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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, dEcEmbER 9, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
circulation manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production manager
CARL EARL
Systems manager
OUR VIEW
Managing forests to reduce wildfires
n southern Oregon, The Nature
Conservancy, the U.S. Forest
Service and the Klamath Tribes
set up what became one of the
nation’s largest outdoor laboratories.
Instead of racks of test tubes,
however, this laboratory was popu-
lated by thousands of acres of trees.
The experiment: To determine
how best to manage forestland to
reduce the damage a wildfire causes.
The Nature Conservancy, which
owns a vast swath of forestland,
thinned one portion, performed con-
trolled burns on another portion and
did both on still another. Other por-
tions were left unmanaged to serve as
controls that would allow scientists to
compare the management practices.
The catalyst was the Bootleg fire
— at 400,000 acres one of the larg-
est wildfires in the West this year.
What the experiment showed was
fascinating and provides a giant step
in the direction of determining how
best to manage forests.
It found that the portion of the
forest left unmanaged was inciner-
ated. Feeding on the excess fuels,
the fire turned trees into charcoal and
the soil was transformed into a dead
zone.
So much for the theory that for-
ests should be left unmanaged.
The sections that were thinned or
that had been managed using con-
trolled burns fared much better. The
damage was significantly less than
that sustained by the unmanaged
forest.
I
Brady Holden/The Nature Conservancy
At left, an area where both thinning and controlled burning took place before the Bootleg fire. At right, an area where no thinning or
controlled burning took place.
But the section on which both
thinning and controlled burns had
been performed fared best of all.
The evidence clearly shows
that thinning and controlled burns
together significantly reduce wildfire
damage. Most of the remaining trees
are alive and will quickly rebound
from the fire.
Beyond that, fighting a wildfire
in a forest that has been managed
is far easier than one where the for-
est is unmanaged. Towering flames
that leaped from crown to crown
and laid waste to the forest were
replaced by much smaller flames
that could be extinguished.
In one instance, a whirling fire
tornado was knocked to the ground
when it blew from an unmanaged
forest section to a managed section.
There’s still lots of work to do.
Scientists need to put numbers to the
observations and help others come
up with follow-up experiments
that replicate and expand upon this
experiment.
Our hope is the impact of live-
stock grazing in forests will be
included in future experiments.
This will determine the value of
grazing as a means of reducing the
underbrush that feeds wildfires.
We also live in an era of a
changing climate. We need to find
ways to reduce the size and number
of wildfires, which spew millions
of tons of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere.
It is better to sequester that
greenhouse gas in trees or lum-
ber by managing the forests than to
release it in catastrophic wildfires.
That’s something on which rea-
sonable people can agree.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Amen
ust finished reading the editorial, “Too
Occupied with Divisions” (The Asto-
rian, Dec. 2), and must say “amen.”
But while we witness what’s happening
at the local level, I think the beginnings
stem from the attitude in Washington, D.C.
At 73 years old, I can remember when
congressional differences may have been
extreme, yet the final outcome was usually
a compromise, based on what was best for
the country and the people.
Today the goal seems to be a
result that’s best for the party and its
contributors.
WILLIAM BELL
Astoria
J
Enabling
he beginning of the feature story, “A
holiday weekend escape route,” by
Andy Cameron (The Astorian, Nov. 27)
was witty and well written, and a humor-
ous description of the day after turkey day.
By the fourth paragraph, the writer
loses me when suggesting weekend escape
from reality is achieved by using alcohol.
An alcohol abuser, or a recovering alco-
holic, after reading this story in The Asto-
rian, could see the escape described by
Cameron as their trigger, or permission to
drink along with all those festive down-
town drinkers. Why not? It’s part of our
local culture, and offers us “solace,” or so
it states in feature story.
From my perspective, the word
“escape” took me back to how I lived, and
my thinking, prior to my own relapse-free
alcohol recovery 32 years ago. Now that
you understand another reader’s perspec-
tive, as a writer, using less inflammatory
words such as “diversion” or “alternative”
would have worked better.
RICHARD W. COVERT
Astoria
T
Where’s the beef?
find indignation over The Astorian
applying for, or accepting a “handout”
from the government amusing, and quite
selfish (“Begging,” Nov. 20).
Subscribers and advertisers have
always paid for the newsprint and influ-
enced a newspaper’s content. Our newspa-
per stands as the underpinning of the com-
munity it serves. Why not accept other
forms of public support?
I am happy to have accepted and spent
the stimulus checks I have, or may yet
receive, and businesses of every stripe rou-
tinely accept government subsidies. The
I
subsidies come in many forms, most nota-
bly as tax breaks.
Is the writer even familiar with corpo-
rate welfare or government “pork barrel”
spending? I think he should stop biting the
hand that feeds him. If The Astorian folds,
where would I air my opinions?
GARY DURHEIM
Seaside