eye on business
Blame the Beetles and the Politicians
Don C. Brunell, AWB President
Proactive management practices can mean the difference between a rebirth or ravage of public forests.
Growing up in the ’60s, our parents blamed bad things on the
Beatles. They were convinced that anyone who wrote songs
about “Yellow Submarines” would ruin America and only fuel
the decade’s social unrest.
Today, there’s another bunch of “beetles” giving people real
fits. These tiny insects burrow under the bark of mature trees,
munch on their nutrient layers and kill entire forests. In the
process, they create gargantuan fire hazards.
Wildfire air pollution is not inconsequential. Scientists
at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the
University of Colorado, Boulder, found these fires produce
290 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. In California,
a large wildfire can produce the same amount of pollutants in
a week as emissions from all fossil fuel sources, including cars.
And forest fires kill people, livestock and wildlife.
For example, in 1910, America’s largest forest fire scorched
3 million acres of public forests from Coeur d’Alene to
Missoula, killing 85 firefighters. As tragic as that inferno was,
a blaze that size would be catastrophic today because more
than 13 million people now live in that region.
To deal with this threat, President George W. Bush proposed a plan to remove the debris that fuels raging wildfires.
The proposal, which did not include wilderness areas or
national parks, called for creating fire breaks and salvaging
dying, dead and burned timber in public forests. It had the
added benefit of putting people back to work in the woods.
Unfortunately, Congress quickly doused the idea after
extremists went bonkers.
clean up the woods and replant
Historically, bark beetles and wildfires have been part of
the forest life cycle, but foresters can now use science to limit
damage from the beetles. Careful logging and small controlled
burns cleanse the land, allowing pine cone seeds to more
easily imbed in the soil to start the next forest.
The only glitch is lawmakers won’t allow foresters to do
their jobs these days. You see, cutting trees in public forests
is taboo.
healthy forests cut greenhouse gases
Vigorous, growing forests are our most potent weapon in
reducing greenhouse gases. Healthy young trees absorb
and store carbon dioxide and emit life-giving oxygen. But
dead and dying trees cause dangerous wildfires that spew
greenhouse gases and smoke into the air, as happened this
summer in Central Washington.
10 association of washington business
Still, the overriding public policy questions remain and the
politicians shouldn’t duck them any longer.
Wouldn’t it be better to clean up the woods, plant young,
vigorous, oxygen-generating forests, cut greenhouse gases
and control erosion that chokes streams where fish live
and spawn?
Wouldn’t it be wiser to log the beetle-killed trees rather
than let them burn and pollute?
In the 1950s, the U.S. Forest Service allowed logging in small
sections of the forest, creating a series of fire breaks. Diseased
trees were replaced with healthy new lodgepole pine seedlings, and the resulting timber sales helped fund the agency,
cities, counties and local schools.
Unfortunately, that harvesting has stopped and now the
lush green forests are grey barren hills filled with dead and
fallen trees just waiting for the next big killer burn.
Allowing wildfires to rage uncontrolled in unpopulated
Yellowstone National Park may be wise to a point, but on other
public forestlands it makes sense to beat the beetles, especially
when people’s health, homes and families are at risk.