Climate Denial Has Faded
Bill Bradbury figures you don’t have to be a climate-change expert to know which way the wind is blowing. The former Oregon secretary of state, who will discuss “Climate Reality” Thursday evening at Southern Oregon University, said he has seen denial over climate change slowly fade since he began giving talks about it in 2006.
“When I first started giving presentations, it was very normal to have a small group of deniers attending,” said Bradbury, 63. “Now I don’t need to convince anyone that climate change is happening.” more>
Benefit of thinning forests for spotted owls is not so clear-cut
Guest Column by Dominick DellaSala, PhD
The July 26 Oregonian editorial “Logging for spotted owls” dismisses decades of scientific research by touting one new study that suggests “heavy thinning” (aka, clear-cut lite) of forests could benefit spotted owls. Based on a single computer simulation, the new study suggests that intensive logging will magically prevent “catastrophic fires” such as the Biscuit that “wiped out” owls and other wildlife. This is unfounded.
The Biscuit fire did not destroy spotted owl territories, nor did it “consume” half a million acres of forests. More than half of the fire area actually burned with no, low or moderate fire severity, while a third was deliberately torched in what are called back burns set by firefighters trying to “control” the blaze. This fire was weather-driven, not fuel-driven, and occurred during a severe drought with gusting winds that created fire plumes up to 30,000 feet. Thinned areas burned as hot as those not thinned.
Klamath-Siskiyou country is no stranger to large fires. In fact, a Biscuit-like fire burned through the area in the late 1800s, and since then, fires of mixed severities (low, moderate, high) have repeatedly visited the landscape every 15 to 75 years. The renewal of plant communities — many of which are rare and fire-dependent — from repeat fires is part of the region’s globally distinct plant and wildlife richness. Mature evergreen forests with madrone and oak understories also have been shown to burn less severely than open forests, presumably because over time understory trees in these closed-canopy forests shade out flammable shrubs.
Ten years following the Biscuit fire, the landscape is a vibrant snag forest full of wildflowers, conifer seedlings, woodpeckers, songbirds and butterflies that began populating the fire area as the embers cooled (from nature’s rain, not firefighting). It was certainly not an ecological catastrophe. And while the fire influenced owl territories, its patchiness created a beneficial mixture of shrubby owl foraging areas with large dead and live trees left standing for nesting. Such snag forests are richer in plants and wildlife than even old-growth forests, and unlogged areas are rare because salvage logging, the true catastrophe in burned forests, typically damages them.
Decades of research on spotted owls and prey shows that logging is not as short-lived an impact as some might hope. This is because the owls roost and nest in closed-canopy, dense forests and so do many of the species’ prey. Opening up forests may encourage barred owls, a more aggressive competitor of spotted owls, thereby negating efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to contain this invading owl.
We agree with social reasons for thinning forests to reduce fuels, especially near buildings, and ecological reasons in highly flammable tree plantations. A recent report released by conservation groups and forestry experts, in fact, recommended a 44 percent annual increase in log volume as a byproduct of ecologically restorative actions in primarily tree plantations west of the Cascades. Until scientists have more definitive information on thinning effects on owls and prey, land managers would do best to stick with less ecologically risky and more scientifically supportable actions.
Dominick A. DellaSala is chief scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland and was a member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spotted owl recovery team (2006-08). Also contributing to this essay: Monica L. Bond, principal scientist of the Wild Nature Institute and a member of the dry forest landscapes work group for the Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan; Dennis Odion, fire ecologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara; Randi Spivak, vice president of government affairs of the Geos Institute.
© 2012 OregonLive.com
SCB Board Members Travel to DC to Protect the Northern Spotted Owl
Society of Conservation Biology www.conbio.org
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is strongly considering excluding up to five million acres from its proposal to designate nearly 14 million acres of critical habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl. Two SCB board members briefed Congressional staff and federal agency officials on why these exclusions would likely set back recovery efforts for the owl.
North America Section President Dominick DellaSala and board member Barry Noon visited Washington, DC to discuss the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s critical habitat proposal. In three days of meetings, Dominick and Barry briefed Congressional staff from the House of Representatives and the Senate on portions of the critical habitat proposal MORE>
Conservationists Say Thinning On Federal Lands Could Provide Steady Timber Supply
Oregon Public Broadcasting / Earthfix News
The U.S. Forest Service has made forest thinning one of its top priorities, particularly in fire-prone and unhealthy dry forests. But environmental groups say dense Douglas fir plantations on the wet side of the Cascades need to be thinned too. And that could help increase the lumber supply.
On a steep slope in the Siuslaw National Forest, Douglas fir trees are packed in like matchsticks. Dan Segotta, the U.S. Forest Service’s timber operations manager in the Siuslaw, says these woods were clear-cut in 1965, and then densely replanted. 20 years ago, forest managers in the Siuslaw began a thinning experiment on the site. They left this stand alone to serve as an experimental control. more >
Conservationists Call for More Logging under NW Forest Plan
New study finds non-controversial timber volume
Contacts:
Jim Furnish: (240) 271-1650
Marc Barnes: (541) 609-0322
Andy Kerr: (503) 701-6298
Portland, Oregon—A new report by conservation organizations finds that logging volume on federal lands in the Pacific Northwest can increase substantially over the next two decades without controversy if carried out with specific ecological criteria.
The report, titled Ecologically Appropriate Restoration Thinning in the Northwest Forest Plan Area, finds that annual federal timber volume could increase 44% over what has been produced on average in the last 15 years while maintaining the clean water and wildlife protections of the Northwest Forest Plan. Under a program of science-based and ecologically appropriate thinning of mostly small diameter trees in degraded forests, BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands could produce 774 million board feet (mmbf) annually, compared to an average of 537 mmbf than has been produced since the Northwest Forest Plan was put into place (1995-2010).
Environmental Groups Say It Will Take 20 Years To Thin Northwest Forests
by Amelia Templeton, Oregon Public Broadcasting
EUGENE — A coalition of environmental groups has released a report on the potential for restoration thinning in overcrowded northwest forests. The groups say thinning alone could generate a steady supply of timber for 20 years and allow federal forests to increase logging yields.
Four Northwest environmental groups commissioned the study: Conservation Northwest, The Geos Institute, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and Oregon Wild.
The groups say they wanted to put a number on how much non-controversial logging could take place on the federal forests in the range of the spotted owl. The bird is protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The report examines the potential for thinning out young Douglas fir plantations and other types of young dense stands on 17 national forests and on a handful of Bureau of Land Management forest lands in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. read more>
NW Forest Plan Scientists Letter
229 SCIENTISTS DECLARE SUPPORT FOR NORTHWEST FOREST PLAN
click here to see the scientists’ letter
Contacts:
Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D., Geos Institute, Chief Scientist (541-621-7223)
Jim Karr, Ph.D., University of Washington, Professor Emeritus (360-681-3163)
Ashland, OR – Today 229 scientists called on the Forest Service to uphold the protections afforded hundreds of species, clean water, and salmon, which were established under the landmark Northwest Forest Plan in 1994. While still in formal environmental review, the Forest Service is proposing a plan revision on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington that includes undoing protective reserves and weakening the Aquatic Conservation Strategy of the plan. Citing “new science” and climate change concerns, the agency proposes moving to “whole-landscape level management,” where protective reserves are eliminated and mandatory stream protections become discretionary1. This is the first forest plan revision to pose such radical shifts in the protective elements of the Northwest Forest Plan.
Why the O&C Trust Act Can’t See the Forest for the Trees
KBOO Radio interview by Barbara Bernstein on her weekly Locus Focus program
Three members of Oregon’s congressional delegation (Peter De Fazio, Kurt Schraer and Greg Walden) are proposing legislation that would create a timber trust on two thirds of the O&C lands’ 2.6 million acres, managed for the sole purpose of maximizing revenues from logging for the benefit of the 18 O&C counties in Western Oregon. In this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Randi Spivak, Vice President of Government Affairs with the Geos Institute in Ashland, about why Oregon’s conservation movement is not pleased with this proposed legislation and what are some alternative solutions to the O&C counties’ fiscal crisis. Click here for the audio file and more >
Opinion: Saving an Owl from Politics
The imperiled northern spotted owl faces extinction if efforts enacted to save it continue to put politics ahead of science.
The Scientist, Magazine of Life Sciences
By Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D.
No other species symbolizes the “war-in-the woods” over logging vs. forest protections better than the northern spotted owl. The owl was listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1990 due to destruction of its forest habitat by logging. Unchecked logging at the time, as well as ongoing mechanization of mills that accelerated the speed at which trees could be processed by fewer workers, would have soon eliminated nearly all older forests along with forestry jobs. Historic logging levels also would have severely impacted the owl population, possibly eliminating it altogether, throughout most of its range. MORE>
Owl vs Owl
As one encroaches more and more on the habitat of the other, scientists and federal officials consider multiple alternatives.
by Paul Fattig, Medford Mail Tribune
Wildlife biologist Paul Henson acknowledges the prospect of killing even one barred owl doesn’t sit well with him. “I’m a bird person — to be put in a position to have to shoot one charismatic and beautiful bird to save another charismatic and beautiful bird is very difficult,” said Henson, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s northern spotted owl recovery program in Oregon. “But the alternative is letting the spotted owl go extinct,” he said of what amounts to a Sophie’s choice. read more>
Arsum is the Senior Adaptation and Coastal Resilience Specialist for the National Wildlife Federation’s Southcentral Region. In this role, she advances climate adaptation efforts, with a focus on nature-based approaches to address the impacts of climate change and extreme events across the Gulf region. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications on climate impact assessments and adaptation solutions. Additionally, she regularly participates in state-based coastal resilience and hazard mitigation planning across the Gulf, collaborating with regional and local stakeholders.
Frank is the former President of the Reinsurance Association of America. Frank currently serves on the Advisory Board of the OECD’s International Network for the Financial Management of Large-Scale Disasters, the RAND Center on Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation, and the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management Advisory Board.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014).
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.