Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 18 OctOber 2017

Forest-thinning project saved homes but highlights obstacles

By ANDREW SELSKY egon sawmill, used to call
Associated Press each other names, Miller
SISTERS, Ore. (AP) — Light- recalled during a recent
ning started a forest fire tour of Deschutes Collab-
one August afternoon near orative projects. But they
this Oregon tourist town, got to know each other in
and it was spreading fast. Bend, home to more micro-
Residents in outlying ar- breweries per capita than
eas evacuated as flames anywhere else in America.
marched toward their “I hate to say this, but beer
homes. really is a good conversa-
Just a few months earlier, tion starter,” Miller said.
the U.S. Forest Service and “We would sit and talk.
a group of locals represent- We learned we’re real hu-
ing environmental, logging mans with real concerns,
and recreational interests and what we care about
arranged to thin part of the isn’t that far apart.” Burley,
overgrown forest, creating who’s now employed with
a buffer zone around Sis- the Forest Service, said the
ters. Workers removed trees Deschutes Collaborative
and brush with machines, This Nov. 7, 2013, photo provided by the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project shows an made recommendations
then came through on foot unidentified worker burning a pile of collected undergrowth in the Deschutes National Forest in on where and how much to
to ignite prescribed burns. central Oregon. thin, and the Forest Service
That effort saved homes, Associated Press almost always adopted
and perhaps the commu- not killing tall trees. Forests National Forest outside Sis- that naturally grows dense- them. “They had a consen-
nity of 2,500 on the east- across the West are now so ters that was thinned in ly packed, said Andrew sus, a starting point,” Burley
ern slopes of the Cascade overgrown they’ve been May. Widely spaced Pon- Latimer, plant expert at said in a phone interview.
Range, by slowing the fire’s called powder kegs. derosas were blackened the University of California- Oregon Gov. Kate Brown,
progress and allowing fire- The work by the Deschutes to twice the height of a Davis. The temperate co- a Democrat, applauds col-
fighters to corral it. Collaborative Forest Project person. But higher up, the niferous forests that burn laborative efforts, including
Scrutiny of the condition in central Oregon, where bark retained its normal or- in large wildfires elsewhere the Good Neighbor Au-
of the American West’s towns and subdivisions sit in angey color. Needle clus- are historically less dense. thority under which states
forests, and of policies a green ocean of Ponder- ters shone vibrant green Returning those forests to can organize restoration
that curtailed logging and osa and lodgepole pines, in the sunshine. Four deer their natural state is the of federal lands. Under the
suppressed wildfires, has shows the potential of for- trotted through dappled goal of groups like the De- programs, a mill removes
intensified amid a devas- est thinning. And it shows sunlight. This part of the schutes Collaborative, one the timber after agreeing
tating wildfire season that how loggers and environ- forest looked healthy, not of 23 projects in the Collab- to buy it at a certain rate.
has burned a combined mentalists - normally bitter despite of, but due to, the orative Forest Landscape The proceeds stay local,
area bigger than Maryland enemies - can join forces. prescribed burn. Restoration program cre- helping finance more res-
and caused widespread But it also highlights the “Ponderosa pines are used ated in 2009 by Congress. toration. “No. 1, it allows us
destruction in California’s challenges of replicating to low-intensity fires,” Os- Overcoming suspicions to put Oregonians back to
wine country. the forest thinning across borne said. “Every five to and stereotypes was one work in the woods, so there
Until the advent of ag- the West, where a lack of 15 years, a fire would come of the Oregon group’s first are good jobs,” Brown said.
gressive fire suppression timber workers and money through. We’re trying to hurdles. “No. 2, it provides product
at the turn of the last cen- are among the obstacles. take it back to low-inten- Deschutes Collaborative for the local milling infra-
tury, forests were histori- On a recent morning, For- sity fires.” California’s situ- member Marilyn Miller, an structure. And No. 3, it cre-
cally shaped by low-inten- est Service fire manager ation is different because environmentalist, and for- ates healthier forests. Do I
sity blazes, with the flames James Osborne drove into its wildfires have generally mer member Chuck Burley, think we need more efforts
clearing underbrush but a section of the Deschutes ignited in chaparral - brush who then worked for an Or- like this? Absolutely.”q