by Michael Garrity, Opinion
From one fifth-generation Montanan to another, I’m calling Rep. Steve Daines’ recent column on forest issues, misinformed parroting of Bush-era “Healthy Forests” propaganda which was nothing but a smokescreen for more corporate logging. Sadly, Rep. Daines now follows Bush’s path to less environmental analysis, less public review and more deforestation of our dwindling old growth forests.
Ironically, Daines’ column was published on the same page and day the Independent Record editorialized about how wonderful Yellowstone National Park is doing after the 1988 fires that burned 1.4 million acres. Despite predictions at the time from forestry experts who claimed Yellowstone’s soil was “sterilized,” the evidence is clear that didn’t happen. As the IR noted, the park is “renewed and ever-changing.” Contrary to predictions of other “experts” the Park’s rivers didn’t fill with sediment and the fish didn’t die after the fires. It seems Nature knows better than forest managers, timber corporations, and politicians like Daines.??
The IR’s editorial praised the firefighting decisions in the park that are based on science while lauding organizations that promote reducing fire risk by creating a defensible space around homes. If people want to build homes, in forests that will eventually burn, it is their responsibility to create a defensible space to protect their homes from wildfire.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies agrees with both of these strategies. So, apparently, do a whopping 75 percent (603 people) of those who responded “yes” to the IR’s recent Question of the Week asking if the Forest Service should let the Red Shale fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness continue to burn to benefit the forest.
Juxtaposed with both the hard evidence from Yellowstone and public opinion, Congressman Daines’ peddles fear about “catastrophic wildfire,” Americans exercising their first amendment rights, and timber mills closing. Without a mention of the Great Recession, collapse of the housing market, and the Forest Service’s inability to follow the law, Daines instead blames those who seek to preserve our forest, fisheries and wildlife heritage for future generations.
Again, the evidence belies Daines’ claims. Many of the fires burning in Montana this year, like those in Gold Creek and near Superior, are in areas “managed” to death by the timber companies and the Forest Service. There’s nothing for miles and miles up Gold Creek but knapweed and stumps in massive old clearcuts, yet that’s where the fire was burning. The area around Superior has also been severely logged, making it obvious that logging as the solution to wildfire is, at best, a myth. Or how about the Copper Creek fire by Three Forks that burned through grass and juniper? There’s no forest there to “manage.”
Instead, Daines offers much the same solution as the Forest Service’s — no matter what the hypothetical “problem,” the answer is always more taxpayer-subsidized corporate logging of our national forests.
Daines’ bill, “Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act” congressionally mandates more logging while restricting or eliminating our First Amendment right to challenge government decisions.
The bill also creates huge exemptions from environmental laws and even excludes any timber sale of 10,000 acres or less from environmental analysis and public review. Incredibly, it requires the Forest Service to submit a finding that the logging won’t harm endangered species. Ultimately, that only puts more species on the endangered list.
As a fifth-generation Montanan, my grandparents and parents taught me to be self-reliant and responsible with money. All the evidence and science say Yellowstone is doing just fine not being “managed” by bureaucrats and loggers — and nature is restoring Yellowstone Park for free.??
Congress already gives the Forest Service about $4 billion dollars to log 4 million acres of fish and wildlife habitat annually. Fifth-generation Montanan or not, Rep. Daines is flat-out wrong about throwing more billions of taxpayer dollars into subsidized logging. He is even more wrong to tell Montana’s citizens they can’t have a say in the management of our public lands.
Mike Garrity is the executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
