Reflections on catastrophic wildfires and forest management strategies
J. R. Logan, who wrote the column “Catastrophic wildfires demand accountability …” in the May 5-11 issue of the Taos News, struck a fine balance between, on one hand, respect, consideration and sympathy for the displaced families and lost homes, and on the other hand, the matter of forest management in how to deal with forests in our Northern New Mexico dry climate.
The tragic losses suffered demand explanation and, yes, accountability, but we must consider and try to understand why we are having catastrophic wildfires regardless of where the initial spark comes from. There is the matter of climate change with rising temperature and probably more severe wind events resulting in extreme dryness. However, we must take into account forest ecosystem dynamics — simply put, “how forests work” — in which the amount of fuel, both dry and green, is critical. Forests grow. Trees and other plants get bigger and new ones are born which, as time goes on, makes the forest thicker. And as they get thicker, competition for sunlight, soil moisture and nutrients becomes more intense. This leads to a survival-of-the-fittest scenario, where the losers become weaker with increasing mortality.
Overall, in simple terms, the forest becomes less healthy with an ever increasing amount of fuel. The process is gradual, not noticeable over long periods of time, in terms of many decades. And to further complicate matters, there are different kinds of forests regarding tree and other plant species. For example, we have our Ponderosa pine, pinyon-juniper, spruce-fir and aspen. Each will have its own dynamics of growth and competition.
Why the term “mismanagement”? The do-nothing or notenough approach is easy to fall into in postponing the use of management tools such as prescribed burning, thinning and timber harvesting (yes, logging). This is especially true in view of public opinion. It is pretty hard to accept the use of fire and cutting trees, both of which seem destructive. However, if we consider using the term “fuel management,” it might help. Another hard-to-swallow idea is that fire is very much a part of Nature’s way of dealing with forests over large areas and over long periods of time.
The bottom line is that we need to reconsider forest management strategies towards more fuel management-oriented options, not only prescribed burning but also timber harvesting in thinning and as end-of-cycle treatment (harvesting mature trees) where it’s viable. The latter, unlike burning, has the advantage of generating jobs and, in general, contributing to the economy. The result would be a more environmentally, economic and politically sustainable forest management endeavor.
Lawrence W. Vincent lives in San Cristobal. He is a PhD in ecology and an MS and BS in forest management. He was born in Taos and graduated Taos High School in 1959. He worked as a smokejumper for the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska and worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Washington, northern California and Arizona.