Report on Senate Healthy Forest Task Force:
Show Low, AZ June 30th, 1:00 p.m.
Thank you to the Senators who took the time and made the effort to travel to Show Low last week for the “Healthy Forest” task force hearing:
– President Russell Pearce
– Majority Whip Steve Pierce
– Senator John Nelson – Co Chair
– Senator Gail Griffin
– Senator Frank Antenori
– Senator John McComish
– Senator Adam Driggs
– Also my seatmate, Representative Chester Crandell (unfortunately Rep. Brenda Barton was out of town).
Thanks to Navajo County Sheriff K.C. Clark, Apache County Sheriff Joseph Dedman, and Chief Deputy Brannon Eagar for providing the vehicles and arranging the Wallow Fire Tour.
Thanks to the CMULA grassroots organization in Springerville which explained forest health issues on the Wallow Fire tour.
Thanks to those who gave presentations: Apache County Attorney, Michael Whiting; Game & Fish Commissioner, Jack Husted; former Dean of the Northern Arizona University School of Forestry, Dr. Dave Garrett; Ethan Aumack from the Grand Canyon Trust; Todd Schulke, Center for Biological Diversity; Dr. Alex Thal, Southwest Center for Resource Analysis, Western New Mexico College; Ralph Pope, Southwest Native Ecosystem LLC; Bas Aja, Executive Vice President, AZ Cattle Feeders’ Association; Al Medina, Arizona Fire Reclamation Team; and David Tenney, Navajo County Supervisor.
Here are some highlights from the hearing:
Dr. Dave Garrett – An expert in Southwest Ponderosa Pine forests, Dr. Garrett stressed the importance of changing direction in forest management and increasing the amount of acreage being thinned. He said the Wallow Fire is an unnatural fire, not a beneficial fire that stays on the forest floor. He stressed that we are seeing a decline in animal diversity because of the overgrowth. Overgrowth is giving water to trees, not grass or the water sheds. The debate over the size of trees to be removed is over. If we don’t reinstate our timber industry, we will fail.
He encouraged Arizona and New Mexico state governors and legislators to coordinate with Region Three of the Forest Service in new management practices.
Dr Alex Thal, Southwest Center for Resource Analysis, Western New Mexico College, explained the environmental and economic cost of the Rodeo/Chediski Fire in 2002 to help anticipate what the economic cost of the Wallow Fire will be. The fire itself and the resulting restrictions due to the Rodeo/Chediski Fire disrupted trade and commerce with a loss of 352 short-term jobs for at least 30 days, at an estimated cost of $8.1 million.
The cost of fighting the Rodeo/Chediski fire, the rehabilitation expenses, and the reforestation costs were $370 to $400 million.
The lost-resource value in the Rodeo/Chediski fire (more than 469,000 acres of timber burned) was $75 million.
When you combine the cost of the Rodeo/Chediski fire with the anticipated expense of the Wallow Fire, the total cost to Americans is staggering, when these resources could have been turned into jobs and a healthy forest.
Bas Aja, Executive Vice President of the Arizona Cattle Feeders Association, gave a presentation entitled, “A Bomb in Our Forests.”
The U.S. Forest Service estimated that from 1986 to 2000 Arizona’s forests grew by 334 million board feet each and every year, for a total of 5,505,000,000 board feet. During that same time frame, the amount of sawtimber sold was 1,609,080,000 (MMBF) from 1986-2000.
During the 1990’s, radical environmental groups brought lawsuits against the U.S. Forest Service and, by 1998, zero timber was being cut. Seventeen sawmills were shut down in Arizona during this time. When the Wallow Fire started, it set off thousands of “bombs” of dry, stressed, over-crowded trees.
“The government isn’t going to clean our forest – the government isn’t going to pay to clean our forest; the forest service culture is too monolithic and scared of more lawsuits – which cost comes out of their budget. We need private industry investment in and around the forest communities,” said Aja.
Navajo County Supervisor David Tenney reported on the five-year effort of the five eastern Arizona counties in working to stop the log-jam of regulations that keep us from being able to thin more acres of trees per year. Through the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI), the counties have been able to get consensus with environmental groups who see that the forest is not healthy and that there is a need for more thinning. Region Three of the Forest Service has issued a Request for a Proposal for more acres to be thinned. These acres would not be thinned with taxpayer money but with private industry money that will use the trees for OSB board.
Al Medina, Arizona Fire Reclamation Team, explained how cattle can be used to regenerate the burned soils. Locally-supplied livestock is placed on burn sites and temporarily fenced until the fire glazing on the soil surface has been broken. Then seeded hay is placed within the area, and the cattle’s manure and the seeded feed are trampled into the soil. Once surface treatment has been accomplished, the animals will be moved to the next identified site and monitoring of soil is done through the entire process. Regeneration of the grasses happens in a matter of weeks.
This message was repeated by most of the speakers:
– There are too many trees; the forest is stressed and unhealthy.
– Taxpayers will not be able to fund the amount of thinning that is needed.
– Private industry can pay for this thinning and create jobs and economic revenue.
– All tree sizes need to be thinned.
– NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) needs to be reformed.
– The Endangered Species Act needs to be reformed.
– We need to use livestock to reduce fuels and harvest forage.
One point that needs to be made. Fire budgets are increased based on fires that are fought. Instead of increasing fire budgets, we need to use taxpayer dollars for forest health planning and put up more acres for treatment, then sell the fiber to private industry, which gives back money to the Forest Service for the product, and then generates jobs, more revenue, and taxes to the economy. This is the direction we need to go. As Dr. Garrett said, “Time is running out and we will fail if we don’t act now.”
During the “Call-to-the-Public” portion of the hearing, many citizens expressed their anger, frustration, and concerns with these large fires that have disrupted their lives, and demanded that government respond with necessary changes in regulations and fire-fighting methods.
I had received many letters from concerned citizens before the meeting, and photocopied those for the Senators to see on the day of the hearing.
More hearings will be held.
Thanks,
Sylvia Allen
Senator Sylvia Allen
President Pro Tempore
602-926-5219
sallen@azleg.gov
