OPINION: Building more roads in national forests won’t prevent wildfires
Building roads is one of the most devastating things you can do to backcountry native forests. Carved into steep mountain slopes, gravel roads are perpetual sources of sediment that pollute waterways, foul fish habitat, spread invasive weeds and invite unnatural wildfires.
Despite these risks, the Trump administration wants to revoke the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and bulldoze new roads into national forests, claiming that they are necessary for “wildfire prevention” and “fuels reduction” to improve firefighter efficiency.
This is a pants-on-fire false alarm that ignores scientific evidence and denies the last quarter-century of lived experience.
Building roads leads to the destruction of native forests. Roads are lifeless, linear clear-cuts that open doors for commercial logging that converts tree groves into slash-covered stump fields and tree farms, while logging roads become lined with thickets of shrubs and invasive weeds.
This kind of phony “fuels reduction” makes roads and logging sites much more flammable than the original native forest cover. Indeed, tree farms are like firebombs, and logging roads are their fuses. But the Trump administration wants the public to believe that road building and logging will help prevent wildfires because they seemingly aid firefighting.
Oregon Lawmakers Bump Up Wildfire Funds As A Potentially Big Season Looms
The Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board on Thursday approved a spending increase for wildfires in anticipation of what could be an early and challenging season.
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board on Thursday approved a spending increase for wildfires in anticipation of what could be an early and challenging season.
Full Article: https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-wildfire-funding-increase-2020-season/