My understanding of the effects of the Biscuit Fire in the Kalmiosis
Wilderness is that only a rather small portion of it was severely
burned; the rest was moderate to light. I have no first hand
knowledge of this, but if true, salvage logging may be pointless from
a forest restoration point of view. Is my understanding correct or
off the mark?


Larry Caldwell wrote in message nk.net...
(Aozotorp) writes:
The Biscuit Fire was precedent-setting for another reason: It burned mostly in
areas where logging is prohibited. Roughly 75 percent burned within the
Kalmiopsis Wilderness,

Most of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness is natural fire climax, and doesn't
have much in the way of trees. There's no way to improve its fire
resistance, since the brush will just grow back in a few years and burn
again.

roadless areas, wild and scenic river corridors,

I doubt that anyone will go to the expense of building a lot of roads to
salvage burned timber. The Siskiyou is pretty rugged territory. The
salvage sales that will be popular will be the ones already accessible.

As it is, the USFS will find a lot of their proposed salvage sales going
without bidders. The resources don't exist. If you pulled every logging
crew off of every cut in the PNW, they couldn't log the Biscuit Fire
before the logs rotted. Realistically, we will see another couple years
of bickering and one or two years of salvage before the timber becomes
worthless.

The USFS may decide to fund some scenic recovery along the rivers to keep
the tourists happy.

and
research natural areas established to protect rare plants. One-third burned in
reserves established under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan to protect wildlife,
including the northern spotted owl, which depends on giant old-growth trees.

The Biscuit Fire destroyed a huge amount of protected plant habitat and
an estimated quarter of the old growth in the Siskiyou National Forest.
The spotted owl needs immediate intervention to clear understory and
create new habitat. While most of the affected owls have already died,
the population may recover if they have suitable habitat to expand into.

Only 7 percent burned within areas earmarked for commercial logging.

And even that area was not harvested. It is sad that such a great
resource was wasted. With aggressive salvage logging, the Siskiyou could
still do a lot of people a lot of good.

(Le Messurier) writes:

My understanding of the effects of the Biscuit Fire in the Kalmiosis
Wilderness is that only a rather small portion of it was severely
burned; the rest was moderate to light. I have no first hand
knowledge of this, but if true, salvage logging may be pointless from
a forest restoration point of view. Is my understanding correct or
off the mark?

The OSU report indicated that there is 2.5 billion board feet of salvage
available within 2 miles of existing roads.

Right after the fire the "fire is natural" crowd attempted to minimize
the scope of the holocaust. They would point to a couple green branches
on a burned tree and claim the destruction was not total. Well, the
trees died anyway. Most of the Biscuit Fire burned in conditions of wind
and single digit humidity. The fire was so intense that even undisturbed
old growth timber died.

If you want to accurately know how much salvage is available, you will
have to look for a salvage cruise. I doubt the USFS will do one. From
aerial surveys, 225,000 acres have lost a significant conifer component,
and 80,000 acres of spotted owl habitat has been destroyed.

--
http://home.teleport.com/~larryc

(Le Messurier) writes:

My understanding of the effects of the Biscuit Fire in the Kalmiosis
Wilderness is that only a rather small portion of it was severely
burned; the rest was moderate to light. I have no first hand
knowledge of this, but if true, salvage logging may be pointless from
a forest restoration point of view. Is my understanding correct or
off the mark?

The OSU report indicated that there is 2.5 billion board feet of salvage
available within 2 miles of existing roads.

Right after the fire the "fire is natural" crowd attempted to minimize
the scope of the holocaust. They would point to a couple green branches
on a burned tree and claim the destruction was not total. Well, the
trees died anyway. Most of the Biscuit Fire burned in conditions of wind
and single digit humidity. The fire was so intense that even undisturbed
old growth timber died.

If you want to accurately know how much salvage is available, you will
have to look for a salvage cruise. I doubt the USFS will do one. From
aerial surveys, 225,000 acres have lost a significant conifer component,
and 80,000 acres of spotted owl habitat has been destroyed.

--
http://home.teleport.com/~larryc