Forest plan at fork in road
Back on Aug. 14 in Seattle when Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took the podium during his first major address regarding the U.S. Forest Service, the former Iowa governor stressed a new direction for the agency guided by the principles of conservation, management and restoration.
“Restoration means managing forest lands first and foremost to protect our water resources, while making our forests more resilient to climate change,” Vilsack said. “Forest restoration led by the dedicated people at the Forest Service opens non-traditional markets for climate mitigation and biomass energy while appropriately recognizing the need for more traditional uses of forest resources.”
While discussing the speech on Wednesday morning with Lincoln County commissioners, Kootenai National Forest Supervisor Paul Bradford said, “we’re coming to another fork in the road” when it comes to a forest plan.
“The fork as I see it would be to start up the revision process under the 2000 rule, which basically is the 1982 rule procedures, or take what we’ve got, work on the amendments we think we need to make – the grizzly bear access and other stuff – and look at revision down the road in another period of time when maybe there’s another rule,” Bradford said.
So, as the Kootenai considers options before finalizing any forest plan changes, it continues to follow the 1987 forest plan as amended.
“The idea was that forest plans would be revised every 10 to 15 years. With all the changes we’ve had in the planning rule, it’s been a problem,” Bradford said. “We have the old rule we could go under but also the administration is talking about developing a new plan.”
John Konzen, commissioner, said, “Just scanning this, it all sounds very favorable.”
The administration’s plan calls for the development of “green jobs” to help restore forests.
“Emerging markets for carbon and sustainable bioenergy will provide landowners with expanded economic incentives to maintain and restore forests,” Vilsack said. “The Forest Service must play a significant role in the development of new markets and ensuring their integrity.
“Carbon and bioenergy aren’t the only new opportunity for landowners,” he added. “Markets for water can also provide landowners with incentives to restore watersheds and manage forests for clean and abundant water supplies. These markets can also create jobs in rural communities near forests.”
Vilsack also talked about the Obama administration’s support for protecting roadless areas.
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., was glad to see an emphasis placed on better management of forests while addressing problems related to wildfire costs.
“Two decades ago, the fire portion of the Forest Service’s budget was about 13 percent,” Dicks said. “Today, it is just about half of the entire budget. And in recent years, the budget pressure has forced severe reductions in important programs that promote forest health that ultimately reduce the dangers of devastating forest fires.”
Bradford said, “In some places, we’ve had very little management activity other than suppression fire and that’s created tremendously explosive conditions.”
Konzen was glad to see Vilsack mention impacts in rural areas such as Lincoln County.
“He talks about stewardship of our working rural land and our forests – to me that’s a big statement,” Konzen said. “It doesn’t sound like he wants to shut it off and not manage it.”