Forests Need More Thinning, Study Says Gingrich Praises Professors’ Work; Chenoweth Calls Report ‘Working Tool’

Forestry professors told a congressional panel and House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday that timber “overcrowding” contributes to wildfires, insect infestation and disease.

Speaking at a joint meeting of the House Agriculture and Resources committees, University of Washington professor Chad Oliver said reduced thinning of green trees and reduced salvage of dead trees creates bad habitat for endangered species.

And Oliver said a decline in timber salvage efforts in national forests causes more logging overseas in environmentally sensitive places.

The professors’ study also concludes that recreational use of logging roads leads to soil erosion.

Martin Hayden of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Club immediately questioned the study, pointing out that the scientific panel lacked experts in erosion, water science and wildlife biology.

Hayden said the study was chartered by Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., who authored the salvage logging rider, a controversial waiver of laws protecting fish and wildlife intended to clear forests of dead and dying timber. The Clinton administration, under pressure from conservationists, halted the program last year.

Taylor, who picked the panel’s experts, was pleased with the results.

“The management of the Forest Service is contributing to the detriment of forest health,” he said.

Gingrich praised the report as “taking a truly entrepreneurial lead” in using science in forest management.

“Humans inevitably shape the garden they live in,” he said. “We’re going to have an impact.”

Gingrich lauded Idaho Republican Helen Chenoweth for her leadership role on the issue.

In an interview Wednesday, Chenoweth, who chairs a House subcommittee on forests and has been critical of Forest Service policy, said she would use the study to “move away from the emotion and the anger, and move toward a fact-integrated approach.

“We have a working tool now,” she said. “It gives us options, and it clearly shows the consequences of choices.”

The forest scientists volunteered their time and did not receive input from Taylor, Chenoweth said.

“They wouldn’t let anyone pay them,” she said.

The House committees also heard from University of Idaho professor David L. Adams, who said Inland Northwest forests have been overtaken by Douglas and grand firs, two species especially susceptible to insect and wildfire damage.

“The forests we see today are not the forests that were here 80 or 100 years ago,” Adams said. “We now have too many of the wrong type of trees.”

Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Smith, R-Ore., said he will forward the study to the Interior and Agriculture departments for their review.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE PANELISTS Washington Here is a list of the members Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., appointed to a scientific panel that presented Congress with a report on forest health Wednesday: Chairman Chad Oliver, professor of silviculture and ecology, College of Forestry Resources, University of Washington, Seattle. Thomas Bonnicksen, professor, Department of Forest Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. David Adams, professor, College of Forestry, Wildlife and Range Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. Neil Sampson, senior fellow, American Forests, Washington, D.C. Fredrick Cubbage, professor and head of Department of Forestry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. Scott Schlarbaum, associate professor, forest genetics, Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.