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Kai Ryssdal: Wildfires are still burning across big chunks of
Arizona. That includes the Wallow Fire, which has so far ripped through
more than 800 square miles of mountain terrain. The state's biggest fire
ever. These kinds of mega-fires are increasingly common across the West.
It costs a lot of money to help protect forests before fire actually
strikes. The question: Who will pay for it?
From KNAU in Flagstaff, Claudine LoMonaco looks at one potential
solution.
Claudine LoMonaco: The trouble with the forests of Northern
Arizona begins from the ground up.
Taylor McKinnon: The floor of this forest is composed of several
inches of pine needles that have accumulated over a century. You have to
work your way down before you even get to the soil.
Claudine LoMonaco: That's Taylor McKinnon, an environmentalist
with the Center for Biological Diversity. He also points out the trees,
10 times as many as there should be. A century of suppressing natural
fires created this overgrown forest. Now, when fire starts, the pine
needles and smaller trees act as kindling, funneling flames up to the
crowded treetops above. And then...
Pascal Berlioux: All of a sudden hell breaks loose.
Claudine LoMonaco: That's Pascal Berlioux. He stands beside
McKinnon, pointing up to the towering Ponderosa Pines.
Pascal Berlioux: If you're on a good wind, that fire is then
going to jump from canopy to canopy and essentially destroys the entire
place...
Claudine LoMonaco: Spreading catastrophic fires for miles. It's
exactly what's happening right now with the Wallow Fire, 150 miles
southeast of here.
Berlioux is a French-born timber magnate. He and McKinnon, the
environmentalist, make an unusual pair. But they're part of a team of
former enemies who've come together to save Northern Arizona's forest
before catastrophic fires burn it down. The project would thin the
forest and restore its natural eco-system. That includes frequent, low
burning grass fires. It would also create hundreds of long-term jobs,
and get business to pay for it all.
That's where Berlioux comes in.
Pascal Berlioux: You'd probably get rid of all this small
diameter stuff here.
Claudine LoMonaco: Berlioux's plan is to let the big trees grow,
but cut down the overcrowded small trees. He'll turn that wood into
what's called Oriented Strand Board, or OSB. It's like plywood made out
of wood chips, and it's a lucrative business. Which is a good thing.
Officials plan to protect 2.4 million acres of forest. It's the largest
restoration project ever attempted, and could cost up to a billion
dollars.
Pascal Berlioux: There is no way this money is coming from D.C.
There is no way an increase of fishing or hunting licenses can pay for
that. We have to design an economy that can pay for restoration. And
that's what we're doing.
Claudine LoMonaco: Conservation groups will guide the thinning
and restoration. And the U.S. Forest Service will oversee the work. It's
taken years to build up the sprawling coalition of environmentalists,
industry, and government. It's even more remarkable given the personal
history of those involved.
David Tenney: There was a time when I wouldn't have given you a
nickel to sit in the same room with some of the guys from the Center for
Biological Diversity.
Claudine LoMonaco: That's Navaho County Supervisor David Tenney
talking about McKinnon's environmental group. In the 1800's, Tenney's
great, great grandfather brought the first sawmill to Arizona. In the
1990's, the Center for Biological Diversity destroyed the family
business when it shut down Arizona's logging industry to protect the
Mexican Spotted Owl.
David Tenney: And now, I not only sit in the same room with them,
I consider them friends.
Claudine LoMonaco: Tenney's one of the project's most vocal
supporters. It's something he could never have imagined 10 years ago.
But that was before the 2002 Rodeo Chediski fire. It burned nearly a
half a million acres and 400 homes. Thousands of people, including
Tenney, were evacuated.
David Tenney: The fire departments, when they would come into a
subdivision that they knew was in danger, they would put a flag in the
tree in front of your house. A green flag meant we can defend this
property. A yellow flag meant we'll try, but we don't know what we can
do. And I remember when we came back in that day, we came driving into
the driveway and hanging in our oak tree, right in front of the house
was a red flag. That's when it hit home.
Claudine LoMonaco: The fire convinced Tenney something needed to
be done. But he wasn't sure what until he met Pascal Berlioux. Berlioux
had just moved to Flagstaff with his family when the Rodeo Chediski fire
broke out. The fire got Berlioux thinking. Could an OSB plant save the
forests that lured him here? Taylor McKinnon says Berlioux won over
environmentalists by opening his books to them.
Taylor McKinnon: And nobody's ever done that before.
Claudine LoMonaco: This project is a major shift for the U.S.
forest service. Project head Henry Provencio says that for decades, the
agency treated the forests like a commodity, valuing logging over
conservation. Provencio says it's largely why the forests are in such
bad shape today.
Henry Provencio: We often pay for the sins of our past. We pay
for that in terms of public trust.
Claudine LoMonaco: He says he hopes the project will restore that
trust along with the forest. Work is scheduled to begin this fall.
In Flagstaff, I'm Claudine LoMonaco for Marketplace.
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