Ground zero in Northwest timber wars showing signs of peace

TAKILMA, Ore. - On a steep slope of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, a crew of young men with chain saws and hard hats worked their way through an old neglected clear cut, cutting brush and young trees and piling the remains to be burned later.

Freshly trained and closely supervised, the crew took care to leave behind volunteer sproutings of dogwood, madrone, and huckleberry as well as the sugar pine and Douglas fir planted here 20 years ago. The pattern is designed to grow into a healthy forest less vulnerable to wildfire and better for fish and wildlife, rather than just turn out timber.

The House Hope Stewardship Project, taken off the shelf with $1.4 million from President Obama’s economic stimulus package, will thin and restore 890 acres.

It’s a tiny fraction of the 60 million to 80 million acres the US Forest Service estimates need it nationwide, but people here feel as if this is a start - not only to grappling with the growing threat of wildfire in a warming climate, but in healing rifts between environmentalists, the timber industry, and the Forest Service that have left the national forests in limbo.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say there is peace in the valley, but we are closer than ever before,’’ said Shane Jimerfield, director of the Siskiyou Project, a local conservation group that grew out of the protests.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/06/22/ground_zero_in_timber_wars_shows_signs_of_peace_boston_globe/

...this is a great sign. Sure hope it becomes the norm.

This is about the most minimal thing that can be done "to protect our forests". Untouched old growth on the Biscuit Fire didn't survive the intense heat and flames so, this 890 acres also won't survive the next Let-Burn firestorm, either. The price tag on this single project is about $1600 per acre. If you apply this figure to the 80 million acres, we arrive at a whopping 128 BILLION dollars to accomplish the most basic fuels treatment possible.

But, it DOES pay for those Takilma folks' "medicinal marijuana" <giggles>

Kidding aside, it does provide some hope and some measure of protection against wildfires (and keeps those anarchist kiddies out of trouble). We have to start somewhere but, I think that putting fires out before they get big is a MUCH better bang for the buck, until we get our restoration forestry program online. I think it is merely a matter of time before the rest of the nation learns that this embracement of wildfires cannot continue.