habitat as | |
| well as our functioning riparian and aquatic systems. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. You recommended using a coarse filter | |
| approach for landscape planning. Could you help me understand | |
| that better and also explain it for the record? | |
| Dr. Wall. Sure. There was a lot of discussion earlier from | |
| various folks on this panel about a diverse array of structures | |
| and composition across the landscape. | |
| A coarse filter approach is an approach to a broad scale | |
| landscape rather than a stand-by-stand approach, although we | |
| recognize the need to use the stand-by-stand approach, in | |
| taking the full complement of wildlife species that exist | |
| across that landscape, quantifying the types of habitats needed | |
| by those various species, and then through a planning process, | |
| making sure that we apply the appropriate techniques across | |
| space and through time to maintain the habitats necessary to | |
| maintain the species that we would find in any one location. | |
| Along with that is an understanding of the ecological | |
| background or capability in which you are working which can be | |
| completely different depending on where you are. Even in Idaho, | |
| the fact that we have on our land base specifically a range | |
| from 40 or about 35 inches of rainfall all the way up to 80 | |
| inches of rainfall means that we have to think through the | |
| application of maintaining habitats and the application of | |
| specific practices depending even on just rainfall conditions. | |
| What we are talking about is taking a broader scale | |
| approach to understanding how to maintain habitat through time | |
| and across space. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. And Dr. Wall, as you take that approach, | |
| are you considering the native species in the entire course of | |
| the forest? Are we moving back to replanting and reforesting to | |
| the native species so that they will be more resistant to | |
| attack, whether it be fire or insects or whatever it might be? | |
| Dr. Wall. Most definitely. In fact, we are depending again | |
| on our ability to classify the site. We are putting species and | |
| in some cases, five different species within one stand back on | |
| specific sites. | |
| Potlatch specifically has worked with the Forest Service | |
| through time to develop resistant strains of white pine, and in | |
| order to bring white pine back into the ecosystem which was | |
| native there, it is necessary to return to some early | |
| successional stages, because that species is not shade tolerant | |
| and does need sunlight. | |
| We are actively working to restore some of the white pine | |
| sites as well as maintaining all of the rest of the native | |
| species that exist in northern Idaho on our land base. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. I have one more question for you, Dr. Wall. | |
| Will the Forest Service's ecoregion assessments, such as the | |
| Columbia River Basin ecosystem management project, help address | |
| the issues that we are trying to address as far as healthy | |
| forests and necessary criteria? Will it help on the public | |
| lands? | |
| What is your feeling about that? | |
| Dr. Wall. Well, it has tremendous potential, but at the | |
| same time, potential and reality are two different things, and | |
| the ability to apply the understanding that is gained from | |
| broad scale assessments is, as we well recognize, a problem | |
| associated with the realities of regulations and the | |
| bureaucracy in which they work. | |
| The other thing that I would suggest is that broad scale | |
| looks help us set context for the large scale. Where we make | |
| the mistake, I think, is in learning how to apply ecosystem | |
| management is trying to take information from the broad scale | |
| and bringing it all the way down to a very fine scale or local | |
| situation. | |
| What, in my mind, has to happen after working in ecosystem | |
| management concepts for the past ten years is that we need to | |
| understand that broad scale context, but at the same time, we | |
| have to build site-specific strategies underneath that in order | |
| to achieve the specific goals, so we end up working from stands | |
| to watersheds, to landscapes, and then this broad scale | |
| context, so what we end up with is a simultaneous top-down | |
| approach which is a look at the broad scale, but building with | |
| good, fine information and capability at the fine scale and | |
| meeting somewhere in between in order to meet the objectives | |
| that we are setting for ourselves. | |
| Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Dr. Wall. I appreciate all of | |
| your testimony very, very much. Mr. Holmer, I really appreciate | |
| your testimony today. We haven't always agreed, and most times, | |
| we don't, do we? But I am really surprised that no other | |
| environmental organizations wanted to take the opportunity to | |
| testify today. | |
| I appreciate your being here, I really do. I would like for | |
| you to tell your colleagues in the environmental community that | |
| the record will remain open for about ten days if they would | |
| like to submit testimony for the record. | |
| I also would like to invite you very sincerely to our | |
| forests out in the west. The dynamics out there are quite | |
| different than the forests in the east, and our fuel load in | |
| many areas in western forests are about 12 feet tall, and it | |
| really is a puzzle as to what to do. Because of our very strict | |
| ambient air quality standards, we can't even burn trash piles, | |
| so we really wonder about how far we can go in managing the | |
| forest by fire. | |
| I thank you very much for your testimony, gentlemen, all of | |
| you. Thank you very much. I wish we had more time, but I will | |
| study your testimony and be very open to hear from any of you | |
| any time. Thank you very much. | |
| [Whereupon, at 4:40 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned; | |
| and the following was submitted for the record:] | |
| 2Statement of John E. Peterson, a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania | |
| Madame Chairman, it's a pleasure to be here today to | |
| participate in this oversight hearing in the Forest and Forest | |
| Health Subcommittee. This hearing is especially important to me | |
| as I represent the only national forest in Pennsylvania, the | |
| Allegheny National Forest. I look forward to the dialogue we | |
| are about to open concerning the management of our nation's | |
| forests and criteria for determining healthy forests. | |
| The Allegheny National Forest (ANF), more than 500,000 | |
| acres, lies completely within my Congressional District (PA-5). | |
| The ANF is a unique and diverse asset that is enjoyed by | |
| residents of the Commonwealth and visitors from across the | |
| nation. | |
| Although my views about the beauty and diversity of the | |
| Forest are subjective, the ANF does indeed have a very long | |
| list of attributes. Nearing the top of that list is worldwide | |
| recognition of the hardwood timber that grows on the Forest, | |
| black cherry in particular. In fact, the ANF is the single- | |
| largest source of high-quality black cherry. | |
| While many of us are familiar with forest health problems | |
| as they relate to Western states, the forest health concerns of | |
| Eastern forests can be quite different. However, one common, | |
| pervasive problem is weather. On the ANF, it has been periodic | |
| drought that has caused notable damage. Specifically, in 1988 | |
| and 1989 almost 18,000 acres experienced significant oak | |
| mortality. Also, tornadoes and hail storm damage has been | |
| detrimental to health of the Forest. | |
| As an Eastern forest, the ANF experiences threats from | |
| exotic sources like the forest tent caterpillar, gypsy moth, | |
| and cherry scallop shell moth. In 1994 alone, cherry scallop | |
| shell moth severely defoliated cherry on close to 40 percent of | |
| the ANF as it was the primary tree pest. Given these problems | |
| of such complex nature, research becomes a prime tool in | |
| determining methods to treat and prevent repeated instances. | |
| Madame Chairman, I would be remiss if I did not mention how | |
| pleased I am to have with us here today a constituent from my | |
| District, Mr. Kenneth Kane. Mr. Kane is Vice President of Keith | |
| Horn, Incorporated, a small group of consulting foresters from | |
| Kane, PA. I believe Mr. Kane's expertise in the field of | |
| private forestry as a hands-on manager makes him uniquely | |
| qualified to testify about forest management tools and the | |
| criteria of determining a healthy forest. | |
| I look forward to hearing from all of our panelists today | |
| as this Subcommittee seeks answers to these very important | |
| questions concerning the health and longevity of our nation's | |
| resources. | |
| ------ | |
| Statementby the Honorable George Radanovich, a U.S. Representative from | |
| California | |
| Thank you, Chairman Chenoweth, for providing this forum | |
| today to discuss the issue of forest health. No single issue is | |
| more important in this Subcommittee than addressing the long- | |
| term health of our federal forests. It is just that simple. | |
| Your decision to focus this hearing on ``what criteria | |
| should be used to determine if a forest is healthy or | |
| unhealthy, and what management tools are most appropriate for | |
| maintaining or improving forest health,'' is a sound one. In | |
| order to better address the needs of the forest, we must first | |
| understand both what has worked and what we have done wrong in | |
| our management of this valuable resource. | |
| Furthermore, we need to re-examine the role of the courts | |
| in our forest management plans. Today, the laws guiding federal | |
| forest lands are often made not by sound scientific evidence, | |
| but instead by the courts. Lawsuits filed by extreme | |
| environmental organizations have contributed to the substantial | |
| reduction in timber harvests in recent years--including the | |
| salvage of dead, dying and diseased timber necessary to reduce | |
| the fuel load that has built up in our national forests. As we | |
| move forward in this process, we must remember that lawyers and | |
| judges don't improve the health of our forests, forest managers | |
| do. | |
| Our national forests--I believe--are in critical condition. | |
| The volume of dead, dying and diseased trees has reached | |
| epidemic level in recent years. These severe conditions have | |
| produced a rash of wildfires in recent years, destroying | |
| wildlife and habitat and forcing a substantial reduction in | |
| timber harvest levels not only in my district, but also the | |
| entire nation. For the sake of our forests, we must reverse | |
| this disheartening trend. | |
| Sound science, education and a recognition that the forests | |
| provide both an ecological and economic role in society are | |
| necessary in order to move away from the conflict and | |
| controversy that has surrounded our forest debates and towards | |
| a locally-driven consensus-based forest management program. A | |
| forest is a sustainable resource. If properly managed, it can | |
| provide equally for both the environment and the economy. A | |
| healthy forest is a win-win for both the environment and the | |
| communities who depend on the forest for their livelihoods. | |
| That is why we must place forest health legislation at the top | |
| of our agenda in this Subcommittee. | |
| Again, thank you Chairman Chenoweth for putting this | |
| hearing together today. I look forward to the testimony of our | |
| witnesses today as we begin a very important dialogue on the | |
| management of our federal forests. | |
| ------ | |
| Statement of Harry V. Wiant, Jr., President, Society of American | |
| Foresters, on behalf of myself as a professional forester | |
| Mrs. Chairman, my name is Harry V. Wiant, Jr., President | |
| of the Society of American Foresters (SAF). The over 18,600 | |
| members of the Society constitute the scientific and | |
| educational association representing the profession of forestry | |
| in the United States. SAF's primary objective is to advance the | |
| science, technology, education, and practice of professional | |
| forestry for the benefit of society. We are ethically bound to | |
| advocate and practice land management consistent with | |
| ecologically sound principles. I am especially pleased to be | |
| here today to discuss the subject of Forest Health and to thank | |
| the Subcommittee for its continued support of professional | |
| forestry. I thank the Chair for the opportunity. | |
| The public policy activities of SAF are grounded in | |
| scientific knowledge and professional judgment. From this | |
| perspective we review proposed forestry and related natural | |
| resource programs to determine their adequacy to meet stated | |
| objectives and public needs. | |
| I wish to point out that I speak here today in two distinct | |
| capacities. First, I will address the views of the elected | |
| Council of the Society of American Foresters as expressed in | |
| its recent report entitled A Framework for Considering Forest | |
| Health and Productivity Issues prepared by SAF's National Task | |
| Force on Forest Health and Productivity. I wish to submit the | |
| full report for the record. I will also speak as a forester and | |
| citizen independent of the Society of American Foresters who is | |
| concerned with forest health issues. | |
| SAF has been involved in maintaining the health and | |
| productivity of American forests since Gifford Pinchot, first | |
| chief of the Forest Service, founded the organization in 1900. | |
| As a diverse organization encompassing all facets of forest | |
| management, the concept of forest health is one we have | |
| struggled with in recent years. Our recent report comes to | |
| these conclusions: | |
| Professional foresters believe there are serious forest | |
| health and productivity questions in many parts of the country. | |
| Forest health is an informal and technically inexact term. | |
| Assessment of forest health and forest productivity | |
| requires an understanding of both the condition of the forest | |
| and the objectives for the management of that forest; | |
| recognizing that objectives are set by landowners be they | |
| private, public, tribal or trust, and also by society through | |
| policy and regulation. | |
| Forest health is determined at the local level; therefore, | |
| a single national prescription to achieve healthy forests is | |
| inappropriate. | |
| I will now express my personal views, once again pointing | |
| out that these are not necessarily the opinions of the Society | |
| of American Foresters, which I would like noted in the record. | |
| As humans, we experience the joys of birth, the vigor of | |
| youth, slowing down with age, and, finally, death. With proper | |
| attention to health, our productive years may be extended. Few | |
| of us believe a ``hands-off'' approach is appropriate to | |
| maintain human health. Trees, and forests, go through similar | |
| phases. Believing that a vigorously growing forest, within the | |
| limitations of site quality and age, that is not seriously | |
| threatened by insects, diseases, fire, or other hazards is | |
| healthy, my over 40 years of experience as a forester leads me | |
| to the firm convictions that: | |
| A well-managed forest (along a spectrum from intensive | |
| management to wilderness management), with management | |
| addressing landowner or societal objectives, is the healthiest | |
| possible. | |
| In an unmanaged forest, there is no opportunity to address | |
| declining health. | |
| Picture a well-managed 5,000-acre forest, comprised of | |
| trees well adapted to the site, and being managed with a | |
| rotation age (the age at which the final harvest of trees | |
| occurs) of 50 years. After 50 years of management, 100 acres | |
| (perhaps not in a single location on the forest) are being | |
| regenerated by natural or artificial means, 100 acres have 1- | |
| year-old seedlings, etc., with 100 acres ready for the final | |
| harvest. Logging and access roads are well engineered, | |
| regeneration is prompt, and the soil productivity is | |
| maintained. | |
| Hazards to forest health, such as fire, insects, and | |
| diseases, generally are most damaging to trees of given ages. | |
| The age-class distribution of the well-managed forest minimizes | |
| those risks. With proper intermediate cuts (cuts made to | |
| provide spacing for crop trees to maintain vigorous growth, to | |
| salvage diseased and damaged trees, etc.), productivity and | |
| biodiversity are generally maximized. | |
| The criteria to judge whether a forest is healthy becomes | |
| obvious: | |
| Soil productivity is protected and maintained with well- | |
| engineered logging and access roads and prompt regeneration. | |
| The forest is comprised of species well adapted to the | |
| site. | |
| There is an approximately balanced age-class distribution. | |
| Well-maintained logging and access roads facilitate forest | |
| management and protection. | |
| Fuel levels, diseases, insects, and other potential hazards | |
| (deer, for example) are at reasonable levels. | |
| The management tools necessary to maintain or improve | |
| forest health are evident also, including: | |
| An adequate cadre of professional foresters, wildlife | |
| managers, recreation specialists, engineers, hydrologists, and | |
| others is available to provide the expertise needed to produce | |
| the commodity and non-commodity values desired. | |
| There is flexibility to manage the forest, unhampered by | |
| poorly conceived ``environmental'' laws, frivolous appeals, and | |
| tax codes which discourage long-term investments in timber | |
| management. | |
| There are strong forest research programs in the USDA | |
| Forest Service, universities, and the private sector. | |
| Forest management remains science based, and the | |
| ``toolkit'' available to managers (prescribed fire, herbicides, | |
| selection method, clearcutting, etc.) is maintained. | |
| To put this in few words, the cure to our forest health | |
| problems is more and not less forest management! The primary | |
| responsibility for managing our nation's forests should be in | |
| the hands of those best qualified by training and experience, | |
| the foresters. | |
| Thank you. | |
| ------ | |
| Statement of Hon. Stephen H. Schoenholtz, Associate Professor, Forest | |
| and Wildlife Research Center, Mississippi State University | |
| Madam Chairman, Committee Members: | |
| Thank you for the opportunity to present my views on useful | |
| criteria to assess forest health, and management tools | |
| appropriate to maintain or improve forest health. Forest health | |
| means different things to different people depending on | |
| differences in forest management objectives and philosophies. | |
| Therefore, defining forest health is currently a topic of | |
| intense debate. There is general agreement that our well-being | |
| and the well-being of future generations depends on productive, | |
| sustainable, healthy forests. However, some perceptions of | |
| forest health vary depending on individual preferences for | |
| forest use. To manage and maintain our forests in an acceptable | |
| state for future generations, requires us to define forest | |
| health broadly enough to encompass the many facets of forest | |
| ecosystems. | |
| Evaluating forest health is a daunting task. Forest | |
| components such as plants, animals, soil, water, and air have | |
| many complex interactions that we may recognize, but do not | |
| fully understand. Evaluating and monitoring health of some | |
| components may be difficult and/or expensive. Forests are | |
| constantly changing. This must be recognized when assessing | |
| their health. Some indicators of forest health at one stage of | |
| forest development may not be important at other stages. | |
| Furthermore, separating human-induced change (e.g. increased | |
| ozone or acidic deposition, historic farming, tree harvesting, | |
| burning) from natural change (e.g. wildfire, insect outbreaks, | |
| severe storms) can be difficult. Finally, the question of scale | |
| must be addressed in the assessment of forest health; that is, | |
| forest health can be considered at the stand level (10's of | |
| acres) or at regional or national levels (millions of acres). | |
| What do we look for when we try to assess forest health? We | |
| must keep in mind that forests consist of components in | |
| addition to trees. These components include other vegetation, | |
| animals, soil, air, and water. An assessment of forest health, | |
| therefore, should consider key indicators that can be measured | |
| or described periodically to identify trends. Key indicators | |
| should also effectively integrate the status of all forest | |
| ecosystem components. It is neither possible nor is it | |
| necessary to consider all of the processes and components of a | |
| forest ecosystem in order to make useful assessments about | |
| forest health or the consequences of forest management for | |
| forest health. We must focus our efforts on identifying key | |
| indicators, the knowledge of which will permit acceptably | |
| accurate assessments of forest health. We must remember that | |
| some key indicators of forest health may vary among different | |
| forest ecosystems, among different spatial and temporal scales, | |
| and among different scientific and managerial objectives. | |
| There is great merit in trying to identify indicators of | |
| forest health in spite of the difficulties involved because | |
| these indicators are essential for understanding and predicting | |
| forest health. To be useful in society over a range of | |
| ecological and socioeconomic situations, key forest health | |
| indicators should meet the following suitability criteria | |
| (after Doran and Parkin 1994): integrate ecosystem properties | |
| and processes; be accessible to many users and applicable to | |
| field conditions; be sensitive to variations in management and | |
| climate; and where possible, be components of existing data | |
| bases. | |
| Measurements of forest vegetation meet these suitability | |
| criteria. Vegetation is often the component of primary concern | |
| when assessing forest health. However, it also provides habitat | |
| for animal communities and it interacts with other ecosystem | |
| components such as soil, air, and water. Forest ecosystem | |
| health must include a level of acceptable plant productivity. | |
| This productivity depends on development of efficient leaf area | |
| and on maintaining low stress levels in plants. This, in turn | |
| depends on the ability of the soil to supply necessary | |
| nutrients and water. | |
| A list of basic forest vegetation indicators includes: age; | |
| structure; crown condition; species composition; species | |
| diversity; growth rate; mortality rate; foliar injury; species | |
| replacement patterns; regeneration rate; presence of insects or | |
| disease; and presence of exotic species. | |
| We have a good understanding of expected temporal patterns | |
| in many forest ecosystem types. If these criteria indicate | |
| deviations from expected patterns, then management practices to | |
| maintain or enhance forest health should be considered. | |
| These management alternatives include: removal of | |
| undesirable species; thinning to appropriate tree density; | |
| supplemental planting; use of controlled burning; | |
| fertilization; manipulating vegetation to create specific | |
| habitat; and imposing stricter air quality standards. | |
| Soil is recognized as a critical component of forest | |
| ecosystems and, as such, quality of soil has a profound effect | |
| on the health and productivity of a given ecosystem. Soil is a | |
| dynamic, living, management-responsive resource whose condition | |
| is vital to both forest ecosystem function and to global | |
| balance. Health and quality of soils determine plant, animal, | |
| and human health. Criteria for indicators of soil quality and | |
| health relate mainly to their utility in defining ecosystem | |
| processes and integrating physical, chemical, and biological | |
| properties, their sensitivity to management and climatic | |
| variations, and their accessibility and utility to society. | |
| Ultimate choice of specific indicators for assessing soil | |
| quality and health will depend upon identification of | |
| strategies for sustainable management of our forest resources. | |
| There is a large range of soil attributes, such as | |
| chemical, physical, and biological properties and processes | |
| that can be used to indicate soil quality. Some of these | |
| attributes have wide utility and can serve a range of purposes. | |
| These basic soil indicators include (after Doran and Parkin | |
| 1994): soil texture; maximum rooting depth; soil bulk density | |
| and infiltration; plant-available water capacity; total organic | |
| carbon and nitrogen; pH; electrical conductivity; and soil | |
| strength. | |
| Other measurements will probably be needed depending on | |
| management objectives, local conditions, and existing data | |
| bases. | |
| Our knowledge of factors affecting forest health is | |
| incomplete. To be acceptable evidence of change in forest | |
| health these conditions must be met: (1) changes in vegetation | |
| must be attributable to differences in environmental conditions | |
| (e.g. soil properties, air quality, climate); (2) changes must | |
| be evident for a sufficient time so that short-term, temporary | |
| differences are not mistaken; and (3) judgements should be | |
| based on adequate knowledge of forest factors affecting health. | |
| Monitoring forest health will require manipulations of | |
| large volumes of spatial and time-dependent environmental data. | |
| This aspect of monitoring should be developed within a | |
| Geographic Information System environment that can accommodate | |
| incorporation of new variables and can be developed into an | |
| adaptive management tool. | |
| Avoiding degradation of forest health is achieved by | |
| accepting management techniques that do not adversely affect | |
| the forest or the quality of the environment in which the | |
| forest grows. If a negative effect is an unavoidable | |
| consequence of the management goal, then future forest health | |
| problems need to be averted by incorporating the appropriate | |
| ameliorative techniques into management decisions for the | |
| forest. This requires an understanding of what has been changed | |
| in a negative way and the correct ameliorative practice needed | |
| to restore forest health. | |
| Although we lack empirical evidence for judging the degree | |
| to which some criteria can be altered without concomitant loss | |
| of forest health, we must harness what we know about forest | |
| ecosystem function in a form that is useful for managers and | |
| policy makers in order to help those responsible for making | |
| effective decisions about forest management and environmental | |
| regulations. The forest management decision process should be | |
| based on potential impacts to indicators of forest ecosystem | |
| health. Since our knowledge base is incomplete it is essential | |
| that experience, feedback, and adaptability play prominent | |
| roles in any assessment of forest health. | |
| Literature Cited: | |
| Doran, J.W., and T.B. Parkin. 1994. Defining and assessing | |
| soil quality. Chapter 1. In J.W. | |
| Doran, D.C. Coleman, D.F. Bezdicek, and B.A. Stewart | |
| (eds.), Defining Soil Quality for a Sustainable Environment, | |
| SSSA Special Publication Number 35, Am. Soc. Agronomy, Madison, | |
| WI. | |
| ------ | |
| Statement of Mike Dombeck, Chief, Forest Service, U.S. Department of | |
| Agriculture | |
| Madam Chairman and members of the Subcommittee: | |
| I am pleased to appear before this subcommittee for the | |
| first time as Chief of the Forest Service. As some of you may | |
| know, I am no stranger to the Forest Service, having grown up | |
| 25 miles from a town of 1,500 people in northern Wisconsin's | |
| beautiful lake country, in the Chequamegon National Forest. In | |
| my Forest Service career, I have worked at various levels of | |
| the organization in the West, Midwest, and Washington D.C., | |
| before going to the Department of the Interior. I am glad to be | |
| back. I am accompanied today by Dr. Ann Bartuska, Director of | |
| our Forest Health Protection Staff. | |
| Success Stories in Forest Ecosystem Restoration | |
| Today, I will begin my testimony with several concrete | |
| examples of efforts to restore the health of our nations | |
| forests. These examples demonstrate we can improve the | |
| conditions of forest ecosystems. | |
| Longleaf Pine in the Southeastern United States | |
| Of all the southern pines, many consider the longleaf pine | |
| the most valuable in terms of quality of wood products, the | |
| most aesthetically pleasing, and the most resistant to fire and | |
| to insect and disease attacks. In presettlement times, | |
| approximately 60 million acres of longleaf pine stands extended | |
| from East Texas through the lower coastal plain to Virginia. | |
| This ecosystem was maintained by frequent low-intensity fire | |
| from lightning strikes or human-caused ignition. By the early | |
| 1900's, the area of longleaf pine forests had been reduced to | |
| about 3 million acres, mainly due to the exclusion of fire from | |
| the ecosystem and because of extensive conversion of forest | |
| lands to agricultural uses. | |
| We are now artificially regenerating longleaf pine on the | |
| most appropriate sites where it originally grew. We work with | |
| other federal agencies, state forestry organizations and | |
| private land owners in this effort. We are also involved in | |
| cooperative research on longleaf pine ecosystems with partners | |
| such as the Alabama Alliance with members representing Tall | |
| Timbers Research, Inc., universities, private landowners, and | |
| environmental organizations. The Forest Service is now making | |
| restoration of longleaf pine ecosystems a priority as the | |
| national forests revise their land and resource management | |
| plans. Through these efforts, we are establishing new stands of | |
| longleaf pine and are providing a wide array of ecological, | |
| social and economic benefits. | |
| Seedling Resistance to White Pine Blister Rust | |
| In 1909 and 1910, white pine blister rust was from | |
| contaminated nursery stock from Europe and was introduced to | |
| the east and west coasts. The first infection in Idaho was | |
| discovered on the Cour D'Alene National Forest in 1923. Since | |
| then, it has spread throughout the white forest pine type in | |
| Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana. In the west, | |
| blister rust has typically killed 90 percent or more of the | |
| western white pine. Stands where white pine formally dominated | |
| have been converted to grand fir, cedar, hemlock and Douglas- | |
| fir. Control efforts were largely successful in the east, but | |
| proved ineffective in the vast expanse of western wildlands. | |
| Disease-resistant white pines were observed in infected | |
| areas. In the 1950's and 1960's, we began a successful breeding | |
| program to develop resistant white pines. Today, we have saved | |
| the species from extinction and are reintroducing resistant | |
| white pine seedlings as fast as we can working toward the | |
| restoration of the western white pine ecosystem in our Northern | |
| Region. | |
| Prescribed Fire and Thinning on the Boise National Forest | |
| The past decade brought severe drought and fire to the | |
| Boise National Forest in south central Idaho. Catastrophic | |
| wildfires burned as never before and the damage to the forest | |
| ecosystem and dependent communities has been severe. The | |
| conditions that have made the Boise so susceptible to | |
| catastrophic fire are evident. Once fire resistant forests | |
| dominated by ponderosa pine have been replaced by far more | |
| dense stands of trees--including many of species that would be | |
| naturally limited--existing under conditions that cannot be | |
| sustained. These overstocked, highly stressed stands have | |
| resulted in fuel loads that, when ignited, experience very | |
| largestand-replacement fires far more often than historical | |
| conditions provided. | |
| The Boise National Forest has been a leader in identifying | |
| addressing forest health problems in ponderosa pine ecosystems. | |
| Using the latest technology to identify areas at highest risk | |
| to catastrophic fire, the Boise prepared over 16,000 acres for | |
| prescribed burning this year. Through the increased use of | |
| prescribed fire and landscape-wide thinnings, we are changing | |
| tree composition, stand structure, and tree density to restore | |
| ponderosa pine ecosystems. The value of this work is obvious. | |
| It costs $20 to $50 an acre for prescribed burning compared to | |
| $400 to $4,000 an acre to suppress wildfires. | |
| Before turning to the issue of forest health and how to | |
| measure it, I would like to talk about the broader issue of | |
| management of National Forest Systems (NFS) lands. | |
| Management of The National Forests | |
| There is an ongoing dialogue in this nation over how | |
| national forests and rangelands should be managed. This | |
| dialogue is healthy. Dialogue and information are the essence | |
| of democracy. The people we serve, all of the people, are now | |
| more fully engaged in defining our course. The task for the | |
| Forest Service is not to dictate the outcome. Rather, we need | |
| to be the facilitators, the suppliers of knowledge and | |
| expertise, the educators and communicators who help people | |
| search for solutions. | |
| Today, faced with competing demands, new pressures on the | |
| land and greater challenges than ever before, resource | |
| management has become more contentious and more heated. We in | |
| this room can help to change that. I believe that if we work | |
| together, we can usher in a new era of resource stewardship and | |
| a deeper commitment to conservation; a commitment marked by a | |
| willingness to hear all sides of the debate; a commitment to | |
| remain open and responsive to new ideas, new values, and new | |
| information; a commitment to leave our lands healthier and our | |
| waters cleaner. | |
| I call this commitment of working with people to maintain | |
| and restore the health of the land, collaborative stewardship. | |
| Collaborative stewardship rests on one very basic premise: We | |
| simply cannot meet the needs of people if we do not first | |
| secure the health of the land. | |
| Forest Health in the United States | |
| While our forests are generally healthy, past timber | |
| harvest practices such as selective removal of pine overstory | |
| in the Inland West with the subsequent ingrowth of fir | |
| understory and the elimination of fire from these fire- | |
| dependent ecosystems have increased the risk of catastrophic | |
| wildfires, and increased the severity of drought, insect | |
| infestation, and disease. Serious forest health problems do | |
| exist and forest management practices must be improved based on | |
| the best available science. | |
| Most people support the goal of sustaining healthy forest | |
| ecosystems. Yet, over the past year, the words ``forest | |
| health'' have become unnecessarily value laden and incorrectly | |
| characterized to imply ``log it to save it.'' If we are to move | |
| beyond the divisiveness associated with implementation of the | |
| salvage rider, we must begin a more productive and credible | |
| dialogue about ``forest health.'' To so do we must abide by | |
| three principles. | |
| First, unhealthy conditions in our forests developed over | |
| many decades--any solution will require time and commitment to | |
| implement. We must look at restoration of forest health as an | |
| investment: an investment in the land; an investment for our | |
| children's futures; an investment that will ensure productive, | |
| healthy and diverse national forests. | |
| Second, restoring forest health in not simply a forestry | |
| issue. A healthy forest is one that maintains the function, | |
| diversity, and resiliency of all its components, such as | |
| wildlife and fish habitat, riparian areas, soils, rangelands, | |
| and economic potential and will require active management. It | |
| will require road maintenance and obliteration; use of | |
| prescribed fire; grazing management; thinning of green trees; | |
| salvage; and, other forest management practices. We must use | |
| all available tools and continue our search for new ones. | |
| Third, we must more effectively communicate the many | |
| environmental and economic benefits of restoring forest health | |
| as well as the consequences of inaction. If people do not | |
| support restoration of forest health, then all of our best | |
| efforts will be wasted. | |
| I would like to concentrate my remarks today on how we can | |
| work together to develop a strong network of healthy forests. | |
| Forest ecosystems are dynamic and ever changing. We now | |
| know the futility of trying to maintain static and predictable | |
| forest conditions. We recognize that natural disturbances such | |
| as fire, flood, insects, disease, and hurricanes are not only | |
| inevitable, they are necessary to maintain the health, | |
| diversity, and productivity of a forest ecosystem. | |
| Understanding the role and function of natural disturbances and | |
| the effects of human-induced ones is prerequisite to restoring | |
| and sustaining healthy ecosystems. How we integrate these | |
| relatively straightforward concepts into our restoration | |
| efforts is the challenge. | |
| Inventory and Assessments | |
| Establishing priorities for restoration projects requires a | |
| clear understanding of forest ecosystem conditions and trends. | |
| Programs such as Forest Inventory and Analysis and Forest | |
| Health Monitoring provide information to assess national | |
| conditions and trends. These data assist us in the development | |
| of regional assessments such as the Interior Columbia River | |
| Basin Assessment, the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, and the | |
| Southern Appalachian Assessment. At this regional scale, all of | |
| the critical issues are described, alternative solutions | |
| proposed, and implementation considerations identified as | |
| background material for potential land management decisions. | |
| The point is that without good base-line data, we cannot make | |
| good management decisions. | |
| Actions | |
| The Forest Service has identified a series of management | |
| actions to address the critical issues of forest health | |
| mentioned. These include: | |
| <bullet>Increasing the role of prescribed fire and fuels | |
| treatment; | |
| <bullet>In partnership with the Animal and Plant Inspection | |
| Service, reducing the introduction, spread, impact and increase | |
| control of exotic pests--both plant and animal; | |
| <bullet>Accelerating restoration of riparian functions; | |
| <bullet>Increasing thinning in dense forests; | |
| <bullet>Increasing monitoring of forested and rangeland | |
| ecosystems; | |
| <bullet>Increasing use of science in resource-decision | |
| making; | |
| <bullet>Increasing technical and financial assistance to | |
| non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners. | |
| The Forest Service will work with its partners using these | |
| priority actions to address critical forest health issues. | |
| Specifically, the FY 1998 budget proposes a significant | |
| increase in fuels management under our wildland fire management | |
| proposal. The fact is we have less of a ``fire'' problem then | |
| we do a ``fuels'' problem. We must make fuels management a | |
| significant part of our overall fire management program and, | |
| ultimately, this investment in fuels reduction will result in | |
| long term savings in fire suppression costs. We have also | |
| proposed increases for timber stand improvement activities and | |
| forest vegetation management. We hope you will support the 1998 | |
| budget proposal. | |
| In addition, we will shortly share with you a legislative | |
| proposal to create a new permanent fund called the ``Forest | |
| Ecosystem Restoration and Maintenance Fund''. This fund would | |
| provide additional resources for reducing fire hazards and | |
| improving the structure and health of forests. | |
| Another specific action involves cooperative efforts | |
| encouraged by our State and Private Forestry programs. | |
| Increasingly, the nation is dependent on non-industrial private | |
| forest lands (NIPF), which comprise 50 percent of privately | |
| owned forest lands, to meet timber demands. Some NIPF lands are | |
| not as healthy or productive as the owners would like. The | |
| Forest Stewardship Program and the Stewardship Incentives | |
| Program provide technical and financial assistance to NIPF | |
| owners in meeting their objectives for good land stewardship. | |
| Other programs such as Economic Assistance and Agroforestry | |
| help develop the linkages between healthy wildland communities | |
| and healthy human communities. The Urban and Community Forestry | |
| program provides financial and technical assistance to | |
| communities in how to plant species of trees that are less | |
| likely to succumb to insects and diseases and other damaging | |
| agents. As you can see, forest health is not simply a salvage | |
| issue; it is an ecosystem restoration issue with broad | |
| opportunities and complex solutions. | |
| One Approach to Forest Ecosystem Restoration | |
| An outstanding example of the type of collaboration | |
| necessary to restore forest health is happening in the eastside | |
| forest ecosystems of Oregon. A blue ribbon panel of scientists | |
| convened by Governor Kitzhaber identified ways we could speed | |
| the healing of these ecosystems, methods which may be broadly | |
| applicable to all forested regions of the West. The Kitzhaber | |
| report embraces the full spectrum of forest and watershed | |
| management and restoration activities such as riparian | |
| restoration, noxious weed management, prescribed fire, grazing | |
| management, and thinning. It also contains a common sense | |
| recommendation that initial forest ecosystem restoration | |
| efforts focus on less controversial areas avoiding riparian, | |
| old growth, and roadless areas. | |
| I have asked Governor Kitzhaber, Congressman Bob Smith of | |
| Oregon, and a broad range of public interests--environmental | |
| and industry--how we can move forward and begin the restoration | |
| of the eastside forest ecosystems. Last week I spoke with the | |
| Governor and his collaborative citizen's council. I have | |
| already met with the heads of the Fish and Wildlife Service, | |
| National Marine Fisheries Service, the Environmental Protection | |
| Agency, and the Bureau of Land Management to discuss how we can | |
| constructively employ the approach outlined by Governor | |
| Kitzhaber. All parties have expressed strong interest in moving | |
| ahead with restoration of our forest ecosystems. I believe this | |
| is the sort of approach that will help rebuild trust and | |
| support for forest ecosystem restoration activities. | |
| Criteria and Indicators for Forest Health | |
| Because the issue of forest health transcends national | |
| boundaries, we have been working internationally to address | |
| forest health concerns. Building on our Forest Inventory and | |
| Analysis and Forest Health Monitoring programs, the United | |
| States, as one of 12 countries, was signatory in 1995 to the | |
| Santiago Declaration. Signatory countries contain more than 40 | |
| per cent of the world's temperate and boreal forest lands. This | |
| landmark document lists 7 criteria that characterize how we | |
| must manage for sustainable forestry along with indicators for | |
| measuring sustainability. The criteria include: conservation of | |
| biological diversity; maintenance of productive capacity of | |
| forest ecosystems; maintenance of ecosystem health and | |
| vitality; conservation and maintenance of soil and water | |
| resources; maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon | |
| cycles; maintenance and enhancement of long-term socioeconomic | |
| benefits to meet the needs of societies; and legal, | |
| institutional and economic framework for forest conservation | |
| and sustainable management. | |
| Summary | |
| The message I wish to leave you with is that we can | |
| accelerate the healing of our forests. And we can do so in a | |
| balanced and measured approach. This is not about the ``cut it | |
| to save it'' misnomer that presently surrounds the words | |
| ``forest health''. It is about sitting at the same table with | |
| the regulatory agencies, state, other land managers, and | |
| citizens and taking action before we are confronted with | |
| incredibly costly--both socially and environmentally-- | |
| conflagrations. | |
| The consequences of inaction far outweigh the fiscal costs | |
| of forest ecosystem restoration. Catastrophic events such as | |
| floods, fire and landslides, are occurring at increasing | |
| frequencies with ever more devastating consequences. Noxious | |
| weeds are diminishing the productivity of hundreds of thousands | |
| of acres of public land. Devastating fires are increasingly | |
| encroaching upon the urban-forest interface. Last year alone, | |
| over 6 million acres of public land burned. Healthy forests | |
| will provide the resiliency to minimize the severe consequences | |
| of these events. Without decisive action these problems will | |
| only worsen. | |
| Restoration will not be quick. And in fact, it will be very | |
| expensive. But we must look at these sorts of activities as | |
| investments in the land--investments that will immediately | |
| reduce the risk of catastrophic fire and, in the long run will | |
| greatly enhance forest productivity, health, and diversity. It | |
| took many decades for today's unhealthy forest conditions to | |
| develop; it will take many years to reverse them. | |
| Thanks for inviting me to be here today. I'd be pleased to | |
| answer any questions. | |
| ------ | |
| Testimony of Steve Holmer, Campaign Coordinator, Western Ancient Forest | |
| Campaign | |
| Chairman Chenoweth, thank you for this opportunity to | |
| testify on the management of our National Forests. The Western | |
| Ancient Forest Campaign represents organizations and | |
| individuals nationwide who are dedicated to protecting forest | |
| and aquatic ecosystems on the National Forests. | |
| Increasing evidence demonstrates that over the past three | |
| decades, our National Forests have suffered too much logging, | |
| too much roadbuilding, and too much cattle grazing and fire | |
| suppression with little concern about the impact these | |
| activities have on our clean water supplies, fish and wildlife, | |
| recreational opportunities and the ecological integrity of | |
| forest ecosystems. | |
| The Facts: Our National Forests Imperiled | |
| A recent mapping project by the World Wildlife Fund | |
| concluded that only 2% of the original forests remain in the | |
| lower forty eight states. The Eastside Forests Scientific | |
| Society Panel report concluded that the few remaining roadless | |
| areas are threatened and that very little of the old growth | |
| Ponderosa pine forest remains. The report recommends: no | |
| logging of old growth forests or trees of any species older | |
| than 150 years or greater than 20 inches in diameter; no | |
| logging in aquatic diversity areas and to establish protected | |
| corridors along streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands; no logging | |
| or roadbuilding in roadless areas. | |
| Both the PACFISH and INFISH federal interim guidelines for | |
| protecting imperiled fish stocks concurred with the conclusion | |
| that we need to protect roadless areas and riparian zones to | |
| restore declining fisheries. These are critical first steps | |
| towards proper management and rehabilitating faltering forest | |
| and aquatic ecosystems in the Inland West. | |
| The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project report came to similar | |
| conclusions and also stated that, ``Timber harvest, through its | |
| effects on forest structure, local microclimate, and fuel | |
| accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other | |
| recent human activity. `` The notion that we can salvage log | |
| the forests to reduce fire risk is not supported by any | |
| empirical scientific data. | |
| In the state of Idaho, over 960 streams are polluted and | |
| rated as ``water quality limited'' by the Environmental | |
| Protection Agency because of too much contamination in the | |
| streams. Over half of these streams are being degraded by | |
| logging. Flooding, exacerbated by logging and roadbuilding in | |
| the Couer d'Alene watershed is steadily sending millions of | |
| pounds of lead contaminated sediments into Lake Couer d'Alene | |
| and ultimately into the city of Spokane's watershed. In Oregon, | |
| seven people were killed this year as a result of mudslides. | |
| Numerous scientific studies have been published, including by | |
| the U.S. Forest Service that conclude that logging and | |
| roadbuilding increase the risk and severity of landslides and | |
| flooding. | |
| Across the West, fish stocks continue to decline and many | |
| species such as the coho and bull trout are being considered | |
| for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Over 70,000 jobs | |
| of a once booming commercial fishing industry have been lost | |
| because the fish are gone. Clean drinking water for millions of | |
| Americans originates on the National Forests and yet there is | |
| no protection for this resource. Last year, the city of Salem, | |
| Oregon was forced to close down its water treatment system | |
| because of the huge amount of sediments filling the river. The | |
| City of Portland estimated that it would have cost $200 million | |
| to build water treatment facilities if the Bull Run watershed | |
| that provides their water was not protected from logging and | |
| roadbuilding. | |
| The private and public forests of the Southeast are | |
| threatened by unsustainable logging. There are now over 140 | |
| chip mills in the Southeast that average over 300,000 tons of | |
| chips a year, 100 of these were sited within the last ten | |
| years. At 300,000 metric tons of chips per mill per year, | |
| nearly one million acres--1,562 square miles--of southeast | |
| forest are being fed annually to the chip mills. And because | |
| chip mills grind up trees of any size, clearcutting is the most | |
| common method of logging used to feed the mills. According to | |
| industry and USFS, the growth to harvest ratio for softwoods in | |
| the South went negative in 1991. Hardwood harvests are expected | |
| to exceed growth within the next 2-10 years. This is not only | |
| evidence that the industry is unsustainable, but that chip | |
| mills are depleting the forests, thereby impacting water | |
| quality, habitats, ecosystem health and local forest-dependent | |
| businesses. In addition, chip mills employ very few workers. A | |
| typical chip mill has a sourcing radius of 75 miles yet only | |
| employs from 4 to 10 people and the hardwood consumed by a | |
| single chip mill in one month could run an average size sawmill | |
| for an entire year. Hardwood chip exports increased 500% from | |
| 1989 to 1995. | |
| These are the facts as presented by the scientific | |
| community, industry and government agencies. These are the real | |
| forest ecosystem health problems which this Committee chooses | |
| to ignore in favor of arguments that all come to the same | |
| conclusion: more logging. | |
| The Lessons of the Logging Rider | |
| Claiming to address the overstocking and fuel loading | |
| problems caused by fire suppression and grazing cattle, the | |
| 104th Congress passed the Salvage Logging Rider which suspended | |
| environmental laws and a citizen's right to have those laws | |
| enforced and participate in how their own lands were being | |
| managed. But no effort was made to address the fundamental | |
| problems of too much grazing and too much fire suppression. | |
| Under the rider we witnessed the logging of Ancient Forests | |
| that had been protected by the courts. Under the rider, the | |
| guise of logging dead and dying trees was used by the Forest | |
| Service to log large, green trees. Unroaded areas, which | |
| represent some our nation's last unprotected wilderness were | |
| entered and logged. The government's own Interagency Report on | |
| the Implementation of the Rider confirmed these abuses. | |
| The logging rider ignored science by suspending procedural | |
| laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act that | |
| requires the best available information be applied before the | |
| government takes a proposed action. The logging rider allowed | |
| the agency to ignore economics and offer timber sales that they | |
| knew would lose money. The agreement implementing the rider | |
| reinstituted timber targets. This kind of discredited mandate | |
| forces the agency to ``get-the-cut-out'' by making bad | |
| management decisions that ignore scientific evidence and | |
| economic common sense, and that have devastating consequences | |
| for the environment. | |
| The logging rider overturned the fundamental notions of | |
| democracy by banning citizen appeals and the system of checks | |
| and balances that has made our system work by allowing the | |
| Forest Service to ignore the objections of other federal | |
| agencies. Eliminating citizen appeals and meaningful judicial | |
| review has no place in the American system which is based on | |
| the right of every citizen to participate and ensure that the | |
| government is not acting above the law. | |
| To their credit, Clinton Administration officials admitted | |
| that signing the rider was the worst mistake of their first | |
| term and they issued the Glickman Directive which halted some | |
| but not all of these abuses. | |
| In the aftermath of the rider, several lessons are clear. | |
| Our environmental laws and public processes should never again | |
| be suspended. Ancient Forests, roadless areas and riparian | |
| zones need permanent protection. And the U.S. Forest Service | |
| needs to be reformed and made more accountable to the public. | |
| Restoring Accountability | |
| To address these threats to the health of our forest | |
| ecosystems we would like to make several recommendations which | |
| we urge the Committee to adopt. | |
| Working in conjunction with over forty other organizations, | |
| we have developed a Grassroots Forest Initiative to identify | |
| some specific ideas to help restore accountability to the | |
| agency and help stop the abuses that continue to threaten our | |
| forest heritage. Here are the four points in the initiative: | |
| 1. Prohibit new roadbuilding on the National Forests by | |
| ending any appropriation for new roads and by prohibiting the | |
| use of purchaser road credits to build new roads. Given the | |
| ecological importance of roadless areas and with over 370,000 | |
| miles of logging roads, eight times the length of the | |
| Interstate Highway, and a massive backlog of roads in need of | |
| maintenance, it does not make sense to build new roads. | |
| 2. Prohibit logging and road-building on unstable and | |
| potentially unstable national forest land. Recent landslides in | |
| the West have demonstrated some of the ``hidden costs'' to | |
| public safety and the environment of subsidized logging and | |
| road building on steep, unstable slopes. | |
| 3. Restore accountability by reforming or abolishing off- | |
| budget funds. There is a growing consensus that the various | |
| off-budget funds--the Knutson-Vandenberg (KV), Brush Disposal | |
| and Salvage Funds--which total nearly a billion dollars a year, | |
| must be either reformed or abolished. The Interagency Report on | |
| Implementation of the Rider concluded that the salvage fund | |
| created an incentive for the agency to choose logging projects | |
| when other activities (such as prescribed fire or stream | |
| restoration) were more appropriate, because the agency could | |
| keep most of the receipts for the salvage logging operations. | |
| We strongly oppose tying restoration projects to timber sale | |
| receipts. | |
| 4. End money-losing timber sales. The annual report of the | |
| White House Council of Economic Advisors shows that the Forest | |
| Service spent $234 million more than it collected in timber | |
| receipts in 1995. ``Generally, the Forest Service subsidizes | |
| timber extraction from public lands by collecting less timber | |
| sale revenues than it spends on timber program costs,'' the | |
| report says. According to the Government Accounting Office | |
| (GAO) the timber sale program lost nearly $1 billion from 1992- | |
| 1994. For the sake of both the environment and the taxpayer, it | |
| is time to end subsidized logging on the National Forests. | |
| This initiative has been signed by over one hundred groups | |
| including the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, California | |
| Wilderness Coalition, Inland Empire Public Lands Council, | |
| Oregon Natural Resources Council, Northeast Ohio Sierra Club, | |
| Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, and the Western North Carolina | |
| Alliance. | |
| At Sen. Craig's recent forest management workshop the | |
| Government Accounting Office testified that during 1995, the | |
| Forest Service spent $215 million dollars of the taxpayer's | |
| money, that they cannot account for. We urge the Committee to | |
| use its oversight authority to find out what happened to the | |
| taxpayer's $215 million, determine why the agency can't account | |
| for it and document how they will ensure this abuse of the | |
| public's trust will not occur again. | |
| We urge the committee to look at the full range of values | |
| our forests provide such as clean water, fish and wildlife | |
| habitat, and recreational opportunities. According to the | |
| Forest Service Resources and Planning Assessment, by the year | |
| 2000, recreation on the National Forests will produce over $100 | |
| billion dollars for the economy while logging will only produce | |
| $3.5 billion. The value of clean and stable water flows from | |
| our forests is estimated in the trillions. | |
| Old Growth, Roadless Areas and Riparian Zones Need | |
| Protection | |
| In testimony before the Senate Energy Committee on February | |
| 25, 1997, Chief of the Forest Service Michael Dombeck | |
| testified, ``The unfortunate reality is that many people | |
| presently do not trust us to do the right thing. Until we | |
| rebuild that trust and strengthen those relationships, it is | |
| simply common sense that we avoid riparian, old growth and | |
| roadless areas.'' We urge the Committee to support Chief | |
| Dombeck's effort to reform the agency and restore the public's | |
| trust by adopting his common sense recommendation and the other | |
| recommendations in this testimony. | |
| In closing, I would like to quote a Republican President | |
| who helped make this a great nation by protecting some of our | |
| National Forests, Teddy Roosevelt, who said, ``The Nation | |
| behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which | |
| it must turn over to the next generation increased and not | |
| impaired in value.'' | |
| I believe the United States is a great nation, but I feel | |
| that we are now risking that greatness by lacking the foresight | |
| and courage that made us great to begin with. We can choose to | |
| squander our remaining unprotected wild places, or we can be | |
| revered by future generations as Teddy Roosevelt is, for having | |
| the vision and the greatness to protect this nation's natural | |
| heritage. | |
| Thank you for this opportunity to testify. | |
| ------ | |
| Statement of Kenneth C. Kane, Keith Horn, Inc., Consulting Foresters, | |
| Kane, Pennsylvania | |
| Madame Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I | |
| appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to | |
| discuss forest health on the Allegheny region which includes | |
| the Allegheny National Forest (ANF). You have asked those | |
| testifying before the Subcommittee to address two specific | |
| issues: | |
| 1. What criteria determine if a forest is healthy or | |
| unhealthy? and | |
| 2. What management tools are most appropriate to maintain | |
| or improve forest health? | |
| I will address both of your questions directly. However, | |
| let me first provide some background information which will | |
| help set the stage for my presentation. | |
| My name is Kenneth C. Kane. I am Vice President of Keith | |
| Horn, Inc. consulting foresters in Kane, Pennsylvania. I am a | |
| graduate of Penn State's School of Forest Resources where I | |
| received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1982. I have lived in | |
| the Allegheny region my entire life and have studied and worked | |
| with the forests of this region for over 20 years. For the last | |
| 13 years, I have been a full-time, hands-on manager of private | |
| forest land. I am Chairman of the Pennsylvania Division of the | |
| Society of American Foresters and also Chairman of Penn Chapter | |
| of the Association of Consulting Foresters of America. I am | |
| also president of the Kane Area School Board and active in | |
| other community and industrial organizations, including the | |
| Allegheny Forest Alliance. I am testifying on my own behalf. | |
| The Allegheny National Forest | |
| For many years, the Allegheny National Forest has been the | |
| single largest source of high-quality black cherry, a species | |
| of wood in great demand here in the United States and around | |
| the world. Continued harvest and regeneration of the ANF's | |
| black cherry trees is a top priority for hardwood lumber | |
| producers located near the ANF and for veneer manufacturers | |
| throughout North America. | |
| It is fair to say that the ANF is the flagship national | |
| forest in the Northeast. In the last seven years (fiscal years | |
| '90-'96) the ANF produced $132.6 million in timber sale | |
| revenues. The Forest Service estimates that costs attributable | |
| to the ANF timber program during that period were $29.1 | |
| million. Thus, the net profit to the United States was $103.5 | |
| million. Of that amount, $33.8 million was returned to the | |
| counties through the Twenty-Five Percent Fund. [Attached is a | |
| chart (Fig. 1) which illustrates the ANF's profitability.] | |
| Fortunately, Madame Chairman, the ANF has no widespread | |
| threatened or endangered species listings or other over arching | |
| legal/political issues driving its timber program into a tail | |
| spin of oblivion. However, there are other challenges ahead, | |
| and we must act now to protect the enormous values of this | |
| national forest. | |
| The ANF: A Forest at Ever-increasing Risk | |
| Like other national forests in the Eastern US, the | |
| Allegheny National Forest is a second-growth forest with mostly | |
| even-aged timber stands. In general, these stands were created | |
| 50-90 years ago and are now extremely well-stocked with black | |
| cherry and other valuable hardwood trees. Black cherry is a | |
| shallow rooted tree species; mature trees are highly | |
| susceptible to wind-throw damage. Thus, the stands on the ANF | |
| that are heavy with mature black cherry trees are at ever | |
| increasing risk. | |
| Attached to this statement are two charts that illustrate | |
| my point. The first (Fig. 2) shows the distribution of timber | |
| stands by 20-year age classes. As you can see, nearly all of | |
| the timber stands on this 503,000 acre national forest are | |
| either 51-70 or 71-90 years old. The second chart (Fig. 3) | |
| illustrates the fact that the ANF is an incredibly productive | |
| timber-growing forest. More than four-fifths of this forest is | |
| highly suited for the production of black cherry, oak, and | |
| other species. | |
| As mentioned earlier, the ANF is the single most important | |
| source of high quality black cherry logs. Given the importance | |
| of this species to the domestic furniture business and to | |
| America's veneer and lumber exports, we need to do everything | |
| possible to ensure that the ANF will always be a source of | |
| black cherry. That's why we have to maintain and improve the | |
| health of this and other national forests. | |
| Question One: What Criteria Determine If a Forest Is | |
| Healthy? | |
| To answer this question for the Allegheny Plateau, you must | |
| remember that essentially the entire forest in the region was | |
| clear-cut between 1880 and 1930. [Such clear-cutting was very | |
| common throughout the East. In fact, nearly all eastern | |
| hardwood forests are the result of the clear-cuts which | |
| occurred at or near the turn of the century.] The vast clear- | |
| cutting of that era virtually eliminated the beech-hemlock, | |
| old-growth (climax) forests of the region. The hardwood forests | |
| which emerged did so naturally (without planting). | |
| So, within the forests of the Allegheny region and other | |
| ``second-growth'' eastern hardwood forests, forest health is | |
| typically determined by answering some basic questions: | |
| <bullet>Individual Tree Vigor. What is the condition of the | |
| crown, stem, root, and leaf of the tree? | |
| <bullet>Species Diversity. Is there an adequate diversity | |
| of trees, shrubs, flowers, and other plant species present in | |
| the forest? | |
| <bullet>Size Class Diversity. Since not all trees grow at | |
| the same rate, are there trees of various sizes? | |
| <bullet>Presence of Desired Natural Regeneration. Are | |
| preferred tree and other plant species regenerating naturally | |
| or are non-preferred species becoming dominant? | |
| It is important to emphasize, however, that forest health | |
| criteria--like other forest management parameters--are defined | |
| by the landowner. One of the reasons why national forest health | |
| seems to be a moving target is that public forestry issues are | |
| very dynamic. In other words, the objectives of the landowner | |
| (the public) changes constantly. That is not the case in the | |
| private sector, where most forest landowners have two primary | |
| objectives: (1) production of wood products; and (2) continuity | |
| of ownership. [Some forest lands in our region have been held | |
| by the same family since 1855.] | |
| So, where do we stand? At present, forest health in the | |
| Allegheny region is threatened by native and exotic insects, | |
| disease, and mammals. The Gypsy Moth and Beech Scale Nectria | |
| complex are two examples of exotic threats and over-browsing by | |
| white tailed deer (which reduces desired vegetation such as | |
| hardwood seedlings and thus species diversity) is an example of | |
| a native mammal threat. | |
| In addition to these problems, the forests of the region | |
| are simply growing old. Typically, forest professionals find | |
| that forests in the Allegheny region that are 50 years of age | |
| are generally healthier than forests which are 75 years old, | |
| which are healthier than forests that are 100 years old, etc. | |
| This is attributed to the fact that hardwood forests--like | |
| humans--experience reduced resilience as they approach the end | |
| of their natural life span (which is about 125 years for the | |
| forests and a bit less for humans). Hardwood forests change | |
| dramatically between 125 and 150 years of age. Specifically, | |
| species diversity drops from a wide variety of shade intolerant | |
| species (including black cherry, ash, tulip poplar, etc.) to a | |
| handful of shade tolerant species (mostly sugar maple, hemlock, | |
| and beech). This decrease in tree species diversity is one | |
| measure of an unhealthy forest. | |
| As mentioned earlier, the forests of the Allegheny region | |
| (especially the ANF) are recognized internationally for the | |
| high-quality hardwood timber that they produce. The unique | |
| unglaciated soils of the region produce the world's best | |
| quality black cherry in stands that reach economic maturity at | |
| 80 to 100 years of age. We have reached the point in time on | |
| the Allegheny Plateau where biological and economic maturity | |
| coincide. Thus, we must address the needs to regenerate these | |
| forests for both financial and biological reasons. | |
| But, in addition, the public generally prefers to hunt, | |
| camp, hike, etc. in maturing 70 year old Allegheny hardwood | |
| forests rather than decadent 150 year old forests. This is | |
| attributed to reduced diversity in the oldest forests and the | |
| presence of dense underbrush (e.g. beech brush, striped maple, | |
| and fern) which result from deer over-browsing. Also, the 150 | |
| year old forests are generally less ``scenic'' because they are | |
| more likely to have a higher percentage of beech infested with | |
| the Beech Scale Nectria complex (an exotic disease which causes | |
| the trees to snap off at mid-stem). | |
| Question Two: What Management Tools Are Most Appropriate? | |
| Having examined the criteria for a ``healthy'' forest in | |
| our region of the country, let me turn now to your second | |
| question which is: What management tools are most appropriate | |
| to maintain or improve forest health? As a practicing forester, | |
| I recommend that landowners take certain actions to maintain | |
| the health and vitality of the forests within the Allegheny | |
| region: | |
| <bullet>Employ Sound Silvicultural Practices and | |
| Professional Forestry. [This is self-explanatory.] | |
| <bullet>Use Modern Silvicultural Methods and Timber | |
| Harvesting Scenarios. These practices are site specific and | |
| model natural occurrences. | |
| <bullet>Employ Qualified Resource Managers to Monitor | |
| Forest Conditions Closely. This is necessary to follow insect | |
| populations and assess the effects of disease, drought, and | |
| other phenomena. | |
| <bullet>Control Large Deer Populations. Increase the use of | |
| silvicultural regeneration tools such as fence enclosures and | |
| herbicides. Promote sport hunting to reduce deer over- | |
| population. | |
| <bullet>Use Aerial Application of Natural Pesticides. This | |
| is necessary to control exotic and abnormal native insect | |
| infestations. [This was done with great success in 1994 | |
| cooperatively on both private and public land in Northwestern | |
| Pennsylvania and Southwestern New York against an unprecedented | |
| population of the Elm Spanworm and Forest Tent Caterpillar. | |
| Similar efforts have also worked effectively against the Gypsy | |
| Moth.] | |
| In addition to these tools that are available to the | |
| resource manager, I believe that Congress and the | |
| Administration have continuing roles to play. And, given this | |
| opportunity, I offer the following thoughts for your | |
| consideration: | |
| <bullet>Continue to Fund and Promote Forest Research. | |
| Research at the US Forest Service's Northeast Experiment | |
| Station in Warren, PA has provided the modern silvicultural | |
| methods used throughout the Allegheny region. Significantly, | |
| over 1,100 forest managers have attended the training sessions | |
| offered by the Station. | |
| <bullet>Enact Tax Incentives. The Internal Revenue Code | |
| needs to be changed to provide tax incentives for private, non- | |
| industrial landowners to follow sound forest management | |
| practices. Particular emphasis should be given to changes to | |
| the capital gains and estate taxes. | |
| <bullet>Increase Forest Education. Finally, there is a | |
| pressing national need for education programs for forest | |
| landowners, professionals, and the public. Professionals need | |
| to better understand the modern tools available to them. | |
| Landowners and the public need to better understand the forest | |
| ecosystem and the necessity of using sound science as the basis | |
| for management decisions. | |
| Thank you, Madame Chairman, for the opportunity to present | |
| this statement. | |
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| <all> | |
| </pre></body></html> | |