Biomass logging harms forests

Many Americans have long felt that congress treats our national forests badly, annually appropriating funds to continue logging, mining, livestock grazing and other destructive uses. Now, congress has taken this abuse one step further, deciding to officially treat our national forests like garbage. Provisions in both the Energy Bill and the Farm Bill would dramatically increase "biomass" logging on our national forests in the name of energy production. Biomass production is the burning of organic waste to produce power. Historically this meant the use of agricultural residues like corn stalks. In a bizarre turn of events, however, members of congress are now applying the concept to natural forests on public lands, allocating millions in federal funds to subsidize the removal of trees.\nEmboldened by an anti-environmental administration, pro-logging politicians have decided that our national forests are nothing more than waste to be converted into kilowatts.\nSome believe that biomass operations on national forests focus on the removal of flammable underbrush -- a misperception that the logging industry takes great pains to perpetuate. In fact, biomass logging focuses on the removal of trees between eight and twelve inches in diameter. These trees comprise the forest canopy and can be over 80 feet tall. The flammable material that governs fire behavior is generally less than three inches in diameter and has no commercial value as timber or biomass.\nBy reducing forest canopy cover, biomass logging increases exposure to sunlight, creating hotter, drier conditions on the ground. It also leaves behind highly flammable slash debris. The result can be an increased risk of wildland fires. \nTo make matters worse, biomass sales are invariably part of larger timber sales targeted toward the removal of large trees. The biomass equipment, in fact, typically cannot operate until most of the mature trees have been cut down and hauled away. Thus, the biomass provisions in the Energy Bill and Farm Bill are actually encouraging increased logging of scarce old growth forests on federal lands. The Farm Bill alone would allocate $50 million of taxpayer money to advance this destructive practice.\nOne fairly typical biomass project would remove trees up to twelve inches in diameter for biomass production after ancient trees are logged within an inventoried, roadless area. The timber sale, known as the Crystal Adams project, is to be executed by timber industry giant Sierra Pacific Industries, which paid only about $69,000 for timber worth millions.\nIt is an all-too-common story, one that will become far more common if the biomass logging provisions are not stricken from the Farm Bill and Energy Bill when congress returns this week. Unless members of congress take a stand against the timber industry on this issue, forest ecosystems will be devastated across millions of acres of federal land for a few extra kilowatts.\nOne thing is certain. Until commercial logging is abolished in our national forests, timber corporations and their political apologists will concoct ever more creative subterfuges to justify continued logging. Biomass is only the most recent example.\nOur public forests are national treasures. Shame on congress and the administration for treating them like trash.