Reckless Logging Will Increase Wildfire Risk for Mountain Towns
By Karen Maki
Over four million acres burned in California in 2020. Despite this unprecedented climate disaster, CalFire is poised to increase future wildfire risk for residents of Dunsmuir, Mt. Shasta City, McCloud and Castella by approving the Soda Springs Timber Harvest Plan (THP), which would use an unnecessarily destructive even-aged logging method, similar to clearcutting.
Changes to Forest Management Will Reduce Wildfire Risk
California officials and state agencies have repeatedly called for additional thinning to remove underbrush and small trees to reduce wildfire risk, but they do nothing to stop logging plans that create the same dense small trees. The Soda Springs THP is especially dangerous because it is so close to towns, and hence will expose residents to increased fire danger. One may remember that the Camp Fire that burned Paradise and the Creek Fire burned through plantations.
Yet Shasta-Cascade Timberlands, the Australian multinational timber company that owns the land, is prioritizing the short-term economic benefits of clearcutting over the potentially devastating effects on local communities.
More and Less Safe Types of Forest Management
There are two main categories of logging practiced in California: even-aged management and uneven-aged management.
After clearcutting or other forms of even-aged management harvest, a same-age and typically same-species conifer plantation is established. These plantations of dense young trees are easily ignited, and once ignited, burn fast and hot. Their temperature is often hotter than nearby diverse forests, and there are no large trees to break wind speed. The recent Bear and Creek Fires were made more dangerous by the plantations in their path, and the worst fire in California history, the Paradise Campfire, also burned through plantations.
Uneven-aged management is less risky and significantly more sustainable than clearcutting or other kinds of even-aged management. For example, with single tree selection, individual trees are targeted for harvest, but different ages and species of trees will remain, and plantations are avoided. With a group selection harvest, only 2.5-acre areas are cleared and plantations installed.
Dangers of Proposed Soda Springs Timber Harvest Plan
CalFire and other state agencies are currently considering approving the Soda Springs Timber Harvest Plan. The proposed logging site is 0.5–1.25 miles from Dunsmuir. This town and nearby Mt. Shasta City, McCloud, and Castella are on the edge of wilderness near Mt. Shasta in northern California. The Soda Springs THP includes 128 acres of near clearcuts, and will result in a same-age, same-species tree plantation, which will increase fire risk for nearby towns in an already high fire risk area. Embers from a wildfire can easily be blown two miles to nearby towns, especially if the weather is hot and the winds strong, conditions we are seeing with increasing frequency.
Instead of clearcutting, the Soda Springs Timber Harvest Plan should deploy selection logging, by which some old trees are removed and some are left behind, with the goal of retaining a canopy of 60%. Such a harvest would help to ensure that the remaining forest maintains a diversified forest structure with more older, fire-resistant trees, more moisture, and lower temperatures, keeping it less vulnerable to wildfire than a plantation.
The Bottom Line
Given the increasing impacts of climate breakdown, which were so evident during the 2020 fire season, any project that installs tree plantations — especially near vulnerable communities — must be opposed.
Home-owners are being asked to change where they build, use non-flammable building materials, and maintain 100 feet of defensible space. Shouldn’t the timber industry take some responsibility for not putting the public and other forest owners at risk? Shouldn’t CalFire protect the public’s safety and require any approved logging projects not to increase fire risk to nearby communities?
What You Can Do
Please contact CalFire and ask them to deny the Soda Springs THP using this sample letter to get started. You can also email Dunsmuir’s mayor, Mathew Bryan and John Stackfleth, Mayor of Mt. Shasta to ask them to take this issue up at the next City Council meeting.
The Sierra Club Stop Clearcutting CA campaign is also hosting a Timber Harvest Plan Training by EPIC Executive Director Tom Wheeler on January 13 at 6 PM. You can sign up here.
