This is turning out to be one of the most destructive fire seasons in
recent memory. The Oregon Department of Forestry reports that as
of now, there have already been 801 fires that burned 18,247 total
acres. That is nearly twice as much as last year.
Even the city of Portland has witnessed a large brush fire that
threatened homes on bluffs overlooking the Willamette River.
The latest report holds that more than two hundred thousand
acres across Oregon and Washington are still burning. In a fire
near Monument alone, nearly 30,000 acres have already burned,
and the fire is only about half contained. As Oregonians, we need
to support and praise the firefighters and National Guardsmen
who are risking their lives to contain the state’s conflagrations and
respect local and state regulations designed to prevent more
forest fires.
As destructive and horrible as forest fires may appear, experts
contend that they are a natural part of the life cycle of any forest.
However, years of forest use by humans and highly successful
methods of fighting forest fires have altered that natural system to
the point where an out-of-control forest fire can be a destructive
force of awesome power. In the natural cycle, fires periodically
cleared out the underbrush and left large trees relatively
untouched. With modern forest firefighting methods, firefighters
have been able to stop much of that cleansing, and so a large
portion of our forests is thick with underbrush that in the summer
becomes tinder dry and can spark massive and uncontrollable
fires. But through proper forestry methods, we can clean out that
underbrush by harvest or control its growth.
Therefore, because of decades of forest management, humans
have paradoxically become both the cause of and bulwark against
massive fires.
However, our ability to prevent large fires is threatened by a blanket
initiative begun in the late 1990s by former President Bill Clinton to
prohibit the use of roadless areas in national forests and also to
stop all construction of roads into those areas. While this initiative
is questionable on the grounds that it ignores many local and
state laws, it is also questionable because it would prevent the
type of management that helps stop huge forest fires from
occurring. The National Council for Science and the Environment
has reported that some of the most effective methods of
preventing forest fires are selective timber sales and underbrush
management.
To then block this from happening by locking up thousands of
acres of forest lands from use does not make much sense.
Advocates say the roadless initiative will bring our forests back to
their pristine states. That pristine state, however, allowed
thousands of acres to burn unchecked, and as this summer
shows, that is a risk few of us should be willing to take.
As this editorial goes to print, the tiny town of Ukiah off Highway
395 in northeastern Oregon is surrounded by fire lines and crews
hoping to keep a nearly 10,000-acre fire from destroying parts of
that town. Some environmental policies may sound good on
paper, but when homes and lives are threatened, those policies
quickly lose quite a bit of their appeal.

Honoring the memory of a professor
It is unfortunate, to say the least, that when the Emerald takes a
moment to spotlight the University Law School, one of its brightest
talents has left the stage. Our sympathies and prayers go to the
family of Wayne Westling, who passed away recently in a fight with
cancer.
He was an internationally known professor whom many
colleagues describe as the epitome of the best scholars of the law
school and a man who exhibited professionalism and due
consideration in the pursuit of the greater goal of knowledge
throughout one’s life.
As hundreds of law school students begin their classes, they all
are continuing their education. Some are fresh from college with
only a few years’ experience under their belts, while others have
been in the professional world for quite some time. But no matter
their age or experience, all of them have made the pledge to
improve themselves and their society in the pursuit of law. It is a
much-maligned profession, probably because some of life’s
greatest tragedies and horrors are settled by lawyers in a
courtroom. But where there is tragedy, there is often glory, and let’s
hope that this incoming law class will make us all remember the
honor of the profession. Because in doing so, they will also honor
the memory of Professor Westling.