Collaborative Group Supports Rim Fire Salvage Plan

PRESS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE NOW – August 27, 2014

Contacts:
Mike Albrecht, TuCARE (209) 984-1146 mikealbrecht@mlode.com
John Buckley, CSERC (209) 586-7440 jbuckley@cserc.org

The Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions (YSS) collaborative group supports the U.S. Forest Service moving forward with its newly released plan to selectively treat portions of the Rim Fire by salvage logging a portion of the dead trees.

Over the past year, the Forest Service went to great lengths to engage the public in the planning process that led to the approval of the newly released final environmental impact statement (FEIS) and Record of Decision. Not only were materials provided through the normal channels, but the Stanislaus Forest and the Regional Office of the Forest Service also sponsored webinars, open house sessions, and two major Rim Fire science meetings for stakeholders in Sacramento.

Mike Albrecht, chair of the YSS group, pointed out, “Because there are such vast numbers of dead trees that blanket many areas of the Rim Fire, there are plenty of dead trees for every need. This plan assures that enough timber can be salvaged to meet our timber industry needs while leaving more than enough behind for wildlife and watershed purposes. This is a win-win plan.”

John Buckley, co-chair of the YSS group, agreed, “If the Stanislaus Forest plan failed to remove some significant amount of the millions of dead trees, the resulting fuel accumulation as the trees fell over would pose extreme risk for another devastating fire. By strategically removing dense thickets of snags in some areas that can be managed for low fuel levels, the Forest staff can better ensure that a new re-growing forest will actually survive.”

YSS is an independent collaborative group made up of business interests, conservation groups, the timber industry, tribal representatives, motorized recreation representatives, and other diverse interests. The collaborative group earlier this year publicly supported salvage logging treatments being done before the dead trees deteriorate to the point that they no longer have any economic value as wood products. At that point, taxpayers would have to pay to have the dead trees removed to reduce fuel risk, rather than have the timber industry pay to remove the dead trees for lumber.

YSS also supports the Forest Service moving as quickly as possible to the next important phase of restoration, which is replanting high severity burn areas where no green trees survived to provide seeds for new young conifers. That reforestation planning effort is the next stage for the Forest Service in its extensive restoration efforts for the national forest portion of the Rim Fire area.