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NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF STATE FORESTERS
444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite
540, Washington, DC 20001
Testimony of Stanford M. Adams
State Forester of North Carolina
On behalf of the National Association of State Foresters
Before the House of Representatives
Committee on Resources
Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health
November 10, 2005
Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act
Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the
Subcommittee. On behalf of the National Association of State Foresters,
I am pleased to have the opportunity to testify before you today on the
Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act. NASF is a non-profit
organization that represents the directors of the state forestry
agencies from the states, U.S. territories, and the District of
Columbia. State Foresters restore, manage, and protect state and
private forests across the U.S., which together encompass two-thirds of
our nation’s forests.
The National Association of State Foresters is
pleased to support the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act.
Every year, in every part of the United States, forest catastrophes rob
society of the clean water, wildlife habitat, wood fiber, beautiful
scenery, and many other important values that these lands would
otherwise provide. Repairing lands that have been ravaged by fire,
hurricanes, ice storms, and other disasters has to occur as quickly as
possible if these losses are to be avoided. This bill offers
improvements that will speed the implementation of recovery projects
following such events and authorizes badly needed research in support of
these efforts.
We are very encouraged to see language in the bill
recognizing that these events can occur across large-scale landscapes,
and that the ensuing restoration work needs to be coordinated across all
involved ownerships. It is of particular concern to State Foresters
that too often the lack of recovery work on federal lands creates
additional threats for adjoining state and private lands, all of which
have been impacted by the same disaster. The inclusion of landscape
assessment efforts across all ownerships, as well as a focus on the
preparation of Community Wildfire Protection Plans, will provide needed
emphasis on restoration and protection for all lands.
I would like to point out just a few examples of
how we have to deal with forest recovery treatments at a landscape level
if we are going to be responsible caretakers for the nation’s overall
sustainable forest resource.
In June of 2002, the Grizzly Gulch Fire in the
Black Hills of South Dakota burned nearly 12,000 acres, the majority of
which was on private land. The fire caused severe disturbance to the
watershed above the city of Deadwood, which later resulted in flooding
and damage to private property in Deadwood, following two heavy rain
events. In response to this catastrophic disturbance to the forest, the
South Dakota Division of Resource Conservation and Forestry worked with
private forest landowners to carry out 143 acres of contour felling and
102 acres of aerial re-seeding on the worst of the severely burned
areas. In addition, funds from the Emergency Watershed Program under
NRCS were used to remove debris from the streams flowing through
Deadwood and to build barriers to divert floodwaters. State Forestry
personnel provided technical assistance to private forest landowners for
the purposes of tree survivability estimates, hazard tree
identification, insect and disease identification and control, erosion
control, noxious weed control, and replanting of native trees and
grasses. Salvage efforts were coordinated closely with the local forest
products industry, which helped to implement innovative techniques, such
as roller chopping, to reduce soil erosion in salvaged areas. Heavy
rains following the rehabilitation and restoration work did not cause
flooding or damage.
When an ice storm causes widespread damage to
trees, the affected region frequently sees a buildup in harmful insect
populations and forest disease when pathogens find weakened, ice-broken
hosts that are primed for invasion. If any particular landowner is slow
to bring their forest back to a healthy condition, their land becomes
the center for this buildup. Eventually the insects and pathogens will
move from the concentration around damaged, un-restored forests and on
to surrounding healthy forests. Landowners who worked diligently to
restore their lands will be harmed by the lack of action on the part of
their neighbors. We are concerned that the Forest Service and Bureau of
Land Management, through their inability to act quickly, are
contributing to this problem.
At this very moment in the southern United States,
there is a growing danger of catastrophic fire due to the huge volumes
of downed woody material left in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Rita,
and Wilma. Any landowner who is unable or unwilling to move quickly to
get these ravaged lands cleaned up is contributing to this risk. And
once the fire starts on federal land, or private land, or whatever
ownership may be tardy in dealing with recovery, the flames know no
boundary.
On September 5th, 1996, Hurricane Fran
made landfall along the southern coast of North Carolina, carving out a
large swath of destruction across the state. Severe flooding, along
with nearly $1 billion in timber losses, faced many private forest
landowners. In response to this catastrophic disturbance, the State of
North Carolina provided $5 million to the North Carolina Division of
Forest Resources to help private landowners reforest their lands, and an
additional $5 million for wildfire mitigation and suppression.
Following Hurricanes Frances and Ivan in 2004, which caused widespread
destruction to forests in the western mountains of the state, we
received $500,000 in state funding to assist private landowners with
reforestation. These funds helped to quickly reforest 4,000 acres. Our
successful recovery and reforestation efforts on private land in North
Carolina should serve as a model and a goal for the Forest Service and
the Bureau of Land Management for their similar efforts on federal
lands.
For a number of years now federal lands in the
western United States have experienced an increasing number of very
large fires. Only a small percentage of these lands have received
treatments to restore and revegetate the burned forestland effectively.
In this case, the lands are characterized by large volumes of dead wood
and large expanses of highly volatile brush that persist for many
years. The likelihood of a re-burn in these areas – often as difficult
to control as the original fire – is very high. Accompanying this high
likelihood of yet another catastrophic fire is, again, the attendant
risk to any adjacent landowner.
For the Forest Service and BLM to act like
responsible neighbors and perform as good stewards over the large estate
of federally owned lands in the U.S., they need to be able to deal with
these disasters quickly and effectively. In recognition of the fact
that these catastrophes do not stop at any single boundary line, we need
to be able to deal with restoration issues across the various levels of
government. Acknowledging that the body of scientific research
available on the subject of forest recovery after major catastrophes is
limited, we need to better capitalize on the learning opportunities that
may present themselves when such disasters occur.
While federal forest managers are often constrained
by process and regulations, state and private forest managers are often
constrained by funding availability. The ability to move quickly to
treat private lands is virtually useless if adequate funding is not
available. State Foresters are pleased to see several funding sources
addressed in the bill. Of particular interest is the ability of the
Secretary to use FEMA funding in federally declared disaster areas to
restore forests on non-federal lands.
We appreciate the measures that are being proposed
in this legislation and look forward to helping in whatever way we can
to promote its passage. Thank you for the opportunity to testify
today. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. |
