Reader's View: We need more action on all fronts

The Idaho Statesman's "Fire Wise?" series ended appropriately with a quote from Forest Service scientist Jack Cohen, "Anything we do we need to do with the idea there is going to be fire." We face a situation that the Andrus Center for Public Policy aptly labels "the paradox of success." Decades-long successful fire suppression in our national forests created thick stands of brush and trees, at the same time the spread of residential development created a burgeoning wildland-urban interface. Climate change effects like earlier fire seasons, hotter summers and drought cycles add to the challenge.

A subject matter less explored by the Statesman is the achievement, on the ground, to make more national forest lands resilient to wildfire. Since the National Fire Plan inception in 2001, hazardous fuels reduction has been accomplished through thinning trees and prescribed burning to the point where the eight national forests in Idaho set a record of 74,000 acres in 2007, more than double the rate earlier this decade.

Is the work we've done enough? Not hardly. But it is a start. And in areas where we have reduced fuels we are better able to manage wildfire more effectively, whether preventing structure loss or steering the fire front around an area.

Living with wildfire in the future will require us to do many different things; there is no single silver bullet. We should expand our thinning over-dense forests and setting controlled fires during cooler seasons to decrease risks of large and more severe wildfires. Just as important is how private lands are treated; whether we will see continued expansion of the wildland-urban interface through home construction, and whether residences are constructed and landscaped in a manner to protect the developments from wildfire. We need more action on all fronts to get to the point where natural fires can again play a role in maintaining and restoring forest ecosystems.

Cecilia Romero Seesholtz is supervisor of the Boise National Forest.