Forest Service must conduct analysis of sawtimber levels

Dear Honorable Randy Moore, chief

United States Forest Service,

As we enter the 2023 fire season, it is necessary to review and analyze not just our short-term wildfire suppression tactics, but also our long-term wildfire prevention plans. We know that active forest management is the best action we can employ when it comes to preventing catastrophic wildfires. Decades of wildfire suppression have led to enormous buildups of fuels in our forests, which must be removed without delay.

Congress has directed the Forest Service to manage the National Forest System for multiple use. These uses not only include outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat, but timber production as well. Forest product companies are great allies for active forest management, especially when it comes to fuels reduction. By partnering with forest products companies, we are able to more easily remove fuels from our forests while taking full advantage of the value of the wood products removed. Increasing timber production in our national forests will simultaneously remove dangerous fuels, reduce fire and disease risks, reinvigorate sawmill infrastructure, and revitalize rural economies.

Unfortunately, the Forest Service has let timber harvests stagnate on public lands, regardless of authorized levels and congressional direction. Harvest is taking place on only 0.1% of NFS acres each year, which leaves the National Forests overstocked and increasingly susceptible to bugs and fire, with reduced habitat diversity. The Forest Service has sold an average of 2.5 billion board feet per year for the last two decades, less than half of the allowable sale quantity called for in current forest plans. This has led directly to the loss of forest management capacity as mills have closed and logging infrastructure has disappeared.

As the Forest Service looks to take advantage of historic levels of funding provided by Congress to reduce hazardous fuel loads, we encourage the agency to analyze how much standing sawtimber and other high-value products there are within high-priority firesheds and insect and disease treatment areas, as well as in wildland urban interface areas. Having a clearer picture of potentially available fiber supplies will assist the private sector in making investment decisions that can support needed fuels reduction work. As a land managing agency, the Forest Service has a responsibility to utilize all possible solutions to reduce fire. If this analysis of standing sawtimber has already been completed, please share that existing data. We look forward to your response.

U.S. SEN. JAMES E. RISCH

R-Idaho

U.S. SEN. MIKE CRAPO

R-Idaho

U.S. REP. RUSS FULCHER

R-Idaho

U.S. SEN. STEVE DAINES

R-Montana

U.S. REP. MATTHEW M. ROSENDALE SR.

R-Montana

U.S. REP. RYAN K. ZINKE

R-Montana