Scientists correct USFS Chief Bosworth's attack on post-fire forest management science report

7-3-2002-In a letter to the House Subcommittee on Forest Health, six top northwest scientists chastised Chief Bosworth for his mischaracterization and scapegoating of their work in his June testimony before the subcommittee. The letter's authors included the Western Native Trout Campaign's Jon Rhodes, Wildland Hydrologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, and Dr. Chris Frissell, Senior Staff Scientist with Pacific Rivers Council. All six scientists were among the eight authors of the 1995 report, Wildfire and Salvage Logging, Recommendations for Ecologically Sound Post-Fire Salvage Management and Other Post-Fire Treatment, which provided scientifically-sound recommendations for post-fire forest management, including protecting burned areas from additional damage from logging and road-building.

Bosworth's testimony incorrectly asserted that the report was "questionable," had not been peer-reviewed, and blamed it for the some of agency's troubles complying with environmental laws. The scientists' letter corrected these charges and emphatically stated that the USFS's compliance problems have been caused by the agency's own antiquated focus on logging burned areas at great ecological expense in direct conflict with available science on how to protect and restore these areas. Over the past several years, the courts have stopped some damaging salvage logging projects because the USFS had ignored scientific information, including the 1995 report, on the ecological toll of post-fire logging.

The scientist's letter received prominent coverage in the Portland Oregonian. The full text of the letter from the scientists is available here.

The letter's authors include James Karr, University of Washington Prof. Professor of Aquatic Sciences and Zoology, Robert L. Beschta, University of Oregon Prof. Emeritus of Forest Hydrology, David L. Perry, University of Oregon Prof. Emeritus, and G. Wayne Minshall, Idaho State University Prof. of Ecology.