Over 260 Scientists Urge Senate: Don’t Pass Post-Fire Logging Bills
September 24, 2015 Big Bear City, California—Over 260 scientists sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and President Obama urging them to oppose two public lands logging bills, being promoted by the timber industry and their supporters in Congress, which the scientists say would be very destructive to forest ecosystems and wildlife on National Forests and other federal public forestlands. The bills, HR 2647 and S 1691, will not improve forest health, reduce fire risks or protect communities by promoting widespread logging of ecologically rich post-fire “snag forest” and older forest in mostly remote areas of federal public forestlands.
Instead they would degrade or destroy tens of thousands of acres of forest habitat, eliminate most environmental analysis associated with this logging, prevent enforcement of environmental laws by the courts, and markedly reduce public participation in forest management decisions on public forests. The role of the timber industry in federal forest management would also unfairly increase under the deceptive guise of promoting decision-making by “collaborative” groups.
The scientists urged Congress and the Administration to oppose the misguided bills, which “misrepresent scientific evidence,” and instead focus on “ways for the public to co-exist with fires burning safely in the backcountry.” They urged Senators and the President “to consider what the science is telling us: that post-fire habitats created by fire, including patches of severe fire, are ecological treasures rather than ecological catastrophes, and that post-fire logging does far more harm than good to public forests.”
Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, Chief Scientist of Geos Institute and co-leader of the letter, stated, “Federal fire policy needs an overhaul to reign in the out-of-control Forest Service fire fighting budget and focus it on saving fire-fighter lives and homes. This misguided legislation would throw gasoline on fires by promoting back-country logging that most often leaves behind logging slash as kindling for the next fire.”
“Fire is not destroying our forests, rather, it is restoring these ecosystems and is creating outstanding wildlife habitat that is as biodiverse as old-growth forest, and even rarer,” said Dr. Chad Hanson, another lead author of the scientist letter. “This is why over 260 scientists from across the nation are urging Senators and the President to follow the science and oppose these logging bills,” he added.
Both DellaSala and Hanson are co-editors of a new book: “The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix” (Elsevier, Inc.). The book includes the latest science on the ecological benefits of large and intense fires and ways to coexist with fire.
Contact: Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Geos Institute: (cell) 541-621-7223; (email) [email protected]
Chad Hanson, Ph.D., Research Ecologist, John Muir Project: (cell) 530-273-9290; (email) [email protected]
PLEASE JOIN THESE SCIENTISTS IN OPPOSING THESE BILLS: Call your Senator (202) 224-3121 and the White House (202) 456-1111 today, or submit an email comment online at their website – with the risk of a government shutdown looming, bad bills like this can get wrapped into the spending bill without seeing the light of day – please make sure your Senators know that more logging and less oversight on public lands is not acceptable!
It’s about time Congress realizes that times are changing! We no longer have unlimited resources to sell or clear lands for corporate profit. With the drought & all the fires the West Coast experienced this year, clearing more forest is not the right answer! What happened to the Congress that worked for the benefit of our country & people?
The filthy Republicans in Congress pushing these bills could care less about the health of our forests. They are doing the bidding of their campaign contributors.
I live in a place where I believe over logging occurs. Now my yard and pasture area try to accommodate some of the wildlife that are becoming homeless in an unhealthy environment. It will affect us too.
Please don’t take our natural lands away from us.
I will make the calls!
Great! Thanks so much 🙂
Where’s the outrage? I can’t believe our politicians have stooped so low as to sell out our public lands to the timber industry and have the audacity to try to limit an American citizen’s right to justice in our courts. I’m asking that we do everything we can to stop this money-hungry political overreach… I’m really ashamed that a US citizen has to right what I have just written.
P.S. Forgive the spelling error, I was mad when I wrote this (still am) and didn’t look it over before I hit enter….
[…] last month, 262 scientists sent a letter to U.S. senators urging them to oppose pending, post-fire logging bills. The scientists stated that the “snag […]
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