in other words
june8
2010
Voices From the Crowd: The Role of Public Forest
Management in Western Oregon
By Roger Lindsley
Traditional forest practices have
changed radically over the last 100 years.
One of the most significant changes has
been the role of the state in creating poli-
cies and legislation to enforce policies
as a rule of law. In eastern Oregon, the
policies of fire suppression have cre-
ated obvious and notorious management
failures. Instead of stopping wildfires,
these policies built up ladder fuels and
increased forest densities beyond what
existed pre-Anglo settlement. The forest
conditions that currently exist encour-
age catastrophic wildfires that endanger
not just the forests themselves, but the
people who live in and near them. To
fix these conditions, foresters are now
using harvests that mimic the role that
fire plays. In eastern Oregon, forestry
rediscovered nature.
In western Oregon, we have a
similar but almost invisible and unno-
ticed drama playing out in the forests.
In western Oregon, the life cycle of the
forest includes catastrophic burns and
wholesale replacement of the landscape
in large sections. This coincidentally
mimics the clearcut harvest technique.
Eastern Oregon forests require thinning
to mimic nature, western Oregon forests
require clearcutting. After the harvest,
the regeneration cycle begins.
The natural regeneration system
produces some of the finest timber on the
planet. Following a catastrophic burn,
or a clearcut, hardwood species rapidly
cover the landscape. These species are
fire resistant, stabilize the slopes, and
fix nitrogen into the soil. Hardwood
species grow fast, outpacing the native
conifers for the following few decades.
The conifers grow under the hardwoods,
and then through the hardwoods, killing
off the hardwood forest. This regrowth
cycle is referred to as succession. The
individual hardwood and conifer species
grow in very specific places to fit into
each part of the terrain. Yellow fir grows
where the ground is exposed to sun and
is well drained. Cedar grows in wet,
dark canyons. Natural forests are made
up of hundreds of plant species growing
in specific places at specific times during
the cycle.
Replacing this natural cycle
with managed replanting intended to
target the best of the best commercial
species is the prerogative and right of
private land owners. This is exactly the
same as planting corn on the plains of
the Midwest. And, like planting corn,
this is done with the singular purpose of
bringing a specific commodity to mar-
ket. In our region, that commodity is
Douglas fir. That commercial forestry is
a good and right thing for private busi-
ness to pursue is not in question. But,
what should be questioned is the role
of the state in managing public forests.
Why would the state compete directly
with private landowners for Douglas fir
production? The state is using public
forests in western Oregon to maximize
Douglas fir production. A major cost of
this raw product is fuel for shipping, so
the private landowners closest to public
forests area are damaged most by this
state-sponsored increase in supply.
The management techniques to
maximize Douglas fir production wipe
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out much of what makes a forest a re-
silient and low maintenance landscape.
First, the clearcut is replanted with a
few varieties of cloned species. Then
chemical fertilizers are used. Then her-
bicides are applied to kill off the native
hardwood species. Then repeated ap-
plications of herbicides, pesticides, and
fungicides are used. Because the trees
are virtually the same tree and the same
age, any pathogen that is successful in
one tree can kill off the forest. In the
Tillamook burn, a fungus, Swiss Needle
Cast, took over large sections and forced
the state to clearcut before the best mar-
ket value was reached, and then replant
again.
This industrial approach is his-
torically justified by a few arguments:
First, it creates jobs. Unfortu-
nately, the biggest job killer is not the
percentage of trees in the public forest
that are cloned Douglas fir versus a wide
variety of native firs, it is mechanization.
When the Tillamook burn was replanted,
it required 10 times more man hours to
bring a board foot out to the mill than
it does today. Will another 50 years cut
another 9 out of 10 hours of labor and
jobs? Use manpower to control invasive
species instead of using chemicals; that
is job security.
Second argument, the shorter
time to re-harvest increases the output
of the forest tremendously over the long
term. This seems to be a suspicious
justification. Much of the Burn had to
be harvested early, before the crop was
ready. So that is 20-40 years of lost time,
chemicals, planting, and then the crop
was replaced by something very similar
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that could endure a repeat failure. The
long term is yet to be written, maybe the
accelerated, chemically-managed pro-
duction results in decreasing yields over
time, we do not know.
Third, the state is helping out the
timber industry and mills. The timber in-
dustry is comprised of people who invest
their own capital into owning land, pay-
ing taxes, and managing a specialty crop
for maximum profit. These people, es-
sentially everyone with any fir trees, are
not helped by the state specifically mass-
producing the exact same commodity as
fast as possible. The state is not injured
by having to slash and replant mistakes,
they are using public money to buy their
chemicals, they are a competitor who
drives down value by increasing supply.
Even worse-- because the state
is also in the intensive agriculture busi-
ness, there are not refuges for endan-
gered and protected species. Legislation
protecting owls and salmon is then ap-
plied to all lands equally as if it is equal-
ly the responsibility of private landown-
ers and public land managers to protect
these public resources.
Our western Oregon public for-
ests are capable of producing timber and
other elements of economic value with
lower management costs. Other things
can come from a forest that is not chemi-
cally managed as a monoculture. Hard-
woods would have more economic val-
ue if they were allowed to grow and be
available for harvest. Northwest Timber
sells single maple boards that are worth
as much as half a log truck load of Doug-
las fir.
The funding that goes to the
schools from timber sales may be im-
pacted while a natural regrowth cycle is
allowed to proceed. 20 million dollars
a year goes to schools. But that fund is
invested in Wall Street and lost 200 mil-
lion in one year. The school fund should
be invested in Oregon economic devel-
opment, not Wall Street. Secondary in-
dustries like specialty mills, and local
craftsman using the milled products, are
examples of what could be instead of
what was lost.
In a time that we are looking to
cut taxes and state expenditures, it might
be time to reconsider the role that the
state Forestry Department plays in their
management of our public forests. The
timber will grow, it was here before the
Oregon Department of Forestry, it will
be here after.
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