Dead trees present big problem in forests

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — On a common-sense level, it is obvious. When a forest burns, the trees are dead. So you cut them down, haul them to the sawmill and plant new ones. Soon the blackened hillsides will be covered with healthy green trees.

"Common sense says we need to restore habitats and watersheds for future generations," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resources Council, a timber industry group. "If we don't choose to harvest dead trees and restore ecosystems for future generations, we are going to be forced to cut live green trees, in many cases on foreign soils, to meet consumer demand."

But many scientists say those dead trees, standing and falling to the ground over time, form the very foundation of a healthy and diverse forest that will seed itself with trees uniquely suited genetically to thrive on a specific site and support a rich diversity of fish and wildlife, even if a new forest is slow to regenerate.

"What we are dealing with, to a certain extent, is a mind-set: 'That dead forest is a desert and the best thing you can do is get a closed forest back as quickly as possible,' " said Jerry Franklin, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Washington and one of the nation's leading experts on old growth forests. "We can't argue for salvage logging on the basis that it is going to do good things ecologically."

The reason for cutting the dead trees and planting new ones is to maximize production of timber, he said.

A battle that has been simmering for about 10 years is now focused on legislation in Congress that would help the U.S. Forest Service harvest burned timber and plant new forests more quickly after fires, storms and insect infestations, rather than following a planning process that can take so long that the trees are too rotten to use for lumber by the time it is completed.

The Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act from Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Brian Baird, D-Wash., would give land management agencies 30 days to evaluate the situation and come up with a plan, plus 90 days for public comment, with court challenges allowed after that.

"We want to design a system that allows for recovery of habitats faster," Walden said.

Until 1995, there was never much question what to do on national forests after a fire. Cut the dead trees and some living ones. Use the revenue to plant new ones.