Since the war against wildfires began more than a century ago, more than 900 lives have been lost, professional forester Andy Stahl said at the 13th Environmental Law Symposium Thursday.
“But this war cannot be won,” said Stahl, executive director of the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
Stahl was one of two keynote speakers at the symposium, which drew about 50 students, faculty and community members. The symposium, organized by the University’s Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation, focused on the environmental risks and commercial implications of wildfires in the country.
Stahl compared the struggle to save forests with the struggles of America’s past wars. From the airborne battle tactics of Vietnam to the fueled conflicts in the Persian Gulf, Stahl equated the art of war to the tools of modern firefighting, including hazardous, fire retardant chemicals and back fires. And even if he didn’t offer an answer to the “wildfire war,” Stahl did provide an alternative: To clear vegetation surrounding homes in high risk areas and ultimately making those homes fireproof.
“When you’ve moved people out of harm’s way, you’ve ended the war,” he said at the end of his half-hour-long speech. “Let’s withdraw from it honorably.”
The second keynote speaker, Marc Fink, who is a staff attorney of the Western Environmental Law Center, gave a detailed presentation on the Forest Service’s refusal to assess the negative effects of post-fire timber sales.
“The Forest Service has lost the battle by shifting to logging forests to prevent future fires,” Fink said. “Hence, the timber industry’s voice is louder than that of conservationists.”
Fink said time-consuming “snags” inherent in injunction and appeal processes distract courts from the accelerating pace of post-fire logging.
He said it is important for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to disclose more information to the public about risks related to fire fighting methods.
“Historically, wildfires are not widely questioned by the general public,” he said. “If all this can get disclosed to the public, perhaps the Forest Service’s methods will change.”
The symposium ended earlier than expected due to a last-minute cancellation by the third keynote speaker, Scott Horngren, an attorney who has represented the timber companies in post-fire timber sale cases.
JELL editor Daniel Ellison, who coordinated the event with fellow editor Lan Nguyen, said it took about four months to decide on a symposium topic and invite recommended experts to speak on related issues.
Participants had several questions for the forest fire experts. The majority of questions centered on Fink’s case against post-fire timber sales and the Forest Service’s refusal to disclose risks associated with the use of flame-retardant chemicals.
While disclosure might not win the war, Stahl said, it should strike a blow for public interest.
“If we succeed in (making the Forest Service disclose this information), they will have to explain all their other tactics of firefighting,” he said.