Burned Forests Don't Need Our "Help"

Fire fighter and fire ecologist Tim Inglasbee discusses the natural recovery of the Warner Creek burn 16 years later in a Guest Opinion column.

As another active wildfire season comes to a close, there will be the predictable, panicked cries from logging proponents for immediate post-fire “recovery” projects in newly burned forests. Their rehashed arguments that salvage logging and artificial tree-planting are absolutely necessary to the recovery of burned forests should be finally and officially refuted with the vivid, living example of the Warner Creek Burn.

Sixteen years ago, arsonists ignited the Warner Creek Fire inside a roadless area managed as an old growth habitat reserve for the northern spotted owl. The wildfire burned for two weeks until snowfall put it out. Then a firestorm of controversy raged over the next five years stemming from the U.S. Forest Service’s proposal to salvage log the arson-burned owl reserve.

The timber industry and its political allies argued that the wildfire was “catastrophic” and that 9,000 acres had been “destroyed.” They warned that the area would convert to a vast brushfield and prevent a new forest of trees from regrowing. The spotted owls would fly away or starve, and all the fire-killed old growth trees would fall down within 15 years and become fuel for a future “catastrophic reburn.”

Then, as now, they argued that immediate, aggressive logging and tree-planting were necessary in order to “recover” the burned forest and “protect” it from future wildfires.

Sixteen years later, Warner Creek’s burned forest is literally teeming with life. Yes, there are a few patches of brush and other native plants growing in the burn, but these help anchor and fertilize the soil, and provide wildlife forage. A naturally regenerated jungle is growing everywhere, made up of young conifers standing from 6 to 14 feet tall — especially in some of the most severely burned areas.

Spotted owls are thriving, and feeding on the healthy prey population inhabiting the forest’s abundant snags and logs. Although many small-diameter trees have fallen over, nearly all of the giant snags are still standing as mighty silver spires that shelter wildlife and the young trees growing below.

Not one taxpayer dime was needed to recover the forest in the Warner Creek Fire area. The miraculous abundance and diversity of life in Warner Creek offers one of our clearest examples that Mother Nature is perfectly capable of recovering from wildfire events without the need for hasty, expensive human intervention.

Remarkably, during all the recent debates over post-fire “salvage” logging in places such as the Biscuit Fire, the example of Warner Creek’s remarkable natural recovery was never raised. Forest Service managers basically have treated the area like an ugly state secret and have shown no interest in the place after they were denied the ability to log it.

Future generations will thank those who helped stop the illegal Warner salvage timber sale and prevented what would have been a destructive logging catastrophe and a shameful waste of learning opportunities.

Because of the Forest Service’s benign neglect, a few agency ecologists, university scientists and local students have been quietly using the Warner Creek Burn over the years for fire ecology research and educational field trips. A local citizen-scientist’s visionary proposal to designate the Warner Creek Burn as the nation’s first Fire Process Research Natural Area — a living learning center for research and education on natural post-fire recovery processes — still awaits analysis and approval during the next revision of the Willamette National Forest Plan. Perhaps at that time, Forest Service managers can publicly recognize and officially embrace the enormous ecological, scientific, and recreational values of this rare place.

Indeed, the Warner Creek Burn offers a treasure trove of opportunities to learn about natural fire recovery processes — it is the nest site for the goose laying golden eggs of Earth wisdom.

And there is no doubt that we need to employ a lot more wisdom in managing wildland fires located in remote roadless and wilderness areas or ecosystems that require fire to maintain their ecological integrity. The Forest Service spent more than $10 million fighting the Warner Creek fire, and it inflicted significant environmental damage from such actions as carving bulldozer lines deep into the roadless area. This kind of economic waste and environmental damage continues to occur each year in public forests across the West out of ignorance and fear that every wildfire will be “catastrophic.” Future wildfires in the Warner Burn should be wisely managed and actively monitored, not mindlessly attacked, to protect the area’s unique ecological and research values.

The Warner Creek Burn stands as a place of great beauty, mystery and discovery for scientists, students, hikers, hunters, photographers and explorers alike. Before another slew of so-called “fire recovery projects” is proposed in the national forests burned by this season’s wildfires, it is time to stop willfully ignoring the evidence available before our eyes and “learn from the burn.”