Opinion
4A
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Other Views
National forests,
BLM lands should be
off-limits to logging
he Biden administration supports protecting 30%
of U.S. lands by 2030, or what is termed the “30-
by-30 proposal.” One of the best ways to meet
those 30-by-30 goals would be to put all national forests
and BLM lands off-limits to logging.
Not only does this help to move the country closer to
the 30-by-30 goals, but it would go a long way toward
sequestering carbon as well.
Our public
forests cur-
rently hold
GEORGE
about seven
WUERTHNER
times the cur-
ECOLOGIST
rent annual
national carbon
emissions and U.S. forests sequester about 12% of the
country’s carbon emissions.
If we stopped logging and thinning our federal for-
ests, we could sequester even more carbon.
However, the U.S. Forest Service, the timber industry
and co-opted conservation groups continue to sup-
port thinning the forest in the name of precluding large
wildfires.
Unfortunately, advocates of thinning mislead Amer-
icans on the limited effectiveness of thinning in pre-
cluding large blazes. Plus, logging contributes more
carbon to the atmosphere that exacerbates fire weather.
The problem with the “thinning will limit large
fires” myth is that it ignores the influence of extreme
fire weather. Thinning might, in some instances, slow
or stop blazes burning under low to moderate fire con-
ditions, but not under extreme fire weather. Under less
than extreme weather, most fires are easily suppressed
or even self-extinguish if we leave them alone.
All large fires are driven by extreme weather. And
these are the fires that the agency, politicians and others
seek to stop, but under such conditions, the scientific
consensus is that nothing can stop a blaze. Wind-driven
fires pass over, around, and through thinned forests and
prescribed burning sites.
Despite being some of the heaviest logged and
thinned forests in Oregon, fires burning under extreme
fire weather conditions charred hundreds of thousands
of acres of the Western Cascades.
Even if logging/thinning worked to slow a blaze’s
advance, there is an extremely low likelihood (less than
1%) that any treated forests will be exposed to fire.
So most thinning projects remove carbon, but they do
nothing to reduce large blazes.
As one study concluded: “The amount of carbon
removed to change fire behavior is often far larger than
that saved by changing fire behavior, and more area has
to be harvested than will ultimately burn over the period
of effectiveness of the thinning treatment.”
Another researcher suggests: “Reducing the fraction
by which C is lost in a wildfire requires the removal of
a much greater amount of C, since most of the C stored
in forest biomass (stem wood, branches, coarse woody
debris) remains unconsumed even by high-severity
wildfires.”
A common misconception is that wildfires release a
lot of carbon. Burning does release some carbon, but the
majority of the carbon in the forest remains on-site even
after a severe fire. The snags left after a blaze contain
much of the carbon found in a forest, while charcoal that
is retained in the soil stores even more carbon.
By contrast, logging releases a tremendous amount
of carbon. The biggest source of greenhouse gases in
Oregon is logging, which accounts for 35% of the state’s
emissions.
Plus, the carbon lost during thinning/logging takes
decades to centuries to re-sequester.
The highest value of our public forests is their func-
tion as carbon reserves. Prohibiting logging would
not only help sequester more carbon. In addition, put-
ting all federal lands in carbon reserves would provide
numerous other benefits, such as watershed protection,
protection of wildlife habitat, preserving the ecolog-
ical function of insect, wildfire, and drought that creates
healthy forest ecosystems.
———
George Wuerthner is an ecologist who
specializes in fire ecology and livestock issues.
T
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Education Corner
Learning to write isn’t an easy task
SCOTT
SMITH
EDUCATOR
riting is a lifelong skill.
Children are able to start
developing skills used
in writing as early as kindergarten
and even preschool. Developing
the skill of writing starts with lan-
guage development and learning
to share information orally with
others. It can begin with show and
tell where children share a special
thing and simply say, “This is my
truck.”
Or the parent asking the child to
tell them about their day. Writing
is at the highest level of processing
our brains are able to perform.
It is also not a natural skill that
comes with body development. It
has to be learned. Eating, walking,
talking and observing are all nat-
ural things that most of us grow
equipped to do, but writing is a
whole set of complex skills that
must be developed.
To be able to write there must
be a strong foundation of other
skills, such as language develop-
ment, analyzing and understanding
the elements of reading. If a child
struggles with one of these three,
they are apt to struggle when it
comes to writing. Language devel-
opment is the ability to share
information.
Prior to the use of any form of
written texts heritage was passed
down through stories, songs or
chants, and taught by elders of the
group. They often used pictures to
jog their memories, which would
W
be considered the first form of
written texts.
Being able to understand infor-
mation and apply it to one’s own
life also is key in being able to
express orally to others. This is a
skill that needs nurturing prior to
being able to put ideas into writing.
Talking and discussing information
with children helps them develop
those skills. Asking questions such
as: “What do you think? Where
do you think that water goes?” or
“How would you fix that?” will
build their ability to understand
and apply information which will
then be more likely to transfer to
their writing.
The third is understanding what
reading is within our language of
communication. Understanding
that symbols represent letters and
sounds and are placed together to
create words is important. Words
are formed into sentences that com-
municate a writers’ thoughts and
information.
If a child or student is unable
to express information orally,
they will not be able to complete
their writing task because on the
developmental scale they have not
learned enough oral language to
apply it in writing.
Once children are able to talk
openly about a subject or object
they are ready to begin their
writing journey. If a child or stu-
dent is struggling with writing,
step back and allow them to pro-
cess using their oral language
skills. They still might not be
ready to do their own writing and
additional scaffolding may be
needed for them to be successful,
but processing orally first will help
students get their thoughts in order,
which is critical. Having them dic-
tate the information is also a great
scaffold, especially if you guide
them with the proper phrasing.
Writing also is something that
often isn’t once and done, which is
sometimes difficult for children to
learn and understand. When first
learning to edit their own work they
might not be able to identify how it
needs to be changed. When we read
our own writing back our brains
often do an auto-correct so the child
may struggle to recognize their
mistakes. Assisting and having chil-
dren read both theirs and the edited
sentences will help them build the
ability to recognize changes they
might need to make when they are
editing their own work.
Most children love to make little
folded books. The idea is to take
paper and fold it to create pages
allowing the child to place the com-
ponents of a book on each page such
as a cover, title, beginning, middle,
and end. Having them create these
books can be a first step toward
learning the writing process just as
they did centuries ago with hiero-
glyphics. Writing is a process, and
not an easy one, but with support
and guidance we can all learn to
communicate through writing.
———
Scott Smith is a Umatilla County
educator with 40-plus years of
experience. He taught at McNary
Heights Elementary School and then
for Eastern Oregon University in its
teacher education program at Blue
Mountain Community College. He
serves on the Decoding
Dyslexia Oregon board as its parent/
teacher liaison.