Forest Health

The Boone and Crockett Club is leading policy efforts to implement active forest management projects

In the 2020 fire season, more than 10.1 million acres burned across the U.S. matching the 2015 and 2017 seasons that each exceeded 10 million acres. Across the West, Americans suffered tragic loss of life and property. Even communities far removed from the fires were affected by unhealthy air quality in a year when researchers suggested that exposure to smoke could worsen COVID-19 symptoms and potentially increase the mortality rate.

Click here to see the Club’s new fact sheet on Forest Infrastructure.

Mother Nature is a harsh manager of these landscapes, especially in their current conditions. The resulting high-intensity wildfires cause total forest stand replacement, altering the soil chemistry and structure, changing hydrological systems, releasing tons of carbon and toxic pollutants, all while destroying wildlife habitat. These impacts are long-term and can permanently alter the forest.

Wildfires are nothing new, in fact it was the Great Fire of 1910 that brought attention to the potential for catastrophic wildfire leading to decades of fire suppression. However, development within the wildland-urban interface has since increased and is exacerbated by dense forest stands, the rapid spread of highly flammable invasive vegetation, and warmer, drier weather. Mother Nature is a harsh manager of these landscapes, especially in their current conditions. The resulting high-intensity wildfires cause total forest stand replacement, altering the soil chemistry and structure, changing hydrological systems, releasing tons of carbon and toxic pollutants, all while destroying wildlife habitat. These impacts are long-term and can permanently alter the forest.

Fortunately, we have the science and experience to return these ecosystems to a more balanced state. We know that active forest management such as harvesting trees, thinning dead and dying trees, creating fuel breaks, prescribed and managed burns, and creating defensible spaces are all effective tools at our disposal. The U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) and its partners are implementing active forest management projects that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. These projects improve the health of our forests and support jobs, but they also improve wildlife habitat by increasing forage production and creating more dynamic, resilient landscapes. Along with greater consideration of social-ecological systems, warmer, drier weather and projected landscape conditions, active forest management is a critical piece of a comprehensive approach to mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

One of the largest challenges to maintaining forest health in the West is the 9th Circuit Court’s misguided 2015 Cottonwood decision. This ruling allows Endangered Species Act litigation on a single forest project to halt all projects across a National Forest and requires the Forest Service reinitiate ESA consultation on the entire Forest. This process can last several years, and no timber sales, restoration work, or recreation projects can be conducted in the meantime, which harms rural economies and increases the threat of catastrophic wildfire. The Boone and Crockett Club supports legislation that clarifies litigation at a project level should only impact that specific project and is supportive of the bipartisan S.1540 to rectify this issue.

The Boone and Crockett Club has a long history with wildland forest management. In the early 1900s, we worked to develop and pass legislation that created the National Forest System and the Forest Service to manage these forests. More recently, we worked with Congress to give the federal government new tools and direction to address the situation, helping pass legislation in 2003 expediting thinning in the wildland-urban interface, in 2010 and 2014 creating Good Neighbor Authority to administer forest health projects, and in 2018 protecting the budget of the Forest Service against the rising costs of fighting wildfires.

Once again, we are actively engaging in the policy discussions centered on improving the health of forests that are stressed by lack of management and a changing climate.