The Smokey Wire : National Forest News and Views

What in an “object”?

Greenwire reports on controversy over a ~5,000 square-mile marine monument designated by the Obama admin: “Judge restarts lawsuit over Atlantic monument.”

Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Jonathan Wood: “Fishermen have waited a year for the government to respond to their lawsuit challenging a clear case of Antiquities Act abuse — locking fishermen out of an area of ocean as large as Connecticut.”

The 2016 proclamation states that “it is in the public interest to preserve the marine environment, including the waters and submerged lands, in the area to be known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, for the care and management of the objects of historic and scientific interest therein;”

Is this monument an “object”?

The proclamation cites the Antiquities Act, which “authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected;”

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” We’re all familiar with this thought experiment in observation and perception.

So what if an investigation by the Washington Office (WO) of the US Forest Service visits the Petersburg, and Thorne Bay Ranger Districts reviewing the Tonka and Big Thorne timber sales, and they conclude in a report never intended to be made public, that thousands of trees fell in our public forest illegally? Does it make a sound in local newsprint when finally revealed? Not a peep was heard from the Petersburg Pilot on what would surely merit the highest level of local, and regional if not national newsworthiness.

Does the loss of millions of dollars in revenues to the communities of Petersburg and Thorne Bay make a sound on local public radio? Well, no. Although there were two CoastAlaska news reports, the first one misleadingly claimed the agency findings of fact were merely accusations by an environmental group regarding “mishandled timber sales.” The title of the second news report would have us believe the Big Thorne timber Sale was “short on timber,” and simply “a mistake.” At no time was the Tonka timber sale out of Petersburg ever mentioned in either of these stories.

A timber sale requires a contract which once signed, is a binding legal agreement enforceable by law. The WO investigation team determined the contract was neither enforced, nor could a valid copy be provided upon request. But that’s not all. Many more records necessary to assure proper oversight of millions of dollars in public resources were also found— to not exist.

There’s one of two possibilities here. Either public records exist, records necessary to assure the public that laws were followed — including the prevention of timber theft — or those records were destroyed to protect the perpetrators.

These systematic failures to comply with law on two different ranger districts in two separate timber sales can hardly be a “mistake.” The WO findings of monetary losses to municipalities were raised during a recent open house on the central Tongass planning to Tongass Forest supervisor, Earl Stewart. Stewart tried to dodge the question, was heckled, but still feigned ignorance of the WO findings of fact. This exchange was omitted from CoastAlaska’s news coverage of the meeting. Large-scale timber theft on the Tongass has been well documented in a white paper published in 1996. 20 years later, all the carefully designed agency methods to assure that this doesn’t happen again were systematically ignored in the Petersburg and Thorne Bay Ranger districts.

So either there is a system of gross maladministration, mismanagement and incompetence on the Petersburg and Thorne Bay Ranger Districts, or there exists a conspiracy of willful disregard of agency protocols, public trust, and public laws.

As Ani Difranco has noted, freedom of the press is meaningless if the press refuses to ask questions. News production is often referred to as the first draft of history, and this astonishing investigation revealing millions of dollars of taxpayer losses to the Petersburg borough and the community of Thorne Bay never made the local news roundup of 2017.

This April 4th will mark a full year since the public was first alerted to this Washington Office investigation, and it is time to hold accountable, not only the agency perpetrators, but the gatekeepers of local news.

A forensic accounting of this matter is essential.

David Beebe has been a Southeast Alaska resident and commercial fisherman for over 3 decades, During that time, he has closely followed issues related to environmental, social and economic policy, and has served on several non-profit boards, and council seats.

Our discussion of past landscapes reminds me of a very neat thing to do which would have been impossible before digitized manuscripts. In the early part of the 20th century, a fellow named John Leiburg surveyed many of our western forests (as did others in the East) and gave detailed descriptions of what the forests of the time were like. Because it was 1897-1905 or so (publication dates), Leiburg could see the contrast between what he called “Indian” and “white man” occupancy.

You can go to this very cool site, find the area you are currently living (if it’s one he covered) and look through the document. You can also make it word searchable and search on what you are interested and download the reports. Here is one of the hits I got for the Little Belt Mountains in Montana when I searched on “fire.”

BURNS.
The areas burned over since the advent of the white man comprise in the aggregate 111,600 acres. The devastation has been wrought during the last thirty-five or forty years, chiefly since the location of Neihart and Barker mining camps. However, during the Indian occupancy there were many fires, as shown by the age of the forest and the composition of the stands.
No large area of the reserve has remained untouched by fire during the last one hundred and fifty years. The most extensive unburned tracts are at the head of Middle Fork of Judith River and contain 3,000 or 4,000 acres. They have not been touched by fires during the last three hundred and fifty years. Since the advent of white men fires have been most severe and widespread in the two northern tiers and the most southern tier of townships, and during the last century and a half of Indian occupancy the most extensive burns were at the head of South Fork of Judith River, extending across the main divide of the Little Belt Mountains and including most of the lower slopes of the Musselshell drainage. The age and composition of the forest show that relatively more ground has been burned over during the occupancy of the region by the white man than during the last three generations of Indians, as during the forty years of the white man’s occupancy 22 per cent of the reserve was laid waste, and during the preceding one hundred and ten years 58 per cent was burned over.

IMHO there are also really good descriptions of how trees grew back then.. here’s one from the Absarokas..

When a tract of forest situated below the upper subalpine areas between the 8,000 and 6,500 foot levels is destroyed by fire lodgepole pine almost always follows as the primary restockage in at least 98 per cent of the cases. It is always set exceedingly close, having 10 to 20 seedlings to a square foot of ground in favorable situations. The close-set trees develop long, slender shafts, and as the stand becomes older the natural process of thinning begins. The final result is that when the stand reaches 80 to 100 years in age it is filled with long, slender dead trees, and is a veritable tinder box. Most of the stands of the ages mentioned are choked with such accumulations of dead and fallen timber. Further additions to the inflammable material are furnished by the wreckage of the former forest, as often in a forest through which fire has run there is left standing a mass of seasoning timber, although every tree may be killed. Gradually the fire-killed trees are thrown down by the wind, forming great tangled masses of kindling wood for future fires to feed on. All of the destructive fires of recent years appear to have originated, or at least to have gained headway, in the debris that litters the close-set lodgepole-pine stands, and as these constitute the great mass and hence the most valuable portions of the forest, they need to be particularly guarded.

I encourage you to check out your local Forest Conditions report and share any interesting insights here.