Rim Fire Topic of Discussion

Excerpt from article by Guy McCarthy, The Union Democrat

Overgrowth in the Stanislaus Forest contributed to the intensity of the Rim Fire, and it remains a serious issue in more than 80 percent of the forest that did not burn, according to the Forest Service and panelist Tim Tate of Sierra Pacific Industries.

Part of the challenge in recovery efforts has been finding and building consensus among local concerned interests, said Mike Albrecht, of Sierra Resource Management in Jamestown, who chairs the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions group of loggers, environmentalists, government agencies, and others who support Forest Service projects to remove burned timber from the Rim Fire area. “There are very strong environmental groups that don’t want us to cut dead timber, they don’t want us to salvage the timber, and those groups don’t live here with us, but they have a strong influence.  They have a lot of money.  They have a lot of impact. “And we decided we really needed to make a statement on that,” Albrecht said.  “And that was a big deal because we had to get all 25 of our members to agree that, even though we all disagree how much timber should be salvaged, we all agree that some timber should be salvaged.”

In discussion, some Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions members were more focused on minimizing fire risk, rather than growing wood for the American people, John Buckley said. “It doesn’t mean that one (point of view) was a higher or lower priority, but recognizing that there were complex different priorities that could be considered out there,” Buckley said.