Despite the protests the decision sparked, the sale of burned timber from Oregon's extensive "Biscuit Fire" of July 2002 is a reasonable approach to balance logging and conservation interests.
The proposed salvage logging of a portion of this 500,000-acre fire zone in southwestern Oregon, at the scale being proposed, does not seem likely to have a harmful impact on the forests. Conversely, it will provide valuable timber to mills in the region, as well as serve to reduce the pressure on standing forests.
According to U.S. Forest Service figures, only four percent of the burned area -- 1,912 acres -- is proposed to be opened for salvage logging operation. Some of that logging will be done by helicopter, further reducing the impact. And only dead trees killed by the fire can be logged in the areas that will be opened for sales.
The land that burned in the Biscuit Fire included 180,000 acres of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness area. Appropriately, however, the wilderness area will remain protected, with no logging or road building allowed there.
Harvesting some of the dead trees following major fires such as this one, provided they do not encroach on wilderness areas, is a fair way to supplement the supply of timber. Further, the harvest will serve to remove some of the fuel from the forest floor, perhaps reducing the severity of subsequent fires.
Statistics from the Western Wood Products Association of Portland show there has been record demand for lumber in recent years. In 2003, for example, the United States as a whole used 57 billion board feet of lumber -- one of the highest annual consumption records in history.
Although the building of new roads into our national forests generally ought to be discouraged, opening a modest percentage of burned land for harvest -- in an era when timber supply is tight and demand remains high -- is a sensible solution.
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