A Note to you – Timothy Coleman, Executive Director
Wow! Such a crazy year 2020 was. Goodbye and good riddance! The work of protecting and defending wild forests ecosystems and restoring those damaged by cows and old-school forest management has been a bit overwhelming but I’m relearning a skillset I haven’t used in a long time – and I must say, I really enjoy it!
Old News: As you likely know by now, I got booted off the state Wolf Advisory Group (WAG) last August by state Director Kelly Susewind, for what were made-up excuses. You can read about it on www.kettleRange.org. I was the only pro-wolf member of the WAG from eastern WA – you know, where most of the wolves live. The WAG is biased toward rancher interests and I was often a lone voice. Susewind caved into demands of WA Farm Bureau and a few ranchers who just couldn’t stomach me being a party to lawsuits against WA Department of Fish and Wildlife for mishandling of wolf / livestock conflicts. You see, advice or not, lawful or unlawful, it doesn’t matter if a bad actor rancher doesn’t follow the rules, leading to the deaths of 29 wolves.
Good News: Our 8th annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival and spring fundraising Silent Auction were both successful events. Special thanks to festival Sponsors: Vinson Fund, 49 Degrees N. Mountain Resort and Vaagen Bros. Lumber, and to the film festival selection committee for reviewing nearly 200 films to craft another great festival. $udience reviews were appreciated — thanks for your feedback!
Hopeful News: We hope to hold our 18th annual Kettle Range Rendezvous the Weekend of July 9, 10, 11 – but much depends on what’s
happening with the pandemic. I hope we can at least do a campout but probably can’t do a potlucN and BB4 to avoid close contact.
Be Safe – take a Walk: I do hope you and your family are staying healthy and getting out into your Public /ands for good exercise and enjoyment! Walking a total of 30 minutes in a day reduces you risk of heart disease, diabetes and so much more. Public lands are your lands – our lands — managed for you by your government and not the other way around. Speak out – Get out and enjoy them! Refresh your mind and body – go for a walk!
The Colville National Forest turns a deaf ear to collaboration
Sad as it is true, the 8.S. Forest Service, Colville National Forest (CNF) has returned to its old right-brained habit of ignoring public input, clearcutting and logging ancient forest as evidenced in the Sherman Pass Project. I spent six years collaborating with the CNF on this project. The CNF said it would not be clearcutting the forest, but it did so, a lot. Despite criticism from collaborative interests, the Forest Service is adamant that it did the right thing – and in a Scenic Byway no less.
A similar fate is planned for the San Poil, Dollar Mountain and Bulldog projects – like Sherman — in the Kettle Crest. These are BIG projects – San Poil alone is projected to fill 12,000 log trucks.
The Deer-Jasper Project at Boulder Pass, though not quite as smash & grab ugly as Sherman, but that’s because the project was changed due to results of the Stickpin Fire (2015). Stickpin roared through previous logging units and huge clearcuts which were mostly cleared of slash. In neither Sherman nor Deer-Jasper project did Forest Service leadership listen to public input or honor its promise to design a project based on collaboration that itself facilitated.
Project collaboration takes a lot of time, generally over several years. But lately outcomes of collaboration are more like those from the 1980’s and 1990’s. That period is often referred to as the Timber Wars. And it’s not like KRCG has been fighting timber sales for the last 19 years – not at all. What seems to be behind this return to the bad old days is forest leadership and fitting of Einstein’s insanity aphorism, “doing the same thing and expecting different results.”
The euphemisms used today to describe the urgent need for logging to restore forest health are truly Ozlike. The forest is “the wrong mix” and of “too many trees.” Oh my! Dang it Nature, get with the program! And of course, cutting & hauling away the forest will prevent catastrophic wildfire, insect and disease. Whereas dead trees tell no tale – 500,000 acres of shrub, wheat and grass land that burned in Washington in 2020 tell a different story. Read more “Fire Suppression Hyperbole” in this newsletter.
For millennia, trees have grown and died, adding to soil carbon, creating insect & wildlife habitat and a seedbed upon which a new forest grows. Look for yourself at White Mountain fire, Copper Butte, Mt. Leona and so many more past fires. Did the forest grow back nicely spaced after a wildfire disturbance? No, regrowth forms thickets of shrubs and saplings, especially on wet and northerly aspects.
I’ve been thinking quite a lot about this sea change in CNF management, trying to understand how 19 years of investment by KRCG working with the CNF and the Northeast Washington Forest Coalition has been for naught. Back in about 2004, the Forest Service hired professional consultants to teach timber industry and us forest conservationists how to resolve conflicts through shared interests.
Which is exactly what KRCG intends to keep doing. It’s what the membership cares about: protecting wildlife, clean water and wild forest ecosystems. We support projects that maintain scenic integrity, wildlands and biological diversity. We WILL oppose those that do not.
Unfortunately, the revised Colville Forest Plan (circa September 2019) is guiding us toward conflict. Clearcuts (aka regeneration) will, to quote: “generally be less than 40 acres…and a few larger patches up to 1,000 acres or more in size.” (p 35, Land Management Plan). Wow! Does that sound collaborative? Not to me it doesn’t. Nor do I think KRCG volunteers, local folk who participated in development of this plan — that dragged on for 17 years — support clearcutting our national forests!
It’s back to future time. So when the toadies complain about lawsuits and “hurtful” statements, please remember, we tried. History will not forget.
But there’s always hope “healthy forests” will actually contain trees.
Remembering a Wilderness Warrior
Dick Slagle, a co-founder of Kettle Range Conservation Group, died peacefully at his home on February 9 after a brief illness.
Up to his passing, Dick maintained a sharp, thoughtful perspective of the world, entertaining family and friends, sharing a deep understanding of Ferry County history, and of course telling stories of his many youthful adventures in the Kettle River Range.
Dick noted in a 2012 interview that during a seminal meeting of KRCG in 1976 that it would “be a cinch” to protect Wilderness in the Kettle Range because “Jimmy Carter had just become president.” Laugh out loud – that was 45 years ago!
Dick was spokesperson for KRCG in the early years and served as president and board member of KRCG for most of the 1990’s. He always was of good humor, thoughtful, providing insightful perspectives and robustly dedicated to the cause of preserving Wilderness in the Kettle River Range.
Wish you a joyful journey!
Litigation Challenges CNF Grazing Practices & Forest Plan
Last September, KRCG joined with Western Watersheds Project and The Lands Council to challenge Colville National Forest excessive cattle grazing leading to long-term damage to forest ecosystems.
During the 2019 Forest Plan revision process, the U.S. Forest Service determined that nearly 70 percent of the land in cattle grazing allotments in the Colville National Forest is not capable of supporting cattle grazing and not suitable for that practice, yet it did nothing to curb continued grazing on these allotments. The Forest Service considers rangeland capable of supporting livestock grazing if it can produce the forage necessary to sustain native wildlife and livestock grazing. The lawsuit alleges the Forest Service failed to meaningfully address the impacts of overgrazing. Representing groups is Animal & Earth Advocates PLLC
CNF Forest Plan Challenged!
Last June Kettle Range Conservation Group joined with Wild Earth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project in a lawsuit to ensure that the U.S. Forest Service protects endangered gray wolves on the Colville National Forest in northeast Washington where livestock ranching activities have incited conflict. Forest Service mismanagement has resulted in the deaths of 29 wolves since 2012.
Specifically, the lawsuit challenges the Forest Service’s revised Colville National Forest Plan for failing to evaluate how the agency’s federally permitted livestock grazing program adversely affects wolves—a species eradicated from most of the contiguous United States by the 1920s.
Federal Wolf Delisting Challenged
In January, KRCG together with a coalition of Western wolf advocates challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision made in the last remaining days of the Trump Administration to prematurely strip gray wolves of federal protections in the contiguous 48 states, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The gray wolf is absent from 85% of its historic range and 70% of suitable habitat in the lower 48.
Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI)
You may be wondering what this has to do with environmental issues? I would say everything. JEDI is based on the concept that everyone should have equal access to opportunities to enjoy our natural spaces. It also looks at how different groups experience nature based on cultural traditions, historical traditions and socio-economic background and how these can influence environmental issues. This is a complicated subject that require lots of work and long discussions. I will very briefly touch on the individual concepts of JEDI just to get you thinking.
Most of my examples will come from the National Wildlife Refuges. As some of you know I work a lot with the Refuge service. That and the fact the Service, under the new administration, is working hard on JEDI and it is now part of the mission.
JUSTICE: Here we are talking about environmental justice. Communities of color have traditionally lived in areas where there is industrial pollution and a lack of greenspace. Racist policies from the past perpetuated this situation. How do we rectify this? With the Refuge system they have the urban Refuge initiative. One Refuge that is a shining example is Valle de Oro in Albuquerque. The Refuge was created out of the last green space in south Albuquerque which is home to lots of industry and the Mountain View community which is largely Mexican American with a high rate of poverty. Along with the Service, the local community, the Friends of Valle de Oro and the local Pueblos (notably the Isleta) they all helped to buy the land and are now restoring the wetlands that were once there. Now the local schools can get outside and learn about and enjoy nature just outside their doors.
It is interesting to note the Valle de Oro is the only Refuge with environmental justice as part of their mission.
EQUALITY at its simplest is equal access to nature. But it is much more complicated. How do we create that equality of access and how do we make everyone feel welcomed?
DIVERSITY is also a complicated issue when it comes to the outdoors. People tend to be more comfortable with people like them. How do we accomplish getting more racially diverse in the environmental movement? After all we need everyone to help protect what each of us loves.
INCLUSION can be as simple as having access to barrier free trails, interpretive sites and campgrounds and we in the environmental movement have a responsibility to ensure that everyone is included. Something, quite frankly, the environmental movement has failed at in the past. I do not have the answers but getting the conversation going is important and I ask everyone to think about these issues and how we can all promote the concepts of JEDI.
For more info on how Valle de Oro is working on environmental justice check out the Friends of Valle de Oro. friendsofvalledeoro.org
Feel free to contact me with any issues or thoughts.
Email:bigdan65@yahoo.com
Dan Price
KRCG Board President
Fire Suppression Hyperbole
thewildlifenews.com/2021/03/01/fire-suppression-hyperbole/
by George Wuerthner
In almost all media reports about the recent fire seasons, one of the chief explanations given for the larger blazes is “fire suppression” and “fuel build-up.”
We hear that 100 years of fire suppression has contributed to the “unnatural” accumulation of fuels and is one of the primary reasons for large fires.
The solution, we are told, is to do more thinning/logging to remove “excess” fuels (or raking if you are former President Trump).
The problem with this generalization is that it does not apply to most wildfires and most plant community types in the West.
For instance, in 2020, when more than 10 million acres burned in California, about half of the acreage (5 million acres) charred was grasslands or chaparral, not forests at all. Thinning would not affect these nonforest acres. Of the forested acreage that was burned, only 35% of the acres charred were conifers. Why is this important? Because fire suppression, to the degree, that it was successful, almost exclusively applies to conifers.
But wait, there is more nuance here. The conifer forests most influenced by any fire suppression are the lowest driest ponderosa pine and other dry conifer forests. In many locations, the natural fire regime was for frequent blazes every 10-20 years, which presumably kept fuels low enough that fires did not kill mature trees.
It is important to note that not all ponderosa pine forests are influenced by frequent low severity fires. For instance, the higher elevation ponderosa pine of the Colorado Front Range had longer fire-free intervals and often burned at higher severity once ignited. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2641025?seq=1
Although widespread and common, dry conifer forests are only one of many forest types in the West and often make up a minority of forest types. Dry conifer forests only make up 4% of the forest types in western Montana and northern Idaho, and much of that forest type is found on private lands.
So, characterizing fire suppression as altering the “historical” forest composition of most forest cover is an exaggeration since most forest types are not dry conifers.
Higher elevation conifer forests throughout the West, not just in California, consisting of old-growth Doug fir, fir species, spruce, lodgepole pine, and other species have centuries-long fire rotations. That means even if fire suppression were effective, these conifer forests were likely marginally influenced. In other words, if you have a fire rotation of 200-300 years, fuels naturally accumulate until the right conditions create the possibility for a fire.
In the Rockies, for instance, much of the acreage burned in large fires consists of lodgepole pine, fir, and other higher elevation forests. The same concept applies to juniper and sagebrush ecosystems. Juniper, for instance, has a fire rotation of 400-600 years. Depending on the sagebrush species, fire rotations may be anywhere from 50 to 400 years or more.
Thus, in all of these ecosystems, fire suppression has not contributed to any unnatural “fuel build-up.”
One of the assumptions promoted by advocates of thinning/logging is that fire suppression and “fuel buildup” have led to higher severity fires. Again, this assumption may be inaccurate. One paper that looked at forests in the Klamath Mountains of California found that areas that presumably missed 4-5 fire rotations did not burn at higher severity. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00493.x
We are finding that areas with “active forest management” tend to burn at higher severity than “unmanaged” forests. A review of 1500 wildfires in pine and mixed conifer forests found areas like wilderness and national parks where there was no thinning/logging tended to burn at lower severity than “actively managed” forests.
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.1492
Another factor is often overlooked or minimized, and that is the influence of climate/weather on fires. All large fires, thus, almost all the acreage charred in any given year, are the result of drought, high temperatures, low humidity, and wind. If you do not have these factors, most ignitions self-extinguish without burning any significant acreage.
If one looks at the 1900s and the acres burned annually, the first part of the century had massive wildfires, including the 1910 Big Burn in western Montana and Idaho that charred 3.5 million acres. However, in the middle of the century between the 1940s-1980s, the acreage burned dropped dramatically. Was this due to “fire suppression”? Logging proponents like to suggest this.
However, this was when the Pacific Decadal Oscillation brought moister and cooler weather to the western United States. What happens when it is cooler and wetter? You do not get as many ignitions, and the ones you do get don’t spread well. Furthermore, cooler and wetter conditions are favorable for conifer establishment, which would result in “denser” forests.
In typical human hubris, we take credit for suppressing fires, but a good case can be made that Nature was the prime factor contributing to fire suppression.
The influence of fire suppression can be questioned. During the 1900-1930s, millions of acres burned “despite” fire suppression, including as much as 50 million acres in a single season. After the moister and wetter 1940- 1980s, the climate grew increasingly arid and hot due to human climate change. Warmer temperatures and drought favored large burn acreages.
Are we experiencing larger fires today? Yes, we are, but the climate is the driving force in that expansion of fire-charred acreage. I guarantee that if the climate were to suddenly shift to cooler and moister again, we would suddenly find fewer acres burning.
When you hear that fires are larger today, that is accurate, but keep in mind the shifting baseline. If you were to compare the acreage burned today with the 1920s, we aren’t coming close to the acreage that was charred during those drought years.
Clearly, the driving force in wildfires is climate, not fire suppression.
18th Annual Kettle Range Rendezvous
July 9, 10 & 11
Please join Kettle Range Conservation Group to celebrate the 18th Annual Kettle Range Rendezvous at Gibraltar Trailhead camp area, east of Republic, located about 5 miles north of the intersection of Hall Creek Road and SR 20 east of Republic. Turn south on Hall Creek Rd (Rd 99), take the first right (FS RD 2053 and drive to Gibraltar Trailhead (marked by restrooms and signage).
Saturday hikes will leave the campground at 10 AM. Enjoy the company of old friends and the chance to meet new ones!
Saturday hikes and music by Mark Rhodes
Please let us know if you or your group plan to attend. You can do this by visiting our Kettle Range Conservation Group Facebook page, Inland Northwest Hikers and by email tcoleman@kettlerange.org or call 509-775-2667
Saturday — GUIDED HIKES MENU* OPTIONS
Hikes will depart 10 AM from Gibraltar Trailhead
1) Gibraltar Trail North, 5 miles, easy to moderate, 3-4 hours
2) Gibraltar Trail South, 8 miles, moderate to difficult, 4-5 hours
3) Gibraltar Trail Loop, 13 miles, moderate to difficult, 6 hours
4) Snow Peak Trail to Edds Mountain Trail, difficult, 6 hours
5) Sherman Loop Trail, Easy, 3 hours
*Subject to change – hikes require 4 or more participants + hike leader
Experienced hike leaders needed – email: tcoleman@kettlerange.org
Support the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) has been reintroduced in the U.S. House. Rather than the piecemeal approach favored by anti-public lands preservation opponents – ranching, oil & gas and anti-public lands fanatics — NREPA takes an ecosystembased approach to protecting our dwindling publicly owned National Forrest and Bureau of Land Management managed lands in the northern Rocky Mountains.
NREPA would protect 23 million acres of new wilderness across five states including Washington’s Kettle River Range, Selkirk Mountains and Blue Mountains. And NREPA would designate 1,800 miles of Wild & Scenic
Rivers.
The Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains are southern extensions of the Rocky Mountains. These places are wild today – keeping them wild for future generations requires an act of kindness. NREPA protects wildlife migration habitat connectors between existing Wilderness and Parks, which will be essential for maintaining species viability and movement in an age of climate change.
In the beginning, all the World was Wilderness. Let’s be mindful that there are tremendous development pressures from ecotourism and water withdrawals to logging, mining & energy extraction that threaten our public wildlands. Wilderness is an act of humility and restraint. Humans have an ethical obligation to leave some natural landscapes for the other creatures living on the planet. Wilderness is not “pristine,” but it is self-willed land. It is a place where Nature is allowed to continue evolving as it has since the beginning of time.
Write or call Senator Cantwell, Senator Murray and your member of Congress (202-224-3121 Capitol Switchboard) and ask them to support NREPA.
More information:
https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/regional-conservationists-northern-rockies-ecosystem-protection-act/
