Eco-Integrity Alliance, a national advocacy group with organizing members in Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, and Montana, calls on elected officials to allocate additional funds and updated guidance to federal, state, and county agencies to better prevent human-caused wildfires, instead of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on ineffective and destructive “fuel reduction” logging.
Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with Rep. Val Hoyle and Rep. Joe Neguse from Colorado, have introduced companion bills in Congress to spend $30 billion on “fuels” logging that a large and growing body of peer-reviewed scientific studies shows not only won’t protect communities from wildfire but can make fires burn hotter and spread faster by opening forests to sunlight and wind.
While lightning-caused wildfire is a natural and essential component of western forest ecosystems, 84 percent of all ignitions over recent decades have been (unintentionally or intentionally) set by humans—including 95 percent of all wildfires in California.
During the last three days of July, four human-caused wildfires were ignited within a fifty-mile radius along Colorado’s Front Range west of Denver, burning over 12,000 acres and resulting in the loss of dozens of homes and one death.
Luckily, several effective prevention measures can help limit the number and frequency of human-caused wildfires, including closures of superfluous National Forest roads, stricter federal fire regulations, and better enforcement.
Research from Pacific Biodiversity Institute reveals that “94.9% of human-caused wildfires in the conterminous US (lower 48 states) occur within 800-meters (about ½ mile) of the nearest road. 60.7% of human-caused wildfires occur within the first 200-meters (about 1/8th mile) from the nearest road.”
Forest roads are often infested with invasive weeds which can increase fire spread. Roads allow heating of air and funneling of winds, which can spread flames faster.
National Forests are threaded with over 380,000 miles of roads, nearly eight times more than the entire Interstate Highway system. Many of these are secondary or tertiary roads unnecessary for recreation, including illegal “community” routes.
Closing and gating these superfluous backways which are rarely, if ever, patrolled, would be a huge step towards necessary fire prevention. What’s more, a moratorium on new National Forest road construction (including reconstruction of old roads), could take place immediately. Over the last year alone, over one thousand miles of new and reconstructed logging roads have been approved under a controversial “emergency action” through Section 40807 of the Infrastructure Bill.
“Do the easy stuff by closing unneeded roads and limiting forest access during high fire risk instead of expensive and destructive forest clearing that dries out fuels,” says Sam Hitt with Santa Fe Forest Coalition in New Mexico. “These simple measures could dramatically reduce unwanted ignitions and save lives and property.”
Federal, state, county, and municipal lands across the West could also reduce human-caused fires by enacting stricter regulations to ban any and all open flames.
In July, after dozens of wildfires ignited by lightning across Oregon and Washington, the Pacific Northwest Region 6 of US Forest Service prohibited campfires within all 17 National Forests over 24.7 million acres. However, the agency has inadequate law enforcement personnel to enforce such a ban and instead relies almost exclusively on voluntary compliance.
“Since 2016 I have witnessed a very low compliance to campfire bans at ‘dispersed primitive campsites’ outside official campgrounds in the 76,000 acre Fall Creek watershed inside the Middle Fork Ranger District, one of most popular recreation sites in the Eugene area,” says Shannon Wilson, with Eco Advocates Northwest, based in Oregon. “Since 2002 humans have caused three out of the last five wildfires which have burned across the majority of the watershed, destroyed or closed five official campgrounds, and closed the fifteen mile Fall Creek National Recreation Trail through one of most spectacular ancient forest sites in Oregon and the nation.”
Eco-Integrity Alliance calls on Congress to divert funding from logging and instead mandate that the U.S. Forest Service hire more rangers to patrol roads while closing any they cannot cover on daily rounds. Funding should also cover training for volunteers who can report campfire violations to law enforcement, with rewards for any useful information.
Finally, the group calls on lawmakers to enact steep fines for any illegal fire infractions, with accidental wildfires and deliberate arson resulting in increased jail time.
Eco-Integrity Alliance 