It is rare when the entire Colorado congressional delegation can find agreement on a matter of importance. So it was disappointing that there was so little notice recently when the delegation unanimously protested budget cuts by the U.S. Forest Service, cuts that threaten the health of Western forests, including those in Colorado.
Yes, officials here are worried about the upcoming fire season and the damage already inflicted by the mountain pine beetle and a variety of other insects and diseases. There is a very good reason for these concerns. The Forest Service cut $4.3 million from the Rocky Mountain region’s budget, one that had been already greatly reduced by an increase in forest fires.
Under existing federal policy, there appears to be no cap on how much can be spent putting out fires. Any excess costs can be covered either with a supplemental appropriation or by borrowing (or stealing) from other programs. Last year, the total fire-suppression expense was over $1 billion, a record in what is already a bad decade.
Those fire-suppression expenses are the price for past management failures, but they are also squeezing out programs for such things as timber sales and reforestation. In 2006, fire costs were 41 percent of the national budget. Next year, they will consume 44 percent of the total.
Past funding problems are blamed for the closure of a dozen sawmill operations in Colorado, five in just the last seven years. These mills simply couldn’t survive the uncertainty of federal forest- management policies.
Meanwhile, the march of the mountain pine beetle has killed lodgepole pine forests covering 1,200 square miles in Colorado alone. Many of these dead trees are in areas largely dependent upon tourist dollars.
Not only are these dead trees an invitation for future wildfires, they also pose special management issues. Adjacent areas may be candidates for treatment. Timber sales and clearing must be arranged. Because lodgepole pines regenerate naturally, the new forests may require thinning. If present policies persist and fire suppression is allowed to consume an ever bigger share of future budgets, none of these things may get done properly, if at all.
Forests, it turns out, are not simple things. The lodgepole forests in Colorado are 100 years old or more – and most of them are pretty much the same age. What that means is that when they die out or are killed by the mountain pine beetle, the new forests that take their place will need increased attention and management. New lodgepole forests do best when there is some thinning to make sure the trees aren’t so close together that they compete for nutrients.
Also complicating the issue is the Canadian lynx, which has been imported into Colorado and is on the federal threatened species list as well as the state endangered list. The animal feeds on snowshoe hares, which sometimes use young (20- to 40-year-old) lodgepole pine forests as habitat.
So what does the Forest Service plan to do in regard to the lynx and the new lodgepole pine forests? Not much! It plans to avoid disturbing any of the “potential habitat” of the lynx, including the replacement lodgepole forests that will develop in the next decade or two. The price of this decision, if it is allowed to stand, can’t be calculated. The only thing that is known for sure is that it will eventually be paid by future generations.
Clearly what is needed is a whole series of steps designed to better manage the forest assets of Colorado and other Western states. The congressional delegation is right to focus on this year’s budget, but eventually some way must be found to separate the growing costs of firefighting from the rest of the Forest Service budget. Fire suppression is one thing; it should never be the only thing.
Al Knight of Fairplay (alknight@ mindspring.com) is a former member of The Post’s editorial-page staff. His column appears on Wednesdays.
