An editorial cartoon published in the Ledger Dispatch on July 12 claimed that environmental groups are at fault for wildland fires because they have opposed the removal of forest fuel and road-building. While this myth has been repeated often during the 2002 fire season, it just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. What a shame the Ledger would publish such a misleading and inaccurate cartoon without first checking out the facts.

According to an August 31, 2001, General Accounting Office report (Forest Service: Appeals and Litigation of Fuel Reduction Projects), of the 1,671 fuel reduction projects proposed by the U.S. Forest Service in fiscal year 2001, only 20 (about one percent) were appealed by groups or individuals. There were no appeals in our local Eldorado or Stanislaus National Forests.

All but nine of the 20 appealed fuel reduction projects were ready to implement or being implemented as of July 18, 2001. No projects were litigated. So out of those 1,671 Forest Service fuel reduction projects, just one-half of one-percent were delayed or stopped by appeals.

Conservation groups have led efforts to increase fuel reduction in our national forests. In the 1990s, the Wilderness Society spearheaded a national campaign to increase the Forest Service’s fuel reduction budget.

Yet according to another GAO report, "Prior to fiscal year 1998, the administration did not request, and the Congress did not appropriate, funds specifically for hazardous fuel reduction." (Severe Wildland Fires: Leadership and Accountability Needed to Reduce Risk to Communities and Resources, January 2002).

This year, a coalition of 70 conservation groups have proposed that Congress increase spending for the Cooperative Fire Protection program by $200 million in 2003. This program would direct fuel-reduction funds to the places they most effectively protect homes and communities -- the wildland-urban interface -- In accordance with the National Fire Plan developed by federal agencies and approved by the Bush administration.

Several years ago, our organization, Foothill Conservancy, convinced the Amador County Board of Supervisors to support increased federal funds for national forest fuel reduction. We have also supported local fuel reduction efforts and opposed extensive clearcutting on private forest land. Clearcutting creates hotter, drier forests and replaces more diverse forest structures with plantations of highly flammable young trees.

It is true that conservation groups have opposed logging in the remaining roadless areas on public lands. However, those who study forests and fire generally agree that logging large trees and building roads into remote areas does not reduce the risk of wildland fire.

A study prepared for the National Fire Plan states, "The removal of large, merchantable trees from forests does not reduce fire risk and may, in fact, increase such risk. . . . Targeting smaller trees and leaving both large trees and snags standing addresses the core of the fuels problem."

And an August 2000 Congressional Research Service study found ". . . that the current wave of forest fires is not related to a decline in timber harvest on Federal lands. . . in the most recent period (1980 through 1999) the data indicate that fewer acres burned in areas where logging activity was limited."

A look at the recent Rodeo-Chediski Fire in Arizona shows that logging and road-building do not prevent fires. According to a study conducted by the Pacific Biodiversity Institute, that huge fire burned largely on land that had been heavily logged. The burned-over area included more than 2,100 miles of roads.

In addition, the Forest Service’s Assessment of Ecosystem Components in the Interior Columbia Basin and Portions of the Klamath and Great Basins-Volume II, stated, "The high rate of human-caused fires has generally been associated with high recreational use in areas of higher road densities." This is significant when you consider than nearly all wildland fires, whether arson or accident, are started by people usually on or adjacent to a road.

There is much work needed to protect local communities from wildland fire and to restore our Sierra forests to a more natural condition after 150 years of fire suppression. Rather than perpetuate myths about fire, we need to work together to implement reasonable, effective fire-prevention measures, as laid out in the National Fire Plan. And we need to use all of the methods available, including mechanical brush removal and prescribed fire, to restore natural balance to our forests.