Forest Management

Grand Canyon

Monuments

NATURAL RECOVERY NOT SALVAGE LOGGING

DON’T LET THE FOREST SERVICE CREATE A WASTELAND
NEAR GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK.

Warm Fire Salvage Logging Project

In June 2006, the Warm Fire burned almost 60,000 acres of piñon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa pine, and mixed conifer forests on the Kaibab Plateau, near the Grand Canyon’s north rim. The Forest Service made a strategic decision to let the fire burn naturally as a tool for wild land restoration but quickly lost control.

The Sierra Club and other conservation organizations are proposing a natural recovery for the area that protects soils, standing dead trees which provide important habitat for cavity nesting birds like woodpeckers, and allows for aspen regeneration.

The Forest Service is proposing a destructive salvage logging project in the area, but actually claims that logging it will enhance ecological recovery of the area. The Forest Service proposal would result in the removal of 84.5 million board feet of trees that are greater than 14 inches in diameter on nearly 10,000 acres of our national forest. This, despite the fact, that it is the smaller trees that create the greater fire risk. Logging the remaining large trees in the post-fire burn area is in conflict with Forest Service restoration goals. Post-fire logging increases the risk for future fires in the area as small trees and slash are left behind. Large trees are critical to aid in ecological recovery.

Natural recovery...

Natural recovery is already occurring after the Warm Fire – months after being burned. photo by Stacey Hamburg, Sierra Club

Without logging in the Warm Fire burned area and the severe soil disturbance that comes with it, we see numerous wildflowers thriving only weeks after the winter snow melt. photos by Tim Ream, Center for Biological Diversity

Or salvage logging...

Stumps, disturbed soils and piles of flammable logging slash are the legacy of the little salvage logging that has already taken place in some areas. If the Warm Fire Salvage Logging Project is allowed to move forward, we will see this kind of destruction across the landscape. photos by Tim Ream, Center for Biological Diversity

Dead Trees Provide Important Wildlife Habitat

It has long been recognized by the scientific community that dead trees, particularly large dead trees, are integral to post-fire ecological recovery. Larger diameter trees – exactly those that the Forest Service is proposing to log as part of the Warm Fire project – with a small percentage of live crown could still live for another three to ten years. During that time these trees would continue to provide valuable habitat for wildlife, a seed source for the next generation of trees, and stability for the soil.

Salvage Logging Damages The Forest

Post-fire logging does significant damage to the forest, drastically changes the plant and animal succession, and has limited, if any, ecological benefit. In fact, there is a substantial body of scientific evidence to indicate that salvage logging impedes recovery goals, and is counterproductive to the Forest Service’s work to stabilize the area, lessen the risk from flooding and erosion, and to prevent the invasion of noxious weeds. It is also counterproductive to efforts to reduce fire risk in the area. Moreover, the Warm Fire Salvage Logging plan is only miles away from the Grand Canyon National Park, making it even more imperative that this area be treated in a manner that respects the integrity of the ecological systems.

Natural Recovery Protects Soils, Plants, and Animals

A natural recovery that protects the integrity of this larger forest ecosystem is essential for this sensitive area. Aspen regeneration, which is a stated goal of the Forest Service, is already occurring in the heavily burned areas. And only months after the fire and mere weeks after the snow melt, wildflowers were emerging in the area of the burn. Large snags (standing dead trees) that are left in the wake of a fire serve as nest trees for cavity nesting birds such as woodpeckers. Woodpeckers are essential to the system and can eat up to 90 percent of the bark beetles in a tree and act as a natural control on the beetles that can proliferate after a fire. Likewise, logging in recently burned areas like the Warm Fire area increases water run-off, speeds up topsoil erosion and compacts soil. Compacted soil and roots reduce the ability of trees and ground vegetation to regenerate and weakens trees that survived the fire.

The Warm Fire area already has a high density of roads. Road building worsens erosion, promotes the spread and establishment of invasive exotic weeds and degrades and fragments wildlife habitat. Additionally, more roads provide more access to humans, further increasing fire risk. Please join us in working to protect our national forests from these destructive logging practices.

Please take action!

Send an email to North Kaibab Forest Supervisor Mike Williams at mrwilliams01@fs.fed.us  and tell him that you want natural recovery, not salvage logging.

Sample message:

Dear Supervisor Williams,

I strongly urge the Forest Service to allow the Warm Fire region to recovery naturally, rather then open this sensitive area to logging. Most of this 60,000-acre perimeter fire is already recovering. Salvage logging will impede recovery goals by removing the large trees most needed for wildlife habitat by disturbing fragile soils as well as by increasing fire risk to communities and forests as small trees and slash are left behind.

This region is within miles of the famed North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, making it even more imperative that the Warm Fire area be treated in a manner that respects the integrity of the ecological systems. Salvage logging is done at a financial loss to taxpayers, increases fire risk to communities and forests, and further damages burned forests. We need natural recovery and real solutions, not salvage logging.

Sincerely,

(Include your name and address)

To find out more about the Warm Fire, salvage logging, and natural resources, just click on the fact sheets below.

• Fact Sheet on Warm Fire (796 KB pdf)
• Comments on proposed Warm Fire Salvage Logging (48 KB pdf)
• Fact Sheet on salvage logging
• Bibliography

You can also contact Stacey Hamburg at (928) 774-6514 or stacey.hamburg@sierraclub.org to find out how you can do more to help promote natural recovery and protect our national forests near Grand Canyon.

Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633