Felice Pace, North Group Water Chair
I have sometimes wondered if the U.S. Forest Service has an evil genie locked in a windowless office in Washington, D.C., tasked with thinking up new reasons to log our national forests. And while an evil genie is probably unlikely, the agency has yet again come up with a new logging scam. Here’s how it goes:
Toward the end of a wildfire, Forest Service managers select a national forest road within the fire area which they say must be kept open for public access to trailheads and other recreation sites. They define all trees that are over a certain diameter and within one tree length of the road (about 40 yards) as “hazard trees” and then say the trees must be removed to protect the public while maintaining public access.
The logging is accomplished using off-budget firefighting funds while claiming categorical exclusions from environmental analysis and review. The result is linear clearcuts up to a half mile long on both sides of selected roads. Green and dead trees are felled, limbs are removed and the logs are dragged to the edges of the road where they are piled for a timber sale.
Because our large fires are never extinguished until the coming of fall rains, the “hazard tree” logging takes place early in the wet season resulting in large amounts of disturbed soil being placed into positions where it is certain to erode over the winter wet period, delivering fine, salmon-killing sediment to streams that should be serving as refugia for at risk salmonids. In this way, Forest Service managers again demonstrate that their expressions of care for our salmon and our streams are empty rhetoric to which their behavior gives the lie.
Wildfire Logging and Its Impacts
The new Forest Service logging scam was practiced at least twice on the Klamath National Forest during October. At the end of the McCash Fire, Six Rivers National Forest Supervisor Ted McArthur approved logging on the Ti Bar Road, Route 14N01, in the vicinity of Ten Bear Mountain. The site is on the Ukonom Ranger district of the Klamath National Forest which is administered by the Six Rivers National Forest. In a similar manner, toward the end of the Haypress Fire, Klamath National Forest Supervisor Rachel Smith approved logging along National Forest Route 40N17, within the South Fork Scott Watershed.
Both logging sites are in highly erodible, decomposed granitic soil, also known as DG. Photos of both sites on this page show large amounts of disturbed DG soil positioned where it is likely to erode massively this winter.
This new Forest Service logging scam is exceedingly cynical. Forest Service managers who approved the logging know that most trees in locations downslope of roads will fall away from the road and are therefore not “hazards” to those traveling the roads. Those managers also know that most large fire-killed trees will not begin to fall for 5 to 8 years. Thus any substantial “hazard” from trees along these roads is years in the future.
Bottom line is that there was ample time for environmental review of plans to remove “hazard trees” along forest roads 14N01 and 40N17. But Supervisor McArthur and Supervisor Smith instead elected to avoid environmental analysis via the “hazard tree” loophole.
A New Brand of Forest Service Cynicism
Apparently there is a conspiracy among Forest Service managers to use the “hazard tree” excuse to accomplish commercial logging without environmental review. How wide that conspiracy may be and who ordered it are still under investigation.
In these two cases the logging scam is also a direct and substantial threat to important salmon refugia and, therefore, a direct negative impact to threatened coho and spring chinook salmon that find refugia in Ti Bar Creek and the South Fork Scott River. By smothering salmon nests and habitat with fine soil over the winter and early spring, this logging will likely result in “take” of Coho salmon in violation of state and federal endangered species laws and also of Spring Chinook salmon in violation of the California Endangered Species Act (ESA). Complaints to the federal Interior Department alleging “take” of Coho in violation of the Federal ESA and a complaint to Cal Fish & Wildlife alleging “take” of Coho and Spring Chinook salmon may be in order.
The US Forest Service is an agency of the Department of Agriculture (USDA). That’s why I have asked the USDA Inspector General to investigate the logging approved by Ted McArthur and Rachel Smith and to look into whether there is a broader conspiracy among Forest Service leaders to improperly avoid environmental review of commercial logging plans via “hazard tree” logging during wildfires.
I’ve also filed Clean Water Act complaints about the logging with the North Coast Water Board. I want Water Board officials to go to these sites with me after the wet season to investigate how much of the soil, which was disturbed during the logging, has been eroded over the winter and delivered to streams. Look for an update on these complaints in a future North Group Report.
If you would like to send Forest Supervisors Ted McArthur and Rachel Smith a message about “hazard tree” logging during wildfires, here is their contact information:
- Ted McArthur
1330 Bayshore Way,
Eureka, CA 95501
(707) 442-1721
tedomcarthur@fs.fed.us - Rachel Smith
1711 South Main St, Yreka, CA 96097
(530) 863-3092
rachel.c.smith@usda.gov
What I’m Thankful For
The outrageous logging described above would not have come to my attention but for a local resident who saw something that looked wrong and chose to let me know. That simple act of sending a message led to me discovering two local outrages and intimations of a broader conspiracy among Forest Service leaders to misuse the “hazard tree” designation to commercially log during wildfires without public notice or environmental review. The message resulted in me filing complaints with the USDA Inspector General and the North Coast Water Board.
I am grateful to the individual who saw something that was not right and chose to take action. It is via such small acts that we may yet survive as a species and as a planet.