Protecting our forests is fighting climate change
Rebecca Diehl had an excellent op-ed in the Deseret News calling out the contradiction of “thinning” forests to protect them from wildfire.
“According to consensus science, temperatures across the planet are rising due to a few primary drivers: burning fossil fuels, deforestation and forest degradation from logging. What you may not realize is that our very own Utah leaders are engaged in large-scale forest degradation across public and private lands including the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests and open-space recreation areas, stoking our fears to sell it. I was evacuated during the Parleys Canyon fire, and it was indeed scary, but what I see happening in our forests and open space is making me far more afraid.
“It’s common sense to support proven measures to protect homes from wildfire including home-hardening, maintaining safe evacuation routes and efforts to prevent human ignitions, like the one that caused the Parleys Canyon fire. But instead of sourcing money for these crucial actions, local leaders have focused almost entirely on one very costly, ineffective and often counterproductive action: cutting down more forests.
“So-called “fuel reduction” logging is part of a Frankenstein experiment that has been run since 1997 with over 3,000 projects across nearly 1.2 million acres of public Utah land. And the results are in: less forest shade, higher temperatures, more wind, and a worsening water and climate crisis. Despite this, Utah leaders have embraced more logging than we’ve seen in decades — and with gusto.
“But that mazelike deforestation of oak trees in Parleys Canyon will not slow down the next roadside ignition or increase our snowpack. The herbicides sprayed across the masticated slopes have not made our watershed healthier or more resistant to wildfire.
What of the thousands of wood piles from leftover logging slash? Now they house ecosystem heroes like tiger salamanders and boreal toads, ermines, red squirrels, grouse and a host of overwintering pollinating insects. These critter condos will eventually be doused with gasoline and ignited to form a toxic plume of fine particulate matter and carcinogenic compounds. Until they are, which can be years, they represent an increase in fire risk. These piles pose a grave hazard for our homes and the wildlife — not a “buffer of safety” as purported.
“This is an issue UPHE has been working on for years. Dr. Brian Moench gave a presentation back in 2023 on the malpractice in Utah forests. Researchers at Carnegie Melon University found that “Damages from fire smoke in 2017 amounted to more than $200 billion (17% of the total across all emission sources in the contiguous United States). The monetary damages are from approximately 20,000 premature deaths; roughly half were due to wildfire smoke and half were due to prescribed burns.”
UPHE opposes prescribed burning because effective wildfire policy must prioritize forest preservation, climate stability, and clean air,rather than relying on practices that degrade ecosystems and expose communities to avoidable health risks.
Background on UPHE’s stance: