The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative

Purpose and Need

The alternative meets the following purpose and needs.

1. Provide for, and aid, natural recovery of the burned area.
2. Improve the protection of homes from wildfire.
3. Provide economic opportunities in Ravalli County.
4. Provide for clean water and healthy watersheds.
5. Reduce nonnative weed species.
6. Restore wildfire into the forests outside of the wildland-urban interface.
7. Improve the scientific understanding of fire ecology.
8. Improve the public's understanding of fire ecology, the post-fire landscape, and forest management.

Summary

This alternative protects homes from wildfire and moves towards restoring ecosystem integrity. This alternative makes a clear distinction in management prescriptions for forest within the Wildland Urban Interface and forest outside of this zone.

1) The chances of a home igniting during a wildfire are determined almost entirely on what happens within one hundred yards of the home. The landscaping within 40 meters of the home and the building design and materials determine whether or not a home will catch fire. Home protection is a local endeavor. It is what is done on private property that really counts. What is done miles away on national forest land has almost nothing to do with saving homes from wildfire. (Cohen, Preventing Disaster, 2000; USDA, 1999, Reducing the Wildfire Fire Threat to Homes: Where and How Much , 2000; Cohen, Why Los Alamos Burned , 2000 ).

2) Fire is a major force of nature that is a natural part of the forest in the Bitterroot Valley. Past human management has led to the need for proactive management to restore these forests.

Wildland fires are an essential component of fully functioning forest ecosystems. Natural recovery and natural succession work well. Our attempts to intervene in natures dynamic should be limited to facilitating the natural forces at work. Human intervention is only necessary in areas where we have done damage or made significant changes to the landscape before the fire. The two biggest issues to deal with are to remove/rehabilitate roads and to allow lightning-caused fire to play its ecological role. (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Mclver and Starr, PNW-GTR-486, 2000; Stickney, 1990).

The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative provides home protection through a Homeowner Education Program and a Community Conservation Corps. The Corps will provide both fire hazard assessment and fire hazard reduction assistance, free of charge. Applying fire hazard actions to private land is the only way to effectively reduce the risk of home ignition. Additionally, the Conservation and Local Economy Alternative will actively work to help the public understand the important role fire and the post-fire landscape play in forest ecosystems.

The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative prioritizes ecosystem integrity and processes by facilitating natural recovery and succession. Unroaded areas and areas that were not intensively managed prior to the fire will be allowed to naturally recover. Active recovery efforts of road rehabilitation, road removal, stream bank stabilization, and in some cases, replanting, will be completed in areas that have been significantly affected by past management. Weed control will be accomplished by applying preventative measures in all burned areas while actively reducing populations where weeds are known to have occurred prior to the fire.

The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative provides for the collection of scientific field data that will greatly increase our understanding of fire. Several study areas will be selected for different conditions and management approaches, utilizing appropriate experimental design, data collection, and analysis.

Basis for the Conservation and Local Economy Alternative

Three issues must be addressed to respond to the purpose and need:

1. Improve the protection of homes from wildfire using a local workforce.
2. Insure the healthy recovery of the burned area.
3. Restore fire to its natural role in the forest ecosystem.

The Conservation and Local Economy Alternative is rooted in the principles of the prevailing, peer reviewed science and research. Two compelling themes emerge from the scientific literature and on-the-ground experience with fire and forest health issues related to fire. They are:

The large majority of burned areas recover naturally without any significant intervention (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Mclver and Starr, PNW-GTR-486, 2000; Stickney, 1990).

Sites that were damaged before the fire from roads, timber harvest, grazing, and other developments are most likely to require intervention to aid natural recovery. (Beschta et. al., 1995; Lyon, GTR-INT-184, 1976).

The likelihood that a home will ignite from wildfire is almost entirely determined by the landscape within 40 meters of the building and by the materials and design of the building. (Cohen, Preventing Disaster, 2000; Cohen, Reducing the Wildfire Fire Threat to Homes: Where and How Much , 2000; Cohen, Why Los Alamos Burned , 2000 ).

Management activity, including fuel reduction, beyond 40 meters away from a home has little effect on the likelihood that a home will ignite during a wildfire. (Cohen, Preventing Disaster, 2000; Cohen, Reducing the Wildfire Fire Threat to Homes: Where and How Much , 2000; Cohen, Why Los Alamos Burned , 2000 ).

Salvage logging results in significant damage while altering the natural plant and animal succession. Salvage logging does not aid in the recovery of burned forests and has no ecological benefit. (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Robichaud, et. al., PNW-GTR-486, 2000).

Herbicides have significant effects on native plant, shrub and tree succession persisting for several years after application. (Lyon, GTR-INT-184, 1976).

Stand replacing fires are a natural occurrence to which the forest is adapted with the exception of some lower elevation forest types. (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Interior Columbia Basin EIS, 2000).

Even Ponderosa Pine forests have been found to originate in stand replacing fire events. (Arno et al. 1995)

Drought and other climatic factors are the primary causes of large-scale wildfires, which occur regardless of fuel conditions. (Schmoldt, Daniel L. , et. al., , PNW-GTR-455, USFS, 1999).

Fire suppression, logging, and grazing are the primary causes of unnatural fuel conditions. (Beschta, et. al., 1995; Mclver and Starr, PNW-GTR-486, 2000; Schmoldt, Daniel L. , et. al., PNW-GTR-455, USFS, 1999).

Based upon these principles, two distinct categories of the landscape emerge: The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), which lies within 40 meters of structures, and the area outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface. Two distinct goals are thus differentiated. In the Wildland-Urban Interface the goal is to protect homes while providing aesthetic appeal and maintaining habitat to the greatest extent possible. Outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface, the goal is to allow and, when needed, aid natural succession of the forest ecosystem, including post-fire succession.

Applying the above principles to the Wildland-Urban Interface, we find that the management activity that is effective at protecting homes occurs on private property with few exceptions. In order to protect homes from wildfire, the home design and construction materials must resist ignition from firebrands. The landscape within 40 meters of the home must be thinned to eliminate the likelihood of a crown fire and small fuels must be removed to stop an approaching fire. The Forest Service can and should play an important role in homeowner education and fuel management.

The Alternative includes two activities that implement effective home protection assistance. 1) Homeowner education and 2) Home site fuel reduction Corps.

Homeowner education is based upon a coordinated program of public presentations, direct mail education material, media public interest education, and news features. This is a more intensive continuation of the education effort that has been done for many years by the Ravalli County Resource Conservation and
Development agency.

Home-site fuel reduction assistance will be accomplished with a Community Conservation Corps formed by the Forest Service. The Corps will provide free onsite assessment, education, and landscape services. The Corps will consist of locally hired workers and contractors.

Applying the principles outlined above to the area outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface is based on the understanding that natural forces, natural disturbance, and successional processes will provide for recovery. Management actions are utilized only on sites where natural recovery is determined to be unlikely occur. (Beschta, et. al., 1995). In areas significantly outside the normal range of vegetative conditions due to fire exclusion, delineate where prescribed fire would be allowed to burn, when caused by lightning. In some areas where allowing a natural fire to burn might threaten home or other human built structures, this alternative would require the Forest Service to do all it can to prepare the structures and immediately surrounding area.

Features of the Conservation and Local Economy Alternative

1. HOME PROTECTION

   Homeowner education will include direct mail to every household in Ravalli County describing what is needed to protect a home from wildfire. Annual public presentation of this information will be given throughout the valley. In addition, public presentations will be held on Jack Cohen s work (preferably given by Jack Cohen, who works at the Missoula Fire Lab). TV, Radio, and Newspaper ads will be run summarizing the information and advising how to get help.

   A Community Conservation Corps will be created. This Corps will provide fire-safety assessment and landscape fire hazard reduction assistance free of charge to homes in the Wildland-Urban Interface.

   This responds to the issue of wildfire risk to private homes and structures located in the Wildland-Urban Interface.
   
   

2. BURNED AREA RECOVERY

   Burned areas will be allowed to naturally recover except where previous human activities have resulted in conditions that require intervention.

   Burned area recovery responds directly to the issue of insuring the natural recovery of burned forests while facilitating recovery in areas previously affected by management.

   a) NATURAL RECOVERY OF BURNED AREAS
   Applicable areas: All burned areas that were not damaged by intensive management, outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface.

   Management action: Allow natural recovery to proceed. Active management will focus on trail and road stabilization and weed control.

   b) GRAZING REASSESSMENT
   Applicable areas: Grazing allotments in the burned area.

   Management Action: Identify conflicts between grazing schedules and burned area recovery needs. Adjust grazing schedule to insure burned area recovery. Initiate the National Environmental Policy Act before grazing is allowed.

   c) ROAD ELIMINATION
   Applicable areas: All roaded areas on the Bitterroot National Forest.

   Management actions: Remove and recontour all roads not needed for foreseeable management projects, for the following reasons:
   1) Funding is inadequate to maintain unneeded roads.
   2) Poorly maintained roads are a chronic source of ecological damage to the Bitterroot National Forest.
   3) Represents an affirmative response to the commitments made by the Forest Service in the bull trout programmatic Biological Assessment.
   4) For compliance with watershed analysis process requirements as outlined in the Federal Guide for Watershed Analysis (as mentioned in the INFISH Decision Notice).

   d) ROAD REHABILITATION
   Applicable areas: In all roaded areas on the Bitterroot National Forest, the roads that are needed in the foreseeable future will be rehabilitated and brought up to BMP standards.

   Management action: Upgrade all culverts, so that they meet INFISH specifications. Any roads that are contributing damage to Priority, Key, or Special Emphasis watersheds, due to their location in Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas, will be relocated away from the riparian area.

   e) WATERSHED PROTECTION
   Applicable areas: High hazard areas in the Wildland-Urban Interface and in areas that are roaded and were intensively managed prior to the fire.

   Management action: Contouring felled logs and mulching. In specific cases, planting will be used in areas where a ground survey has shown that no seed source is available.

   f) PLANT TREES
   Applicable areas: Roaded and heavily logged areas where there is no seed source as determined by, 1) Site analysis of soil and seed sources that determines that there is no available seed source, 2) Observation in the second or subsequent years after the burn that natural recovery is not occurring.

   Management Action: Seed or plant trees.

   g) WEED PREVENTION
   Applicable areas: Entire burned area.

   Management actions: Human and equipment weed seed spread will be limited by a weed prevention program. All commercial activities (including timber, mushroom, and other harvesting operations) shall have an equipment wash down prior to entering sensitive areas and prior to exiting infested areas. Personnel education program, and weed-free stock feed will be required.

   h) WEED CONTROL
   Applicable areas: Areas that contained weeds prior to the burn or have been assessed to have weed seed present.

   Management actions: Survey and map locations of noxious weeds. Apply Integrated Pest Management. The application of herbicides shall be limited to hand application.
   
   

3. RESTORE FIRE INTO THE ECOSYSTEMS OF THE BITTERROOT NATIONAL FOREST

   Forest Plan Amendment needed to formally adopt and actively implement the Federal Wildland Fire Policy. The first and highest priority is completion of a strategic fire management plan that will guide fire recovery action; fuels management treatments, community fire education programs, and appropriate management responses to wildland fires. This will initiate a process of determining where prescribed burning may be applied and where natural fire can be allowed to burn without suppression activities.

   This responds to two issues:
   1. Forest ecosystems need fire and past suppression has resulted in many of the ecological problems the Bitterroot National Forest faces today
   2. Wildfires must not cause unwanted damage to homes and other structures.

   a) FUEL REDUCTION THROUGH NATURAL FIRE
   Applicable areas: All areas outside of the Wildland-Urban Interface that do not threaten homes. This includes all unroaded areas and all stand types in the Bitterroot National Forest with the exception of selected, low elevation ponderosa pine/ Douglas fir stands that are not near the Wildland-Urban Interface.

   Management action: In those areas not significantly outside the normal range of vegetative conditions due to previous fire exclusion, delineate where natural fire would be allowed to burn, when caused by lightening. Monitor fire to insure that it does not cause harm to life or homes.

   b) FUEL REDUCTION THROUGH PRESCRIBED FIRE
   Applicable areas: In those areas deemed to be significantly outside the normal range of vegetative conditions due to previous fire exclusion.

   Management action: In areas unlikely to burn significantly outside the normal range of intensity, apply prescribed fire. In those areas deemed to be outside the normal range of vegetative conditions due to previous fire exclusion and where a prescribed fire would be likely to burn outside the normal range of intensity, perform manual pretreatment in preparation for prescribed fire and wildland fire use before conducting prescribed burns.

   c) INTERPRETATION AND EDUCATION
   There are now many opportunities on the Bitterroot National Forest to help the public understand the essential role of fire in forest ecosystems. Interpretive trails and educational publications will focus on; the importance of dead and dying trees in burned area recovery, habitats created by a wildfire, the dangers of wildfire, and the effects of fire suppression.
   
   

4. DEVELOP SCIENCE

   The burned areas of the Bitterroot National Forest represent an outstanding opportunity to develop badly needed information for understanding fire and the effects of post-fire management. (Schmoldt, Daniel L., et. al., PNW-GTR-455, USFS, 1999). The Conservation and Local Economy alternative includes the designation of study areas to assess the effectiveness of various treatments proposed in the current literature, compared to natural succession.

   Two study areas of about 20 acres each will be selected for the following treatments:
   1. Thin from below.
   2. Uneven aged thinning.
   3. Prescribed burn.
   4. Unmanaged.

FUNDING AND CONTRACTING

This alternative would not require that funding be immediately or imminently available for all activities. However, the Forest Service would rank all activities by priority based upon their necessity to restore ecological functioning, so that appropriate requests will be made in future budgets, and so as to be able to respond as funding does become available.

Many of these actions might be funded under the funds made available to Counties by the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (the County Payments bill) that was signed into law by President Clinton on October 30, 2000 (Public Law 106-393). It would require cooperation of County Government and Resource Advisory Council, as well as acceptance by the Forest Service.

Contracts shall be structured so that the size and content fit the capabilities of local contractors. Hiring for the Bitterroot Community Conservation Corps shall begin with solicitation of workers from Ravalli County.

Literature Cited

Arno, S.F., Scott, J.H. and M.G. Hartwell. 1995. Age-class structure of old growth ponderosa pine/Douglas fir stands and its relationship to fire history. Res. Pap. INT-RP-481. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. 25 p.

Beschta, RL; Frissell, CA; Gresswell, R; Hauer, R; Karr, JR; Minshall, GW; Perry, DA; Rhodes, JJ. 1995. Wildfire and salvage logging: recommendations for ecologically sound post- fire salvage logging and other post-fire treatments on Federal lands in the West. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University.

Cohen, Jack D., Preventing Disaster Home Ignitability in the Wildland-Urban Interface , Journal of Forestry, March 2000.

Cohen, Jack D., Why Los Alamos Burned , USFS, 2000, USDA, 1999.

Cohen, Jack D., Reducing the Wildland Fire Threat to Homes: where and how much? Paper presented at the Fire Economics Symposium, San Diego, CA April 12, 1999.

Lyon, L. Jack, Vegetal Development on the Sleeping Child Burn, 1961-1973, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Ogden, UT, GTR-INT-184, 1976.

Mclver, James D. and Lynne Starr, Environmental Effects of Postfire Logging: Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography , PNW-GTR-486, USFS, 2000.

Robichaud, Peter R. , et. al., Evaluating the Effectiveness of Postfire Rehabilitation Treatments, RMRS-GTR-63, USFS, 2000.
Stickney, Peter, et. al. , Wildfires and Wildflowers , MNPS 3rd Annual Meeting, 1990.

Schmoldt, Daniel L. , et. al., Assessing the Effects of Fire Disturbance on Ecosystems: A Scientific Agenda for Research and Management , PNW-GTR-455, USFS, 1999.

US Forest Service and BLM, Interior Columbia Basin Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, 2000.

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