Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
If Utah is pretty much on board with having a smoke-free environment, perhaps the same standard should apply for managing state forests.
The BrianHead fire of 2017 cost close to $1,000 per acre to fight, including direct and secondary mitigation costs. It emitted an estimated 1.4 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere plus another 85,000 tons of carbon monoxide and over 2,000 tons of particulate matter. It happened as a result of employing only passive management on the Dixie National Forest (aided with a few court injunctions that prevented the Forest Service from removing diseased trees).
This is not uncommon and it is going on in other forests nearby.
It raises a good question: Is burning as a means to forest health really the way the state should approach forest management? While one of the most recognizable fires in Utah history, the Brianhead fire was only 71,000 acres. In 2020 more than 316,000 acres of forests burned in Utah, approaching the all-time record of 460,000 acres burned in 2017. People can do better.
For 13 years, the County Seat Program has focused on forests both on TV and online. Finding that delicate balance of sustainability and yield is one of the most important future issues facing this state. It is important to the land, the air, the water supply and the people across all of Utah.
Fire has been the main tool used to manage forests for the last 60 years, but there are new methods currently being employed that can achieve success without the use of fire and its inherent risks.
One is called the 106 Reforestation method and it is patterned after the successful vegetation treatments the state has conducted at lower elevations. It is a moderately priced landscape level treatment process for high altitude forests that doesn't strike a match, it doesn't care if the wind is blowing or requires hundreds of smoke jumpers to be on standby just in case.
Past conservation attitudes treated high altitude forests as wilderness shrines, allowing them to become overgrown. A new type of forest management is needed to prevent uncontrollable fires in the future.
Controlled burns add 4,000 pounds of CO2 per acre burned along with 240 pounds of carbon monoxide. The four-machine 106 Reforestation crew will add about 180 pounds of CO2 per acre treated along with 1.5 pounds of carbon monoxide.
The 106 system has the ability to rapidly restore overgrown areas. Places that were dry have springs on them again.
The process runs contrary to traditional forest management theory because it significantly disturbs the soil. It pulls and tugs old growth right out by the roots. This creates holes that allow nearby aspen roots, sage, forbes and other plants to move in allowing for natural capture of water and snow to help the new seedlings and shoots. The process creates wind breaks and keeps water from gaining momentum that turns into erosion. It seems contrary, but it works. It is fast and much less brutal than Mother Nature.
Similar speedy recovery can also be found on oil and gas pad rehabilitation projects. Using a similar philosophy, those contractors can completely remove the visible sight of an oil or gas pad within 16 months and would have wildlife foraging on that land within two years. The difference is that gas pads are usually about 30 acres and they take weeks to treat it. The 106 system can treat roughly 100 acres per day with a crew of four (depending on slope and density).
The results of regrowth begin within a couple of weeks. This whole process can be done in such a way that there is commercial viability in the timber that is removed and that value can be shared between the producer, the landowner and the surrounding communities. It is a win win win!
Because the land can be rejuvenated, those who endorse this system don't believe it is wrong to sustainably use forest resources for commercial purposes. Of course the land must be put back in a sustainable way that will allow others to do the same in the future. Land gives to humans, humans give back to the land and all is well.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s there were several commercial forestry communities near high elevation forests in Utah and across southern Idaho and Wyoming. There were logging trucks and the saw mills. The business was good for the rural communities and also good for the forests. Today it is rare to see a logging truck on the highway.
There is a reason forest lands were put under the stewardship of the Department of Agriculture and not the Department of Interior where they were originally placed. Forests are a crop and crops need to be managed and harvested or they will go fallow. It happens in your backyard garden or orchard, it also applies to both lowland and high altitude forest lands.
Once competition for the soil is pushed out the cultures become unstable. Conifers steal water from everything. They will consume 250 gallons of water per day per tree if they can find it. The monoculture turns on itself at some point and the trees become diseased. It is a prescription for catastrophic fire
This fact might clarify the point. There were close to 100 forest fires reported in Utah in 1960. The total acres burned that year were estimated to be at about 50,000.
Jump ahead 60 years to 2020 and more than 316,000 acres of land burned in over 1,500 fires. If a better system is available there should be fewer fires burning less acreage instead of the reverse.
Between 1960 and 2020 trees on forest lands stopped being managed as a crop. Forest access roads were closed to create future wilderness and the emphasis shifted from selling the timber to make money for the treasury into spending money to treat what isn't sold. It makes no sense! It is not what Teddy Roosevelt had in mind when he lobbied for the creation of the Forest Service.
Healthy conservation of resources and responsible use was the original mission of the U.S. Forest Service under the direction of Gifford Pinchot, who was the first head of the Forest Service back in 1905. There were two visions of public forests then. One was of conservation – keeping forests at optimum health. The other was preservation – the vision of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club and chief lobbyist for the creation of the National Park System. Today the preservation narrative has taken over.
Today it seems controlled burns are the only landscape level tool remaining. Unfortunately the results are risky and can be catastrophic. Many controlled burns are put on hold because weather conditions are not conducive to starting them. As the forests become more overgrown, this will become a bigger problem.
The 106 Reforestation along with other onnovative processes can present viable solutions to the problem of overgrown forests at risk of catastrophic fires.
You can learn more about the 106 process by visiting their website 106Reforest.com.
Watch The County Seat for an episode on this and other related topics at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLum3SCQ9mGZSd4hp6GYuX3OOZsU6YfRT1&si=dJKk2lEFZRGTSfaP
