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The Trump administration is moving to speed up logging on recently burned federal forestland, with Central Oregon providing an early test of the new approach.
New National Policy Accelerates Post-fire Projects
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to log about 5,000 acres within the area burned by the Akawa Butte Fire in the Deschutes National Forest near Sisters, Oregon.
The broader recovery project covers about 10,000 acres. It would include commercial salvage logging, removal of hazardous trees along roads, and reforestation.
Tidings Data Snapshot
Akawa Butte Recovery Project Details| Project measure | Proposal |
|---|---|
| Estimated timber volume | About 12 million board feet |
| Temporary roads | 3.05 miles |
| Roadside treatment | 36.8 miles |
| Roadside treatment depth | 150 feet on each side |
Source: U.S. Forest Service Akawa Butte Fire Recovery project documentsDailyTidings.com
The proposal relies on a national post-fire environmental assessment adopted by the Forest Service in June.
The agency says the framework is intended to allow hazards to be addressed more quickly after wildfires, including through hazardous-fuel reduction, timber harvest and reforestation.
The Forest Service says removing dead and dying trees can reduce future wildfire risks and make it safer for firefighters to respond to subsequent fires. Timber industry representatives also argue that burned timber has a limited window of economic value.
But the accelerated process is drawing concern from environmental groups, which argue that burned forests provide important habitat and that logging can interfere with natural recovery.
Central Oregon Becomes an Early Test of National Fire Policy
The Akawa Butte proposal includes commercial logging on about 3,580 acres, while another 1,340 acres would be treated along roughly 37 miles of roads.
The latter areas would have no requirement to retain standing dead trees, while commercial harvest areas would retain at least three to four snags per acre.
The public and counties were given one week to comment, compared with the 30-day period typically used for similar projects. Tribes were notified of the proposal Aug. 14, according to the Forest Service. The comment period closed Sept. 21.
The Forest Service said the national assessment does not itself authorize site-specific projects- individual projects still require their own decisions and documentation.
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