2010 Chair: Nick Dennis
Letter from the Past Chair - Feb. 2010

Put National Forests to Work for the Community
This opinion editorial appeared in the Redding Record-Searchlight on Feburary 14, 2010

Last August agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack visited Seattle to deliver a speech laying out the Obama administration’s goals for conserving the national forests.  Vilsack noted that polarization has long dominated the national forest agenda, but that the threats currently facing the forests make it imperative to move away from polarization toward a shared vision “that conserves our forests and the vital resources important to our survival while wisely respecting the need for a forest economy that creates jobs and vibrant rural communities.  Our shared vision begins with restoration.  Restoration means managing forest lands first and foremost to protect our water resources, while making our forests more resilient to climate change.”  Closer to home, California regional forester Randy Moore lists five strategic priorities for managing the state’s national forests on the region’s website.  Unfortunately, sustaining rural communities doesn’t get mentioned.

Restoration forestry is not the way national forests were managed before the spotted owl listing. Restoration does not involve clearcutting, at least not in our mixed-conifer forests.  It involves selecting smaller trees from crowded patches in the forest understory, patches that if unmanaged would likely fall prey to insects, diseases, or stand-replacing wildfires.  Who would oppose forest restoration?   Professional appellants such as the Montana-based Conservation Congress who make their living filing claims for legal fees have used appeals and litigation to stop or stall several local restoration projects that would otherwise have improved forest health and created dozens of well-paid jobs.  These self-serving outsider legal challenges have increased unemployment, decreased revenues for schools and county governments, and undermined economic opportunities in our rural communities.

Last year a Natural Resources Defense Council spokesman lauded the 700,000-acre addition to the federal Wilderness system in California, proclaiming Wilderness designation the “gold standard for forest protection”.   Shasta-Trinity and Klamath National Forest neighbors will see the irony in this statement after the fires that burned uncontrolled through the forests, including Wilderness areas, in three of the past four summers, causing sickening air quality. Protecting forests takes more than Congress redrawing maps.  It requires the hard work of restoration by a skilled forest workforce.

Rural communities in Shasta, Siskiyou, and Trinity Counties are not economically vibrant today.  The recent recession has only deepened a downward trend that’s continued since federal timber harvests plunged in the early 1990s.  Layoffs and social service cut backs have taken a heavy toll on families. Continued on next page.