Managing fire is vital to the health of our forests

The NWFP, which holds sway over 24 million acres, follows the model in which humans do not interfere with nature. This “preserve” model does not take into account that nature is dynamic, and disturbance is essential to ecology. The popular credo “take only pictures, leave only footprints” fails as land management policy. In particular, the NWFP did not take into account that forests on both sides of the Cascades, but especially the east side, had long been separated from their historic condition and lost much of their resilience and biodiversity. This is the very condition identified as important to spotted owls — dense, multistoried canopies with high vulnerability to crown fire.