A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Where
there’s fi re
ildfi res continue to
decimate forests and
consume homes in
the West, clearly indicating
changes are needed to preserve
our public lands and protect our
communities.
As Dr. Paul Hessburg,
a Forest Service research
ecologist, outlined is his “Era
of Megafi res” presentation last
week, the number of massive
fi res each year is expected
to continue to increase, and
the current approach to fi re
management is not addressing
the underlying problem.
As we said in this space
last week, active management
through sustainable logging and
grazing is a great place to start.
Hessburg points out the
dense forests of today do
not resemble the healthy
forests of old. Policies and
practices through the years
have culminated to produce
unnatural conditions. When
combined with increasing
temperatures and drought,
everyone should be concerned.
Our forests, as Hessburg
says, are a ticking time bomb.
After the Canyon Creek
Complex fi re in 2015, I think
most in Grant County would
agree, even without a scientifi c
opinion in support.
However, Hessburg’s
research indicating that
frequent, smaller fi res in
the past once prevented the
massive blazes we’re seeing
today provides insight into the
situation and points out another
problem.
Prescribed burns can
improve forest health by
reducing fuels and helping
restore a resilient patchwork
of tree stands and meadows,
but strict state Department
of Environmental Quality
rules often prevent them from
being ignited due to air quality
concerns.
Clean air is obviously
important, but what the current
W
equation does not factor in is
the fact that air quality is far
worse during a wildfi re than a
prescribed burn.
When fi refi ghters can choose
when to ignite a fi re based on
desired weather conditions,
they can control the burn much
more effectively to accomplish
their objectives. Even when
the weather conditions are
conducive to prescribed
burning, though, fi refi ghters
must jump through another
hoop with the state DEQ.
Proper weather conditions
for prescribed burning often
only occur during short
windows in the spring and fall.
DEQ air quality regulations
further restrict this window.
This reduces the number of
projects that can be completed
each year, essentially stopping
many needed burns.
Without the prescribed
burning, the areas remain
overloaded with fuels that
drive larger fi res that create
more smoke. Strictly limiting
prescribed burns because
they produce a little smoke is
basically begging for a lot of
smoke from a massive wildfi re,
which also brings increased risk
of loss of life and property.
Hessburg said prescribed
burns are regulated as a
“controllable nuisance,”
whereas wildfi res are
considered uncontrollable and,
thus, cannot be regulated by the
DEQ.
Wildfi res may be
uncontrollable, but they
are also inevitable. Without
changes, the amount of
smoke in the air as conditions
continue to worsen will be
intolerable.
State offi cials should
consider the ramifi cations
of inaction when setting air
quality rules for prescribed
burns.
A little smoke now may
prevent a lot of smoke in the
future.
W HERE TO W RITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541-
575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax:
541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@centu-
rylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day,
97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541-
575-1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax:
541-421-3075. Email: info@cityofl ong-
creek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument
97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025.
Email: cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt.
Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax:
541-932-4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie
City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax:
820-3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State
Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-
3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website: www.
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State Capitol,
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180.
Website: www. leg.state.or.us (includes
Oregon Constitution and Oregon Revised
Statutes).
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
• State Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario (Dis-
trict: 60), Room H-475, State Capitol, 900
Court St. N.E., Salem OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1460. Email: rep.cliffbentz@state.
or.us. Website: www.leg.state.or.us/bentz/
home.htm.
• State Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R — (District
30) Room S-223, State Capitol, Salem
97310. Phone: 503-986-1950. Email: sen.
tedferrioli@state.or.us. Email: TFER2@aol.
com. Phone: 541-490-6528. Website: www.
leg.state.or.us/ferrioli.
• Oregon Legislative Information —
(For updates on bills, services, capitol or
messages for legislators) — 800-332-2313.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600 Pennsylva-
nia Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500;
Phone-comments: 202-456-1111; Switch-
board: 202-456-1414.
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516 Hart
Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Email:
wayne_kinney@wyden.senate.gov Website:
http://wyden.senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313 Hart
Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C.
20510?. Phone: 202-224-3753. Email:
senator@merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-
228-3997. Oregon offi ces include One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St.,
Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; and 310
S.E. Second St., Suite 105, Pendleton, OR
97801. Phone: 503-326-3386; 541-278-
1129. Fax: 503-326-2990.
• U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R — (Second
District) 1404 Longworth Building, Wash-
ington D.C. 20515. Phone: 202-225-6730.
No direct email because of spam. Website:
www.walden.house.gov Fax: 202-225-5774.
Medford offi ce: 14 North Central, Suite 112,
Medford, OR 97501. Phone: 541-776-4646.
Fax: 541-779-0204.
G UEST C OMMENT
Climate drives fi res, not fuel
By George Wuerthner
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
I’d like to respond to the mis-
information in the editorial about
“Manage forests or watch them
burn” in the Sept. 19 Blue Moun-
tain Eagle. It may seem intuitive that
if you reduce fuels, you will have
fewer large fi res. However, what is
intuitive is not always scientifi cally
accurate.
It’s intuitive that the sun circles
the earth, since any fool can see it
rises in the east and sets in the west.
Yet, we all know that the earth cir-
cles the sun even though it would
seem obvious that the sun is circling
the earth.
Climate/weather drive large wild-
fi res — not fuels. That is why even
though there is more biomass on the
Oregon Coast, those forests seldom
burn. The reason? Because it’s too
moist and cool.
On the other hand, a lot of re-
search has found, if you have ex-
treme fi re weather that includes
drought, low humidity, high tem-
peratures and, most importantly,
wind, you can’t stop fi res. These are
the very conditions that have existed
with all large wildfi res from the Can-
yon Creek blaze to the Eagle Creek
Fire by the Columbia Gorge.
Why is this important? Because
95-98 percent of all fi res are easily
suppressed or, more likely, simply
self-extinguish because the weather
isn’t conducive to fi re spread. But a
very small percentage of fi res occur
during extreme fi re weather condi-
tions, and these are impossible to
control. And these very few large
fi res are responsible for 95-99 per-
cent of all the acreage burned in any
summer.
Under these extreme weather
conditions, fi res burn through clear-
cuts, thinned forests and prescribed
burn areas. Nothing stops them.
For instance, the Eagle Creek Fire
jumped the Columbia River. Talk
about a fuel break. There is nothing
there but water, but it couldn’t stop
the fi re being driven by 40-50 mph
winds.
Worse for the proposed solution
of more logging, recent studies have
found that fi re severity is higher in
“actively managed” forests.
For instance, here are the conclu-
sions of a number of recent review
studies.
The Congressional Research
Service found “From a quantitative
perspective, the CRS study indicates
a very weak relationship between
acres logged and the extent and se-
verity of forest fi res. … the data indi-
cate that fewer acres burned in areas
where logging activity was limited.”
Yet another study published this
last spring concluded: “We investi-
gated the relationship between pro-
tected status and fi re severity applied
to 1,500 fi res affecting 9.5 million
hectares between 1984 and 2014 in
pine and mixed-conifer forests of
western United States… We found
forests with higher levels of protec-
tion had lower severity values even
though they are generally identifi ed
as having the highest overall levels
of biomass and fuels.”
Another recent study by research-
ers at the FS fi re lab in Missoula
concluded: “Extreme environmen-
tal conditions ... overwhelmed
most fuel treatment effects ... This
included almost all treatment meth-
ods including prescribed burning
and thinning ... Suppression efforts
had little benefi t from fuel modifi -
cations.”
“Managing forest fuels is often
invoked in policy discussions as a
means of minimizing the growing
threat of wildfi re to ecosystems and
WUI communities across the West.
However, the effectiveness of this
approach at broad scales is limited.
Mechanical fuels treatments on US
federal lands over the last 15 (years)
(2001-2015) totaled almost 7 million
(hectares) (Forests and Rangelands,
https://www.forestsandrangelands.
gov/), but the annual area burned has
continued to set records. Regionally,
the area treated has little relationship
to trends in the area burned, which
is infl uenced primarily by patterns of
drought and warming.”
In addition to the failure of forest
reduction projects to effectively limit
large wildfi res, from a forest ecosys-
tem perspective, large high-sever-
ity fi res are critical to forest health.
Many plants and animals depend on
the episodic input of snags and fallen
logs that are created by large wild-
fi res. They have the second highest
biodiversity found our forests.
The reality is that we cannot halt
these large fi res, but must learn to
live with them. Reducing the fl am-
mability of homes and not building
in high fi re locations in the fi rst
place are the only proven measures
that can save communities.
George Wuerthner is an ecol-
ogist and has published 38 books
including “Wildfi re: A Century of
Failed Forest Policy.” He lives in
Bend.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
We are facing
murder by legislation
Sens. Graham and Cassady
are leading the Republican Sen-
ate’s last-ditch charge to destroy
Obamacare. It is the most harmful
effort yet. Upwards to 32 million
people would be losing their health
care. With the loss of affordable
insurance, along with pre-exist-
ing conditions, it is projected that
many will die, and many more will
lose necessary care with the loss of
Medicaid. Why should one person
die or lose care, let alone the many?
This Congress is traitorous. This is
murder by legislation!
Are these honest senators, when
they deliberately create legislation to
legally steal huge funds from need-
ed health care programs to provide
huge tax reductions to the billion-
aires? Or are they cowardly senators,
when they bend to the likes of the
Koch brothers’ threats to withhold
campaign donations if Obamacare
is not killed? Obviously, they are
not concerned about serving you
and me. Ironically, whose money are
they distributing? Ours!
This national disaster hits home
in District Two in Oregon. Walden
is a co-author of Trumpcare. Walden
votes lock-step with the Trump
agenda. If the senate passes the lat-
est bill, Speaker Ryan’s promise to
the Senate is, “You pass it. We pass
it.” Walden will vote once again to
demonstrate he does not care about
his constituents’ health and welfare.
It is time we vote him out of the
House in 2018.
Like everyone in my senior vil-
lage, insurance is our most important
issue. In my case, I am 85 years old,
and have had three recent aneurysm
operations. With this pre-existing
condition, it feels like I’m in front of
Graham and Cassady’s fi ring squad,
and nobody gives a damn.
It is time we got mad. It is time
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
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we understood that democracy is
a “hands on” sport, not a spectator
sport. It is time we understood the
problem in Congress is solved only
by us getting off the couch and into
positive action – not just during a
crisis, but every day.
Leif Hatlestad
Rogue River
Projects degradation,
not restoration
A recent guest opinion in the
Blue Mountain Eagle addressed an
issue that has been causing some
discussion among local citizens.
The information presented by the
opinion was well documented and
explained. I congratulate the local
residents for their willingness to
speak up and address the issue. The
same project carried out on Beech
Creek also was instituted on Camp
Creek that runs into the Middle
Fork of the John Day River. Camp
Creek was a rare pristine creek in
this area, and how it was degraded
is upsetting to say the least. Resto-
ration is supposed to be good; what
happened there was degradation. I
spent many hours on Camp Creek
in past years; I will never go there
again and look at the destruction of
stream banks caused by excavators
dragging trees down fragile banks
and placing them in the stream. No
cow or logger could ever decimate
a pristine stream like that “resto-
ration” did.
The next time you see a Mal-
heur National Forest sign, notice
the small print at the bottom. It
states U.S. Department of Agri-
culture. Agriculture has to do with
the growing of crops and using the
crops to produce food. It doesn’t
say anything about restoration of
streams by degrading them. We’ve
gone through the cycle of placing
wood in the streams, blowing up the
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beaver dams, tearing out the wood-
en dikes and now we’re back to do-
ing the same thing all over again.
I am closing with a quote from
the Declaration of Independence
that states, “He (meaning the king
of England) has erected a multi-
tude of New Offi ces and sent hither
swarms of Offi cers to harass our
people and eat out our substance.”
July 4, 1776. Sure rings a bell for
me!
Sharon Livingston
Long Creek
Mind-numbing mass
media meddling
The residue of the past, truth of
the present and challenges of the fu-
ture portrayed on mass public media
today is a bit disturbing. The dubi-
ously talented daily and nightly talk
show hosts appear to be attempt-
ing the revitalization of desiccated
guest stars. A news media spokes-
woman informing us that their job,
as it has ever been, is “to control
what people think” (can’t deny that
when viewing the unsettling results
of media mind meddling). And fi -
nally, the “future” travel to Mars
is not as straightforward as it may
appear. The TV science channel un-
leashed the trepidations of sex on
Mars. Number one requirement is
intrepid bisexual pioneers; number
two is the fear that lack of gravity
will cause muscle tissue to waste
away because of no gravitational
resistance on the body; and third
is that any vigorous activity will
only serve to separate partners due
to lack of gravity. How could we
survive in our day-to-day humdrum
existence without the mind-numb-
ing random deviant interjection
determined by those who “control
what people think”?
Judy Kerr
Canyon City
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