From Ashland Daily Tidings
Local environmental groups, interested citizens and the Ashland Forest Lands Commission have banded together to present a community alternative to the U.S. Forest Service's major new plan to reduce wildfire risk in the Ashland Watershed.
The coalition's plan calls for tailoring thinning treatments to on-the-ground forest conditions.
Moist, shaded areas should receive only light treatment, while heavier thinning should occur on dry sites that, under regular fire cycles, would naturally support fewer trees, according to Cindy Deacon Williams, conservation director for the Ashland-based environmental group Headwaters.
"It's not appropriate to thin a riparian area to look exactly like a dry Douglas fir spot that is facing into the sun," she said. "Our proposal is suggesting the emphasis be on lower elevation Douglas fir areas - areas that tend to be close to the interface zone."
The varied treatments would break up the continuity of wildfire fuels, while also creating a healthier, more fire-resilient forest overall, according to coalition members.
In contrast, the Forest Service outlined a plan in late February to compartmentalize the watershed like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
The edges of each compartment would be thinned in the hopes that firefighters could stop a wildfire from spreading from one "puzzle piece" into the entire watershed.
Areas within the compartments would be thinned later, for a total of 8,150 treated acres.
That watershed treatment, called the Ashland Forest Resiliency project, is one of the first projects in the nation to receive fast-track planning under the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act. President Bush signed the act into law in December.
For projects that fall under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, the Forest Service is not required to examine a range of alternatives.
The agency instead can look at the environmental impacts of taking no action, and the impacts of a single project plan.
However, the act does have provisions for considering a third option.
An alternative may be analyzed if it is brought up during the preliminary public input phase, known as "scoping."
Scoping for the Forest Service's Ashland Forest Resiliency project ended April 30.
During a flurry of meetings, coalition members crafted their community alternative and submitted the plan the day the scoping period ended.
"I think it was an unprecedented collaboration in this town," said Steve Jensen, chair of the Ashland Forest Lands Commission.
The coalition included commissioners, Ashland Fire & Rescue Chief Keith Woodley, Ashland City Councilor Cate Hartzell, the Ashland Watershed Stewardship Alliance citizen group and the environmental organizations Headwaters, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center and World Wildlife Fund.
Ashland District Ranger Linda Duffy said it will be up to Rogue River and Siskiyou National Forests Supervisor Scott Conroy to decide whether to include the alternative developed by city and environmental group representatives in a Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the issue due out in June.
"We want to work with the city. We've been partners in the watershed a long time with the Memorandum of Understanding in place," Duffy said, referring to the 1929 agreement that the Forest Service will consult with the city on activities in the municipal watershed. "We want to work on this with them. We're pleased they've decided to participate."
The Forest Service also received an alternate plan from the Native Plant Society and another plan from an individual citizen, she said.
All alternate plans and comments received during the scoping phase are now being examined by Forest Service staff, according to Duffy.
Hartzell said she hopes to have a discussion of the community alternative placed on the Ashland City Council agenda for May 18.
"I'm hoping to secure the support of the council on the community alternative and a timeline for a community wildfire protection plan," she said.
Work already has started on development of an Ashland community wildfire protection plan. Cities and counties that have such plans in place receive funding priority for treatment projects under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act.
A community wildfire protection plan could include not only Ashland and its immediate surroundings, but the entire watershed, according to Howard Heiner, an Ashland Watershed Stewardship Alliance member who is working on the protection plan.
Under the act, that would give the city more voice on how the Forest Service manages the watershed, supplementing the rights granted under the Memorandum of Understanding, he said.
"I'm not a big fan of the Bush administration. Irregardless of that, if people utilize the tools provided by the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, they have control over their watershed that they didn't have before," Heiner said.
The act has drawn criticism not only for limiting the number of project alternatives agencies must consider, but for changing the administrative appeals process and expediting judicial review if projects are challenged in court.
A tailored approach
Coalition members are especially concerned that the Forest Service's plan would carve out uniform, linear swathes across the watershed with little regard for varied conditions.
"We want to make sure the Forest Service doesn't use a one-size-fits-all approach," said Dominick DellaSala, World Wildlife Fund Klamath Siskiyou regional program director. "There's real variability up in the watershed. To use one approach is not going to achieve the objectives."
That variability was taken into account during the recently completed thinning of a rectangle of city-owned land that juts into the watershed and is surrounded by Forest Service property.
On a single hill above Lithia Park, a steep unstable slope was untouched, a dry site that receives direct afternoon sun was heavily thinned and a more sheltered area was lightly thinned.
The coalition recommended that a crew of four qualified individuals inventory forest conditions in the watershed this summer and design detailed treatments for different sites by the end of the year. Work could begin in early 2005.
"This group is not saying to spend three years analyzing this by any means," Hartzell said. The coalition's timeline closely matches the Forest Service's timeline.
Forest Service staff had anticipated that planning on the agency proposal could be completed this fall, with a final decision issued at the end of the year.
Under the coalition plan, dry sites at most risk from high severity fire would receive treatment priority.
Natural openings, meadows, open ridgetops and similar features would serve as anchor points to break up wildfire fuels.
Thinning should focus on small and medium trees to reduce the risk of crown fires, according to the coalition, and special efforts should be taken to preserve large trees, especially fire-resistant ponderosa pines.
Creating thinned patches rather than compartmentalizing the watershed with thinned lines along ridgetops will still reduce wildfire risk, according to Woodley, the city's fire chief.
"It recognizes the heterogeneous character of the landscape and is vegetation driven, rather than being driven by ridges and roads. It will still result in thinning. It's a different way to get there that takes into consideration forest resource values. It is thinning the fuel mass and breaking the continuity of fuels," he said.
With the coalition's proposal now being analyzed by Forest Service staff, members are waiting to see whether it will be considered as a third alternative.
"It's going to be a litmus test for whether the Forest Service will do what's in the best interest of the community and watershed values," DellaSala said. "It's an opportunity for the agency to demonstrate it can do the right thing under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which was so very polarizing and controversial."
