Post by FWS on Aug 12, 2014 20:50:17 GMT -6
Endangered species get in the way of forest-thinning projects
"At a minimum, the Forest Service should have conducted surveys of the project area to determine whether its activities would harm the species," said Dr. Dennis Murphy.
By Brooks Hays
UPI- Science News
Aug. 11, 2014
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Forest-thinning projects in Arizona and California have been put on hold amid concerns over the health and safety of endangered species in the forest.
In Flagstaff, Ariz., environmentalists are worried about the negative effects tree-thinning efforts might have on the endangered Mexican spotted owl and the prey it relies upon to survive. In California, wildlife advocates concerned about the well-being of the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog.
The Mexican spotted owl has been on the endangered species list for more than 30 years, while the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog was only just granted federal protection this past April.
Forest or tree thinning is the the act of taking down dead trees and removing smaller trees from a forest to prevent or curb the severity of wildfires. Forest officials have championed the practice as a way to proactively address the growing problem of fire in the West. But some conservationists say the practice is an excuse to let more loggers into protected forests.
Lawsuits in both Arizona and Utah are just two of many legal standoffs, pitting forest managers against environmental groups.
In California, the Forest Service's "Upper Echo Lakes Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project" is on hold as it awaits the resolution over two separate lawsuits. Plaintiffs in the suit say the thinning would unnecessarily harm the protected frog.
"At a minimum, the Forest Service should have conducted surveys of the project area to determine whether its activities would harm the species and its habitat," Dr. Dennis Murphy told the Tahoe Daily Tribute, "but instead the agency put on blinders to the impacts of the project hoping no one would notice."
Murphy is a Pew scholar in conservation and a plaintiff in one of the two suits.
A similar suit has slowed another thinning plan in Arizona. Proponents of the thinning plan say environmentalists are missing the big picture -- that forest thinning is good for the forest and thus good for the owl.
"The Schultz fire showed us the price of inaction, and the fact that the voters of Flagstaff are willing to spend $10 million on the Dry Lake Hills project shows that they want this problem addressed," Stephen Dewhurst, an associate professor in Northern Arizona University's School of Forestry, recently told the Arizona Daily Sun. "Over the long term, that's going to be good for the owl and for us too."
Spotted owls again in spotlight as Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project continues
A Mexican Spotted owl rests in a tree in this courtesy file photo. (Bill Radke/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
By ERIC BETZ
Arizona Daily Sun Staff Reporter
August 10, 2014
Piles of broken bark surround the bottoms of towering ponderosa pines.
Moss-covered oak, aspen, fir and spruce, both alive and downed, mix in between.
Armies of squirrels scamper from tree to tree and branch to branch.
And birds like the northern goshawk and Merriam’s turkey take refuge in the canopy.
But in the old-growth forests of Mormon Mountain, it’s another species of bird that is getting all the attention of late.
Three breeding pairs of Mexican spotted owls also make their homes in the rare mixed wet conifer habitat south of Flagstaff.
It’s a habitat targeted for restorative thinning that includes cutting some bigger trees, and that has some conservationists worried.
“It’s important to the Center and its many supporters that the final decision avoids unnecessary harm to animals that are at risk of extinction, including the Mexican spotted owl,” said Jay Lininger, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Others disagree.
“The Center seems to have not recognized, or accepted, the clear indications that the way to protect the owl over the long term is not merely through preventing or limiting logging wherever possible — which is their old playbook — but rather through the reduction of fire risk and the alteration of fire behavior across the landscape,” said Stephen Dewhurst, an associate professor in Northern Arizona University’s School of Forestry.
RESEMBLES PACIFIC NORTHWEST
When Flagstaff voters approved the $10 million Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project in 2012 aimed at keeping water supplies safe, this was the mountain officials wanted to thin. The project will also cut large numbers of trees off Mount Elden and in the Dry Lake Hills.
Mormon Mountain is roughly the size of Mount Elden and rises above Mormon Lake. The backside of the mountain feeds into the city’s surface water supply, Lake Mary.
It’s an incredibly dense, overgrown and simultaneously beautiful forest. The forest resembles something closer to those of the Pacific Northwest.
But U.S. Forest Service simulations of a wildfire on Mormon Mountain show that it would burn hot through the dense forest and the aftereffects would be devastating to Lake Mary. Such a significant fire would render Flagstaff’s surface water supply unusable, forcing taxpayers to cover the cost of an additional 11 water wells at a cost of $2 million a piece. Similarly, a fire on the Mount Elden — Dry Lake Hills, the second component of the thinning project, would cause devastating flooding downstream in Flagstaff.
Those projections were included in the Forest Service’s recently released draft environmental impact statement.
But while Lininger says that he agrees with the federal agency that the project is important to Flagstaff, he insists that the proposed thinning is not an all-or-nothing proposition.
“As a fire ecologist, I see a serious problem with Forest Service assumptions reported in the EIS about effects of a hypothetical wildfire and supposed benefits of logging in the Dry Lake Hills area,” Lininger said.
Lininger’s opposition, as well as the opposition registered in comments filed with the Forest Service by the Center for Biological Diversity, focus on an age-old issue in thinning projects: the removal of large trees. The environmental advocacy group says that removing large trees, as well as large dead trees, will remove habitat for many species, but particularly the Mexican spotted owl and its prey.
The Center contends that the Forest Service’s proposal is “reasonably certain” to disturb owls by directly affecting their nesting areas and place where they are known to be active.
FOUR ALTERNATIVES
The Forest Service’s plan presents four alternatives, with much of the plan focusing on intensive logging to minimize wildfire risk to both Flagstaff and the mountain that supplies its water.
Two of the alternatives would conduct intensive logging in regions both north of Flagstaff and on Mormon Mountain, with one plan carrying out cable logging to meet the goals and the other using helicopter logging.
One of the options, which is considered unlikely, would take no action whatsoever.
Finally, a fourth plan would conduct minimal treatment utilizing mostly hand-thinning methods.
That’s the plan that the Center is pushing for, while Forest Service officials say they’re likely to blend the options, with hand-thinning likely to be recommended in the upper regions of Mormon Mountain. That’s where the mixed wet conifer forest occurs, which has a different fire regime history that doesn’t need frequent prescribed fires.
WILDFIRES THE BIGGER THREAT
But modern forestry management experts have graver concerns than logging when it comes to Mexican spotted owls: wildfire.
When the owl was first listed on the Endangered Species Act some 20 years ago, the ecologists worried about threats from timber harvesting. But intensive harvesting has all but vanished from the Southwest. And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service now considers stand-replacing wildfire the owl’s gravest threat.
Four pairs of owls were active in the Schultz fire burn area prior to 2010, when the blaze scorched 15,051 acres. That fire burned mostly at high intensity, as the Forest Service believes would happen under similar circumstances in the Mount Elden — Dry Lake Hills and at Mormon Mountain. The owls lost most of that habitat, but officials aren’t certain what happened to them. One pair is thought to have re-established nearby.
The species is proving to be more tolerant of disturbance than had previously been thought.
Dewhurst said that after 20 years of Mexican spotted owls being on the Endangered Species Act, scientists are still uncertain what is happening with owl populations. He said that restoring overstocked forests to a more open, natural condition is the best way to protect the forest and the owls.
“The Schultz fire showed us the price of inaction, and the fact that the voters of Flagstaff are willing to spend $10 million on the Dry Lake Hills project shows that they want this problem addressed,” Dewhurst said. “Over the long term, that’s going to be good for the owl and for us too.”
FWPP: Four Treatment Alternatives
How to protect the endangered birds from both logging and wildfire looms as a contentious issue in the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project. Read more
Alternative 1: No action
Under this alternative, no new areas would be analyzed for treatments, including tree thinning or prescribed burning.
Alternative 2: Proposed Action with Cable Logging
Alternative 2 proposes a combination of cutting trees by machine and by hand, and would use cable logging methods to remove cut trees on steep slopes. Prescribed burning (both pile and broadcast) would occur in both ponderosa pine and mixed conifer areas treated, and some areas are proposed for “burn only” treatments.
Alternative 3: Proposed Action without Cable Logging
Alternative 3 includes the same treatments as alternative 2; however, the implementation would differ as this alternative would not use cable logging methods to remove material. Instead, this alternative analyzes the use of helicopter logging and specialized steep-slope equipment to remove cut material.
Alternative 4: Minimal Treatment
Alternative 4 would treat fewer acres than alternatives 2 and 3, and would use hand and machine cutting methods and prescribed burning only. No cable logging, helicopter logging or specialized steep-slope equipment could be utilized; not all steep slopes are therefore proposed for treatment under this alternative.
"At a minimum, the Forest Service should have conducted surveys of the project area to determine whether its activities would harm the species," said Dr. Dennis Murphy.
By Brooks Hays
UPI- Science News
Aug. 11, 2014
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Forest-thinning projects in Arizona and California have been put on hold amid concerns over the health and safety of endangered species in the forest.
In Flagstaff, Ariz., environmentalists are worried about the negative effects tree-thinning efforts might have on the endangered Mexican spotted owl and the prey it relies upon to survive. In California, wildlife advocates concerned about the well-being of the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog.
The Mexican spotted owl has been on the endangered species list for more than 30 years, while the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog was only just granted federal protection this past April.
Forest or tree thinning is the the act of taking down dead trees and removing smaller trees from a forest to prevent or curb the severity of wildfires. Forest officials have championed the practice as a way to proactively address the growing problem of fire in the West. But some conservationists say the practice is an excuse to let more loggers into protected forests.
Lawsuits in both Arizona and Utah are just two of many legal standoffs, pitting forest managers against environmental groups.
In California, the Forest Service's "Upper Echo Lakes Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project" is on hold as it awaits the resolution over two separate lawsuits. Plaintiffs in the suit say the thinning would unnecessarily harm the protected frog.
"At a minimum, the Forest Service should have conducted surveys of the project area to determine whether its activities would harm the species and its habitat," Dr. Dennis Murphy told the Tahoe Daily Tribute, "but instead the agency put on blinders to the impacts of the project hoping no one would notice."
Murphy is a Pew scholar in conservation and a plaintiff in one of the two suits.
A similar suit has slowed another thinning plan in Arizona. Proponents of the thinning plan say environmentalists are missing the big picture -- that forest thinning is good for the forest and thus good for the owl.
"The Schultz fire showed us the price of inaction, and the fact that the voters of Flagstaff are willing to spend $10 million on the Dry Lake Hills project shows that they want this problem addressed," Stephen Dewhurst, an associate professor in Northern Arizona University's School of Forestry, recently told the Arizona Daily Sun. "Over the long term, that's going to be good for the owl and for us too."
Spotted owls again in spotlight as Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project continues
A Mexican Spotted owl rests in a tree in this courtesy file photo. (Bill Radke/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
By ERIC BETZ
Arizona Daily Sun Staff Reporter
August 10, 2014
Piles of broken bark surround the bottoms of towering ponderosa pines.
Moss-covered oak, aspen, fir and spruce, both alive and downed, mix in between.
Armies of squirrels scamper from tree to tree and branch to branch.
And birds like the northern goshawk and Merriam’s turkey take refuge in the canopy.
But in the old-growth forests of Mormon Mountain, it’s another species of bird that is getting all the attention of late.
Three breeding pairs of Mexican spotted owls also make their homes in the rare mixed wet conifer habitat south of Flagstaff.
It’s a habitat targeted for restorative thinning that includes cutting some bigger trees, and that has some conservationists worried.
“It’s important to the Center and its many supporters that the final decision avoids unnecessary harm to animals that are at risk of extinction, including the Mexican spotted owl,” said Jay Lininger, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Others disagree.
“The Center seems to have not recognized, or accepted, the clear indications that the way to protect the owl over the long term is not merely through preventing or limiting logging wherever possible — which is their old playbook — but rather through the reduction of fire risk and the alteration of fire behavior across the landscape,” said Stephen Dewhurst, an associate professor in Northern Arizona University’s School of Forestry.
RESEMBLES PACIFIC NORTHWEST
When Flagstaff voters approved the $10 million Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project in 2012 aimed at keeping water supplies safe, this was the mountain officials wanted to thin. The project will also cut large numbers of trees off Mount Elden and in the Dry Lake Hills.
Mormon Mountain is roughly the size of Mount Elden and rises above Mormon Lake. The backside of the mountain feeds into the city’s surface water supply, Lake Mary.
It’s an incredibly dense, overgrown and simultaneously beautiful forest. The forest resembles something closer to those of the Pacific Northwest.
But U.S. Forest Service simulations of a wildfire on Mormon Mountain show that it would burn hot through the dense forest and the aftereffects would be devastating to Lake Mary. Such a significant fire would render Flagstaff’s surface water supply unusable, forcing taxpayers to cover the cost of an additional 11 water wells at a cost of $2 million a piece. Similarly, a fire on the Mount Elden — Dry Lake Hills, the second component of the thinning project, would cause devastating flooding downstream in Flagstaff.
Those projections were included in the Forest Service’s recently released draft environmental impact statement.
But while Lininger says that he agrees with the federal agency that the project is important to Flagstaff, he insists that the proposed thinning is not an all-or-nothing proposition.
“As a fire ecologist, I see a serious problem with Forest Service assumptions reported in the EIS about effects of a hypothetical wildfire and supposed benefits of logging in the Dry Lake Hills area,” Lininger said.
Lininger’s opposition, as well as the opposition registered in comments filed with the Forest Service by the Center for Biological Diversity, focus on an age-old issue in thinning projects: the removal of large trees. The environmental advocacy group says that removing large trees, as well as large dead trees, will remove habitat for many species, but particularly the Mexican spotted owl and its prey.
The Center contends that the Forest Service’s proposal is “reasonably certain” to disturb owls by directly affecting their nesting areas and place where they are known to be active.
FOUR ALTERNATIVES
The Forest Service’s plan presents four alternatives, with much of the plan focusing on intensive logging to minimize wildfire risk to both Flagstaff and the mountain that supplies its water.
Two of the alternatives would conduct intensive logging in regions both north of Flagstaff and on Mormon Mountain, with one plan carrying out cable logging to meet the goals and the other using helicopter logging.
One of the options, which is considered unlikely, would take no action whatsoever.
Finally, a fourth plan would conduct minimal treatment utilizing mostly hand-thinning methods.
That’s the plan that the Center is pushing for, while Forest Service officials say they’re likely to blend the options, with hand-thinning likely to be recommended in the upper regions of Mormon Mountain. That’s where the mixed wet conifer forest occurs, which has a different fire regime history that doesn’t need frequent prescribed fires.
WILDFIRES THE BIGGER THREAT
But modern forestry management experts have graver concerns than logging when it comes to Mexican spotted owls: wildfire.
When the owl was first listed on the Endangered Species Act some 20 years ago, the ecologists worried about threats from timber harvesting. But intensive harvesting has all but vanished from the Southwest. And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service now considers stand-replacing wildfire the owl’s gravest threat.
Four pairs of owls were active in the Schultz fire burn area prior to 2010, when the blaze scorched 15,051 acres. That fire burned mostly at high intensity, as the Forest Service believes would happen under similar circumstances in the Mount Elden — Dry Lake Hills and at Mormon Mountain. The owls lost most of that habitat, but officials aren’t certain what happened to them. One pair is thought to have re-established nearby.
The species is proving to be more tolerant of disturbance than had previously been thought.
Dewhurst said that after 20 years of Mexican spotted owls being on the Endangered Species Act, scientists are still uncertain what is happening with owl populations. He said that restoring overstocked forests to a more open, natural condition is the best way to protect the forest and the owls.
“The Schultz fire showed us the price of inaction, and the fact that the voters of Flagstaff are willing to spend $10 million on the Dry Lake Hills project shows that they want this problem addressed,” Dewhurst said. “Over the long term, that’s going to be good for the owl and for us too.”
FWPP: Four Treatment Alternatives
How to protect the endangered birds from both logging and wildfire looms as a contentious issue in the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project. Read more
Alternative 1: No action
Under this alternative, no new areas would be analyzed for treatments, including tree thinning or prescribed burning.
Alternative 2: Proposed Action with Cable Logging
Alternative 2 proposes a combination of cutting trees by machine and by hand, and would use cable logging methods to remove cut trees on steep slopes. Prescribed burning (both pile and broadcast) would occur in both ponderosa pine and mixed conifer areas treated, and some areas are proposed for “burn only” treatments.
Alternative 3: Proposed Action without Cable Logging
Alternative 3 includes the same treatments as alternative 2; however, the implementation would differ as this alternative would not use cable logging methods to remove material. Instead, this alternative analyzes the use of helicopter logging and specialized steep-slope equipment to remove cut material.
Alternative 4: Minimal Treatment
Alternative 4 would treat fewer acres than alternatives 2 and 3, and would use hand and machine cutting methods and prescribed burning only. No cable logging, helicopter logging or specialized steep-slope equipment could be utilized; not all steep slopes are therefore proposed for treatment under this alternative.