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Conservation Policy Initiative
THE LEGACY OF THE BISCUIT FIRE
The Biscuit fire of 2002 took place
in the heart of the Siskiyou
National Forest, a region
proposed by conservation groups for national monument protections (see Siskiyou Project). Although
the fire perimeter was estimated at nearly 500,000 acres, the Biscuit fire
produced a mosaic of burn intensities that is an important determinant of the
region’s globally distinct flora and fauna.
Unfortunately, the Biscuit area has become a rallying call for destructive post-fire logging projects that are not based in sound science or sustainable economics. The Forest Service, for instance, conducted a large scale logging project within the area’s most sensitive old-growth reserves and roadless areas, removing most of the large dead trees and impacting soils and forest regeneration.
Because of its emphasis on post-fire logging in roadless areas and old-growth reserves, the Biscuit logging project was widely debated, protested by conservation groups, and became a key policy focus of post-fire logging legislation. Working with scientists, the National Center published a report on the ecological and economic consequences of post-fire logging on the Biscuit that received widespread media coverage, including estimates on economic losses associated with below-cost timber sales.
Our cost figures
were later confirmed by an independent report from the Government Accountability
Office (GAO), which estimated that the Forest Service lost $2 million dollars on
Biscuit logging by selling burned trees for less than what the agency needed to
recover the costs of administering logging projects. According to the
GAO, delays on the Biscuit also were primarily the result of the Forest Service
responding to industry proposals to log in controversial roadless areas and
old-growth reserves in order to obtain unrealistic and highly controversial
logging volumes.
Photos by Kevin Schafer.
