Op-ed opposing Utah forest burning quotes UPHE
Mike Garrity,executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, had a commentary piece in the Utah News Dispatch recently.
His particular commentary was on the proposed burning of the Pine Valley area in Dixie National Forest. That region lies between St. George and Cedar City. “The Forest Service estimates it will take 10 years to complete the project, which means people in southeast Utah will have to suffer through 10 springs and falls of smoke-filled air. According to Dr. Brian Moench of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment: “Prescribed burns have never been shown to reduce the public’s overall exposure to forest fire smoke. In fact, a recent study found that as many people die from prescribed burn smoke as from wildfire smoke. It’s unfortunate that the only way to protect public health from 10 years of Forest Service malpractice is to take them to court.”
Not only has it been scientifically shown that logging and burning may actually increase the severity of wildfires, but the plan contradicts and violates the Dixie National Forest Plan, which has specific requirements for Northern Goshawk, big game winter range, and old growth habitat, Garrity explained in his piece.
UPHE is an organization of health care professionals concerned about the adverse impacts of environmental degradation on public health. We have become growingly concerned about the human health consequences of smoke from intentional, or “prescribed” and “slash pile” burns. While we are not forest ecologists, in the era of an accelerating climate crisis and an obvious global wildfire epidemic, how forests are managed has become a major public health issue, and for that reason we were compelled to investigate the issue and to take a position. And as with medical research, we strive to align that position with the best science and the opinions of the most trustworthy experts.
Full commentary piece in Utah News Dispatch.