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| | Controlled burning hot topic at forest meeting
Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau SPRINGDALE - Controlled burning was a hot topic Monday at a public discussion of the Ozark National Forest. Terrible wildfires in western states have put priority on controlling fires at the U.S. Forest Service, said Charles Richmond, forest supervisor of the national forest in Northwest Arkansas. He told the crowd of at least 50 that the pace of burning is likely to increase from the planned 5,000 acres a year. His comments came during a public discussion of the forest's proposed management plan, which is scheduled to be finished by fall of next year. The burns remove leaves, debris, fallen logs and other fuel for wildfire. That scale of burning might be justified in the arid west, but it is out of proportion for Arkansas, said Tom McKinney of West Fork, spokesman for the Ozark Headwaters Group of the Arkansas Sierra Club. The Forest Service is not making the state safer from fires, but it is destroying the leaves and undergrowth vital to local plants and animals, he said. It also blanketed Fayetteville in smoke recently, he said. "You're trying to pretend that you don't get 40 to 60 inches of rainfall a year around here," McKinney said. McKinney's remarks were disputed by Steve Duzan, wildlife biologist for the forest, and Jack Davis, the national forest's silviculturist, or expert on development and care of forests. Duzan said that historic research shows that there were cycles of fires in the forest's long-term history. Davis said the fires help oak trees thrive by removing competition from plants that grow well in shade. McKinney asked where he could find the environmental impact study backing up those remarks. Duzan replied that the Forest Service is conducting such a study now. Then the service should stop the burning until it has a study of the burning's effects, McKinney said. McKinney also said a study commissioned by the Forest Service in 1990 does not support the claim that fires were common in the forest "before settlers were here." Davis replied that recent research on the root systems of trees that were alive in the 1600s show that there were fires. "I'm more in favor of letting nature take care of itself," McKinney said. |
