The Heated Issue of Prescribed Burns
By Molly Moore
Hot air rises from the Piedmont to make Linville Gorge one of the warmest parts of the southern Blue Ridge. When rain arrives, it drains quickly on the gorge’s steep topography. Photo by Lonnie Crotts.
Steep rock cliffs, a raging river, weathered heath balds and several types of forest make the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area in Western North Carolina a popular recreation destination.
A few rare species native to the gorge are at the center of a controversial U.S. Forest Service proposal to conduct controlled burns, in stages, on up to 16,000 acres in and around the wilderness.
Natural, lightning-ignited fires used to occur three to five times per decade, says Josh Kelly, a biologist with the nonprofit group Western North Carolina Alliance, which supports the proposal. From the 1950s until 2000, improved backcountry firefighting successfully suppressed wildfires. In the last decade, however, lightning, human carelessness and excess unburned fuel from downed trees have led to several hard-to-control blazes.
Lightning struck Shortoff Mountain in 2007, and the resulting conflagration affected the habitat of mountain golden heather, a flower that only grows on two ridges in the world. Since then, the flower has increased by 200 percent. Some animals benefit too, such as a type of red crossbill that relies on certain pine trees that release more seeds when exposed to fire.
Several regional environmental groups and the forest service say purposefully bringing limited fire to the wilderness will restore ecological balance and give species that are fond of fire an opportunity to thrive. The agency also says that without prescribed burns to limit the amount of small tinder on the forest floor, nearby communities are at increased risk of fire damage from uncontrollable blazes.
Grassroots group Save Linville Gorge Wilderness, which formed to fight the proposal, is concerned about runaway fires, given the gorge’s rugged terrain and wild winds. The group believes prescribed fire is incompatible with the area’s federal wilderness designation, which prioritizes hands-off land management. Local resident Sue Crotts also thinks the proposal passed through the early planning stages without thorough, site-specific risk analysis.
She says using fire to prioritize certain species above others is inappropriate in a wilderness area. “Save Linville Gorge Wilderness is not opposing nature doing its work, we’re opposing the Forest Service coming up with nature’s work,” Crotts says.
Kelly, however, says the last 60 years of fire suppression have already altered the gorge, and that prescribed fire could help restore a natural fire cycle to the area.
The Forest Service is putting together an Environmental Assessment of the project that includes alternatives; both will be available for public comment in late spring or summer.
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Save Linville Gorge Wilderness just launched a new petition to make it easier to comment on the the Updated 15-Year Pisgah-Nanatahala Forest Management Plan: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-burning-of-linville-gorge-wilderness .
This petition is a vehicle to notify the USFS that you want to keep the wilderness wild and that you oppose man-initiated burning of the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area, which violates the 1964 Wilderness Act and stands to forever change this rare sanctuary of nature.
One benefit of going the route of the petition is that your comments are emailed directly to the USFS, and are visible on the petition site and are also copied to SaveLGW.org for our assurance of delivery.
Please sign and share with your friends, family and others that want to keep wilderness wild.
New published research from a number of scientists is finding that the promised benefits of “prescribed” burning do not exist.
The NY Times published an article this year “Forest Fire Research Questions the Wisdom of Prescribed Burns” in which fire ecology scientists are finding that the nature of prescribed burns with their low-intensity fires are much less common than purported, don’t support biological diversity or natural processes , and do not prevent more severe fires. This is the opposite of what the USFS has been telling the public in regard to their interest to burn the Gorge. In this article Dr. William L. Baker concluded that big fires are inevitable, and argues that it is best for ecosystems — and less expensive — to put up with them. “Our research shows that reducing fuels isn’t going to reduce severity much,” he said. “Even if you reduce fuels, you are still going to have severe fires” because of extreme weather. In other words; when there is drought (drought is the catalyst for catastrophic fire) prescribed burn will make little to no difference. This research essentially debunks any benefits of prescribed burning. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/science/earth/forest-survey-questions-effect-of-prescribed-burns.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
Another indication of a turning tide is the statement from a US Forest Service Fire Manager found in “It Always Burned Big”, an article published by The Missoulian this year. Orville Daniels, Fire Manager for the US Forest Service discusses the role of fire in the wilderness “The prime purpose of wilderness is to show us what nature does when man doesn’t interfere,” Daniels said. “It’s a place to let natural forces play out, so we can learn the role of fire on the landscape. With global climate change, these places are more valuable than ever.” http://missoulian.com/news/local/years-ago-canyon-creek-blaze-in-bob-changed-fire-knowledge/article_2d609470-0092-11e3-ace4-001a4bcf887a.html
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The next challenge for those that want to keep the Gorge wild is to prevent the USFS from writing the use of “prescribed” burning into the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest 15-year Forest Plan. The plan is now under development and public comment. In the current plan the USFS is not allowed to set fires in the Gorge for any purpose other than back burns. This means that the special permission is currently needed from the USFS Regional Supervisor in Atlanta to use “prescribed” burns for other purposes. This prevented any quick action that might avoid public response, and is the minimum of what we should expect.
This report from The Smoky Mountain Blogspot reports on the killing of a bear cub with a 500 acre “prescribed burn”, officials call it an overall success.
http://hikinginthesmokys.blogspot.com/2013/04/black-bear-cub-killed-during-prescribed.html
Protest against the U.S. Forest Service Prescribed Burn Plan
Saturday, April 20th, 2:00 PM
U.S. Forest Service Supervisor’s Office
160 Zillicoa St. Suite A
Asheville, NC 28801
Join us for merriment and a serious message to stop the U.S. Forest Service from burning the Linville Gorge Wilderness. Sparky the Bear, Friends of Linville Gorge, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, and others will be there! Bring a bucket to symbolize putting out the fires the US Forest Service is planning to set in the Linville Gorge and symbolically douse Sparky the Bear who loves to play with matches!
Protest the U.S. Forest Service Burn Plan
Saturday, April 20th, 2:00 PM
U.S. Forest Service
Supervisor’s Office
160 Zillicoa St. Suite A
Asheville, NC 28801
Join us for merriment and a serious message to stop the U.S. Forest Service from burning the Linville Gorge Wilderness. Sparky the Bear, Friends of Linville Gorge, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, and others will be there!
The USFS and Western North Carolina Alliance lack due diligence in all respects regarding their aggressive public assertions of the need for fire:
1. Public notice in the newspaper of record was not performed and was only performed after public scrutiny of the process. Not only was it not published as required by law, effort to notify the community was poor to non-existent.
2. No fuel load studies were done despite the constant public comment by the USFS that there is undue fuel load in the Gorge. The fuel load is the only reason that the USFS can use “controlled” fire in the Wilderness, and only pending the risk assessment. We are now being told that these studies will be performed after the public comment period. The public comment period has been poisoned by these announcements from the US Forest Service and supported by Western North Carolina Alliance as the public expects the federal government and partners to speak truthfully.
3. No fire risk assessment was done to determine the level of risk for controlling fire, despite the regular USFS public assertions that the risk is less than 1%. The public comment period has been poisoned by these announcements from the US Forest Service and supported by Western North Carolina Alliance as the public expects the federal government and partners to speak truthfully.
Linville Gorge is designated Wilderness, the intent of Wilderness is to leave the land unaltered by humans. If humans set the fires. It will be the work of humans. Wilderness Watch has likened this current USFS proposal to gardening the wilderness.
The idea that “restoring” fire to the Gorge is nonsensical given that a minimum of 4,000 acres of the 12,000 acres of the Gorge has had fire since the year 2000. If you have been to this part of the Gorge you can not miss the thousands of burned acres. The upper third of the Gorge is a temperate rain forest with an average of 67″ of rain annually. The rain forest has shaded steep inclines with low light exposures that retain that its moisture and provide the conditions that do not allow for widespread fire. How much more of the forest needs to be burned?
We hear a lot about the endangered species and how they need fire, the last time I spoke with one of these experts I asked if it was fire that was needed or open ground, he agreed that it was open ground that was needed. When the expert was asked if manual clearing of the outcrops could replace fire, he said he did not know. Why wouldn’t this be explored before telling the public that fire is required for these plants, and that humans must supply that fire.
The USFS process for controlled burns will use helicopters to drop incendiary devices into the forest to start the fires in the Gorge, and will be applied in the same areas two to three times over an eight year period. Any outcomes described by the USFS are predicated on the ability to control every fire they set, otherwise they will have caused the very fire they tell us they are protecting us from. This past weekend in Jonas Ridge we are have had steady 25-35 mph winds with gusts of 60 mph, these winds were not predicted and this unpredictability is the nature of the Gorge. The USFS cannot even promise to control fire on flat terrain. A prime example is the Croatan National Forest catastrophic fire started with the plan of setting a fire to perform a 1,500 acre “controlled” burn, instead the fire rapidly consumed over 21,000 acres!
The US Forest Service has asserted aggressively that “controlled” burns are necessary in the Gorge while no fuel load studies or fire risk assessments were performed in conjunction with these claims. This endorsement to set fires in the Gorge is disingenuous at best. Citizens alive and yet to be born deserve every precaution that an old growth forest with the exceptional designation of Wilderness remain free from human management. Why would Westerrn North Carolina Alliance endorse and risk a reputation as a defender of wild places without the facts? WNCA activities appear otherwise altruistic. People that are paying attention can only be left to think that this $4.5 million dollar grant is more important than the truth.