Huge Arizona wildfire rekindles forest debate
SPRINGERVILLE, AZ
Some critics put the responsibility on environmentalists for
lawsuits that have cut back on logging. Others blame overzealous
firefighters for altering the natural cycle of lightning-sparked
fires that once cleared the forest floor.
Either way, forests across the West that once had 50 trees per
acre now have hundreds, sometimes thousands, and much of the
landscape is choked with tinder-dry brush.
The density of the growth has fueled immense conflagrations in
recent years like the 525-square-mile blaze now burning in the
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest northeast of Phoenix.
"I think what is happening proves the debate," said state Sen.
Sylvia Allen, a Republican from rural Snowflake.
In the past, a 30-square-mile fire was considered huge. "And it
used to be the loggers got right on it. Never in the past have you
had these huge fires."
Today, it's not uncommon for fires to exceed 150 square miles.
On Thursday, the huge blaze known as the Wallow Fire was still
burning completely out of control and had charred more than 386,000
acres with just 5 percent containment. After reportedly being
sparked by a campfire, it has become the second-largest wildfire in
state history and is still growing.
An extremely dry late winter and spring contributed to the fire
conditions, drying out the forest and allowing fierce winds to
carry the flames into the treetops, where they spread by miles each
day.
More than 525 square miles have been blackened, and thousands of
people have been forced to flee from mountain resort communities
and two large towns at the forest's edge.
Many in Arizona blame the legal battles that have erupted over
old-growth logging that threatened endangered species such as the
Mexican spotted owl. Since those disputes prevented regular logging
that would have thinned the number of trees, the forests became
overgrown, they say.
Environmentalists insist that theory is just a scare tactic.
"That's just wrong, flat-out wrong," said Bryan Bird of
Wildearth Guardians, which has been involved in some of the
lawsuits. "These people are misinformed or they're intentionally
trying to scare people in a time that they're already terrified.
It's pure politics."
Experts such as professor Wally Covington of Northern Arizona
University, who has studied Western forests for decades, say the
problems have been building for decades, and blaming lawsuits
ignores those facts. Nearly half a million square miles of
ponderosa and conifer forests are at risk across the West, he said.
Historically, those forests were relatively thin, with grass and
wildflowers growing beneath the canopy. Every two to 10 years, a
fire would move through and burn out the undergrowth and small
trees.
As the region was settled in the 1880s, cattle were brought in
to feast on the grass, which limited fires and let small trees
mature. Early foresters liked that, because they wanted the forest
fully stocked with trees. And they began putting out fires early in
the 1900s to help the trees grow, Covington said.
As the forest got thicker, fires got harder to fight, and the
U.S. Forest Service hired thousands of men to battle the flames.
Small fires that reached into the treetops were first seen in
Arizona in the 1940s. Over the following decades, the typical
treetop fire went from a few acres to a few thousand to more than
10,000 by the 1990s.
Then early in the 2000s, huge conflagrations emerged that turned
hundreds of thousands of acres to ash.
"Now, we're firmly in the multiple 100,000-acre landscape
fire,' Covington said. The Wallow Fire now stands at more than
336,000 acres.
Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, says environmental lawsuits
have put the nation's forests at risk. And in places where the
Apache-Sitgreaves forest had been thinned, he said, crews were
better able to control the fire.
"So it does work," said Kyl, who has a cabin in the resort
town of Greer that is threatened by the flames. "And we haven't
been able to do as much of it as we would like."
The Forest Service has acknowledged the problem, setting up nine
restoration projects across the West designed to let private
industry thin small trees. In Arizona, the Four Forests Initiative
is expected to help clear about 50 square miles a year and use the
discarded brush for construction material. But the plan isn't off
the ground yet, angering some, including Allen.
When the plan does start, it will build on projects already
under way in the state's White Mountains, where similar efforts are
credited with saving some small communities from the current fire.
"If it weren't for that, we'd probably be having a much
different discussion about Alpine right now, Nutrioso and
Springerville," said Chris Knopp, supervisor of the
Apache-Sitgreaves forest. "Those areas do have a buffer around
them that has helped the firefighters very much in controlling this
fire."
The same debate over the ecology-industry balance is also
happening in the halls of Washington.
"What we're really trying to accomplish with that project is a
real balance in synergy between the ecological results we want and
an industry that will help support that goal," he said.
Asked about the blaze that has devoured about a quarter of the
forest he manages, Knopp choked up.
"It's heartbreaking, to be blunt," he said. "This is some of
the most beautiful country in the world. It's very difficult to see
it change so fast."
The current fire had swallowed up 11 structures before
destroying 22 homes overnight in Greer and damaging five other
homes in that community. Fire officials said Thursday that 24
outbuildings in Greer also were destroyed by the wildfire along
with one vehicle.
Power lines that supply much of West Texas and southern New
Mexico remain in jeopardy.
Winds were expected to shift later Thursday and could drive the
flames into New Mexico, where residents of the small town of Luna
were preparing to evacuate.