Misnamed Fix Our Forest Act would worsen wildfire risk

By Allen Gibbs / For The Herald

The Fix Our Forests Act, currently awaiting action in the U.S. Senate, would do anything but what its title implies. This bill is being touted as a way to reduce wildfires. Instead, it could increase wildfire numbers and intensity, by increasing logging in our national forests.

The law fails to provide dedicated funding for wildfire strategies that are documented to save lives and homes, such as home hardening, creation of defensible space and emergency planning. It undermines the National Environmental Policy Act, allowing destructive logging projects of up to 15 square miles without public input.

Logging operations leave behind debris that becomes tinder dry in open clearcuts. They cause changes in forest composition and microclimate that favor fires, exposing forests to drying winds and sun. Chain saws and other logging equipment generate sparks and start fires.

The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project Report, issued in 1996 by the federal government, found that “timber harvest, through its effects on forest structure, local microclimate and fuel accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other recent human activity.”

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-misnamed-fix-our-forest-act-would-worsen-wildfire-risk/