position statements: active management to achieve and maintain healthy forests
position
The Washington State Society of American Foresters supports active forest management prescribed by professional foresters in collaboration with other natural resource specialists to achieve and maintain healthy forests, consistent with land management objectives. To accomplish this, a wide range of proven forest management strategies and tools should be available. These include carefully planned uses of forest thinning, approved chemicals, prescribed burning, salvage of dead and dying trees, timber harvest, and regeneration. Efficient implementation of active forest management requires good access with well-maintained and constructed forest roads. Many forests in Washington now have an especially acute and long-term need for active management with diverse strategies and tools, including the access and administrative flexibility necessary to effectively implement, expand, and maintain such management.
issue
An important, ongoing challenge for professional foresters is to achieve and maintain healthy forests. This challenge includes debate about the definition of forest health, which is often based on personal or group values and management objectives. Among professional foresters one widely accepted definition of "good" forest health is that it is a condition where biotic and abiotic influences on the forest (e.g., pests, weather, silvicultural treatments, and harvesting practices) do not threaten current or future resource management objectives or options. Natural events like wildfires, wind, diseases, and insects are important factors in a healthy forest ecosystem. The original native forests in Washington were shaped significantly by these events.
However, a century of fire exclusion and more recent reductions in active management have resulted in large areas of forests with overstocked, very dense structures and species mixtures near or beyond the extreme range of natural conditions. The consequences of these changes are increased pest infestations and large wildfires that are far more severe and damaging than what was common historically. The economic and environmental impacts and the human health and safety risks from these extreme disturbances are significant, and our growing population and diverse forest uses make such impacts and risks widely unacceptable.
Many silvicultural tools can help professional foresters achieve and maintain healthy forests, but use of these tools is significantly restricted by existing resource policies or inaccurate perceptions and concerns of the interested public. These tools include well-proven and scientifically based practices such as prescribed fire, use of approved chemicals including fertilizers and pesticides, thinning including removing trees over a wide range of sizes and ages, salvage harvesting, timber harvesting, and planting. Even with improved polices and implementation, the wide success of newer management programs for forest health will not be evident for many years, as both the problems and solutions can be decades in the making.
background
Years of disease, insect infestations, and past management policies and practices have resulted in large areas of forests that are at high risk from severe wildfires and further insect and disease epidemics. Dense, crowded forests generally stress the trees resulting in loss of vigor and thereby reducing the ability to resist infestations. Tightly packed trees make it easier for insects and diseases to advance from tree to tree. In some areas of the state, well-spaced forests composed of fire-resistant species have been replaced with over-stocked forests composed of species that are more susceptible to fire. Tightly packed, diseased forests carry fire better than well-managed healthy forests resulting in larger, hotter, and more damaging fires.
Recent wildfires in the West have been unusually intense and damaging to important resource values such as wildlife and fish, some of which are listed as threatened or endangered species. In the last decade, the nation experienced three of the worst fire seasons on record. In the State of Washington, we need only look at our neighbors to the south, north, and east to realize how lucky we have been. With the persistence of very limited active forest management in many areas, fuel loads have built up and can be expected to continue to grow further, greatly increasing the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
In the past, foresters often prescribed heavy thinning, clearcutting or salvage of unhealthy or dead trees to control the spread of pests, harvest wood fiber for useful products, and regenerate new forests. More recently, conflicting policies and controversies over management tools, commercial harvest, and cutting of larger trees on public lands have greatly restricted the ability of agencies to manage unhealthy forests. In addition to increasing the risk of further damage to affected forests, such restrictions have increased the risk of catastrophic losses in adjacent healthy forests, both public and private. Altered funding formulas, reduced budgets, and reduced professional staffing have limited the ability of agencies to plan and implement both pre-commercial and commercial thinning and other treatments to address forest health concerns. Newer policies and funding limitations have created additional barriers to active management by reducing access through road closures and regulatory or procedural inflexibility.
Washington's forests are resilient and dynamic, and disturbances play an important role in maintaining their health and unique attributes. However, passive management that relies primarily on natural disturbance entails serious risks to the wide range of continuous benefits that Washingtonians demand from their forests, from wildlife habitat to wood products to recreation opportunities. These benefits can be best achieved and sustained through active management for healthy forests. Although active management can have some short-term impacts and cannot eliminate all forest health or wildfire hazards, a substantial and growing body of research and professional experience shows it can produce much more reliable and positive results than a passive management approach.
Professional foresters, in collaboration with other natural resource specialists, need the flexibility to prescribe and use a broad range of proven, science-based silvicultural methods for preventing and treating forest health problems. When tailored to each unique, local situation, such flexibility allows highly effective, economical and environmentally sound practices to be implemented. These positive outcomes can help ensure that Washington's healthy forests will be maintained and those that are currently unhealthy will be substantially improved.
Adopted by the WSSAF Executive Committee on October 17, 2003. This statement will expire in October 17, 2008, unless after thorough review it is renewed by the WSSAF.