Inner Voice
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Fall 2007. FSEEE appeals federal farming. Rural houses provide fuel for fires.
FOOLHARDY FARMING On April 30, 2007, Land Between The Lakes Area Supervisor Bill Lisowsky decided to continue corn and soybean farming on 2,100 acres in one of the southeast’s largest national recreation areas. As a part of his decision, Lisowsky approved the use of urea fertilizer and more than twenty different pesticides. The farmers permitted by his decision will also be allowed to plant genetically engineered varieties of corn and soybeans, such as Roundup Ready soybeans, produced by biotech giant Monsanto and engineered to be resistant to the company’s herbicide Roundup. Lisowsky determined that no part of his decision threatened any significant environmental harm. Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics disagrees and has filed an administrative appeal. In our appeal, we argue that Lisowsky failed to acknowledge substantial gaps in scientific knowledge regarding the potential harm to humans and wildlife from many of the pesticides he has authorized. He also did not consider the adverse effects urea fertilizer is known to have on amphibians. Inexplicably, his analysis looks only at the “synergistic” effects of fertilizer together with pesticides; after concluding there is none, he does not even address the direct effects of urea fertilizer alone. Former Land Between The Lakes employee Paul Schaefer separately appealed Lisowsky’s decision. Schaefer, now a U.S. Forest Service environmental specialist in Nevada, brought the appeal in his capacity as a private citizen, a right permitted under Forest Service regulations (which FSEEE compelled the Forest Service to write in 1998). Schaefer points out that the Forest Service has never monitored the farmers’ use of pesticides to ensure they comply with label directions and Land Between The Lakes rules. Schaefer also points to scientific studies showing that the area’s amphibians range farther from streams and wetlands than the modest buffers the Forest Service provides. President Kennedy created Land Between The Lakes in 1963 to boost the recreation and tourism economy in the depressed region. Congress transferred management authority from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the Forest Service in 1998. The Land Between The Lakes Act directs the Forest Service to manage the area for recreation, wildlife and environmental education; farming is not authorized as a permissible use under the Act. The Forest Service’s regional office in Atlanta will rule on FSEEE and Schaefer’s appeals this summer. If the ruling is adverse, FSEEE and Schaefer will continue the litigation brought a year ago, which required a public decision–making process before the Forest Service continues to permit commercial farming. Before that case, the Forest Service had been issuing farming permits since 1998 without any public notice, participation or environmental review.—Andy Stahl With more than 250 homes destroyed in July’s Lake Tahoe–area Angora fire, Reddy Squirrel wants to remind everyone that “Forest fires happen, be ready!” Not only do they happen, they do so in spite of past fuel treatments and forest thinning. As the map below shows, the fire burned through hundreds of acres that had been recently thinned. Within the thinned areas, the Angora fire spread along the ground, largely sparing the fire–resistant ponderosa pine trees. But even a grass–fed ground fire is sufficiently hot to incinerate flammable homes. A wooden deck, a shake roof or vegetation close to the house can provide fuel that feeds home ignition. What’s not so apparent is that many of the pine trees surrounding the burned homes are green and alive. Angora was no raging crown fire when it passed through residential areas. These homes ignited from embers, burning branches and low ground fires creeping through dry pine needles. In 2004, a forestry consulting firm prepared a community wildfire protection plan for most of the Lake Tahoe basin. The plan evaluated the ignitability of roofs, siding, attached decks and vegetation surrounding homes in each neighborhood. The report found that 81 percent of homes in the area through which most of the Angora fire burned had no defensible space around them, and 88 percent had flammable roofs or attached decks. The plan concluded that “most structures do not have both appropriate roofing and siding materials. The majority of structures have decks and overhanging unenclosed features where embers can be trapped and ignite a home. Defensible space is also lacking around most structures.” In 2001, Forest Service fire scientist Jack Cohen explained the science behind Reddy Squirrel’s message. According to Cohen, “Wildland fire will always occur in forest and rangeland fire environments…we may have some choice of when and where we have wildland fire, but we do not have the choice of not having wildland fire.” Cohen pointed out that it makes more sense to make “ignition–resistant” homes and communities than it does to fire–proof forests or count on firefighting to save homes. He pointed out that “during extreme wildland–urban fires wildfire control and structure protection have limited tactical effectiveness and have not prevented disastrous residential destruction.” With all the attention the Forest Service, the Bush administration and Congress have focused on logging to create so–called “healthy forests,” Reddy Squirrel reminds everyone that houses are often more flammable than forests.—AS |