Trump says the roads prevent forest fires. The truth is more complicated

The Trump administration announced its intention earlier this week to cancel the policy of preserving the unnecessary area in 2001, also known as the “road -free base”, which restricts road building, registration and mining across 58 million acres of national forests in the country.

The logical basis of the administration was that the “outdated” base in which the irreplaceable had exacerbated the risk of wildfire. in statement With the announcement of a policy change, US Secretary of Agriculture Brock Rollins said that “the management of our forests properly keeps them from destructive fires and allows future generations of Americans to enjoy the reap of the benefits of this great land.”

Environmental scientists agree that the United States needs to increase the efforts of land management to reduce the possibility of risk seminars. But experts do not believe that more ways that penetrate the country protected forests in the country are the best way to do so. Most of the fires-especially those that greatly affect societies-begin in private lands that are not affected by the base that cannot be roads, and remote areas of fire risks can usually be managed using firefighters who have been transferred.

Cameel Stevens-Roman, the temporary director of the Forest Restoration Institute in Colorado and Associate Professor of Forestry and Ringland Supervision at Colorado State University, said that canceling the road-free base “does not change our current federal land management ability to improve management and stop forest fires.” “What is open to the areas you currently do not practice is to allow wood extraction.”

Before the Forestry Department – the US Department of Agriculture Agency – touched the road -free base at the end of the Clinton administration in 2001, the agency has struggled to pay for the current road maintenance in the national forests, not to mention building new roads.

But the policy was controversial, facing Multiple challenges From the states, private companies and legislators, the Republican Party He saw the rule as A barrier in front of commercial registration. He was I was canceled in 2005 Through the administration of then President George W. Bush, it was repeated the following year by the Federal Provincial Court. Judicial cases Of the states, including Alaska and Edaho, she tried to compete with her forests, and some Republican lawmakers have facilitated Land transfer From federal property in order to circumvent the protection from the base that does not road.

Recently, in 2020, during the first term of President Donald Trump, forest service The rule, which is not a road The Tongas National Forest, which has an area of ​​9 million acres in Alaska. Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska praised the cancellation.Enhancing opportunities for Alaska to earn a living“But this decision was Reverse in 2023 Under the president, Joe Biden.

This time, the Trump administration is to emphasize the registration of the logical basis for the photography of the road -free base. The press statement of the US Department of Agriculture on the decision affects the industry for a short period only, saying that the road -free base “hurts me Economic jobs and development“This cancellation will allow” responsible wood production “. Communication devotes more attention to the dangers of the supposed wildfire created by the base, noting that 28 million acres of lands covered by Al Qaeda are at a great risk of wildness, and he says that its cancellation” will reduce the risk of forest fire and help protect surrounding societies and infrastructure. “

The head of the forest service, Tom Schultz, in a The column was published on the forest service siteShe said that the amount of land lost in front of the wildfire in the areas that cannot be every year “has multiplied more than weakness” since the beginning of the baseless rule, although it does not provide evidence that this is it because From the road -free base, not other factors such as climate change and the most linked conditions associated with it. Schultz did not respond to a request for comment.

The effects of US Ministry of Agriculture and Forests are that the roads can help get firefighters and equipment to remote forests to reduce the risk of fires, or fight fires when they erupt. It is true that land managers sometimes need to reach dense forest areas to get rid of enlarged plants and dead wood that can nourish a small fire and turn it into a fire outside of control. They do this with practices known as tree thinning, which involves Remove shrubs and small treesAnd the prescribed burns –Carefully managed fires have been set.

But five experts told Grist that the relationship between roads and forest fires is not as simple as the US Department of Agriculture announces. Although the roads can help transport firefighters and their tools to the wild – whether to fight existing forest fires or to perform the prescribed burns – they also increase the risk of unintended fires of vehicles and camps fires.

“If we will say anyone leading to greater danger” – or without ways – “I don’t think we have the full picture to evaluate this,” said Chris Dan, an assistant professor in forest engineering, resources and management at Oregon State University. “These two components may reflect each other.”

in 2022 search sheet Looking at forestry fires across the border-however, those who move between private lands and lands run by the Forestry Department, including areas that are not a student-and the participating authors, found that the vast majority of forest fires begin in private lands, with contributions as a sign of road density in the region. In other words, more roads are associated with more fires. This research also showed that most fires destroy 50 or more buildings by humans in private lands.

last TicketThis is the same since 2021, focusing on roads and areas that are not purified within 11 national forests in the Western states. Den and its participating authors found that most of the forest fires between 1984 and 2018 began near the roads, not in areas that do not extend, and that there was no connection between the lack of roads and the “intensity” of the fire-as the vegetation that killed it. However, fires were in areas that could not escape the initial repressive efforts, and were tending to burn more space.

Dunn indicated that it is not all big, severe, bad fires. Some ecosystems depend on accidental burning, and its research indicates that the volume of fires in areas that cannot make the landscape more flexible for climate change. He said that a problem arises when forest managers look at the forests exclusively “through a lens of wood and dollars on trees”, which can create a bias against trees mortality – even if it is environmentally correct that the trees burn or deviate from the workers. It seems that this economic perspective is compatible with the Trump administration, which has repeatedly indicated the public lands and water in terms of “”Resources capabilities“

Steve Pine, a firefighter expert and a professor of Fakhri at the Center for Biology and Society at Arizona State University, agreed with other experts. Grist spoke however to cancel the baseless base, “It is not related to fire protection; it is related to the registrar.” In April, US Secretary of Agriculture Rollins directed regional forest service offices to Feeling timber increases by 25 percentCreated with an executive order that Trump signed in March and ordered federal agencies to “”Increase immediately the production of local wood“

In response to GRIST for comment, a US Agricultural Ministry spokesman said: “While some research indicates that the methods can increase the possibility of human fires, they are also working to improve the arrival of the forest administration to reduce fuel and the efforts of firefighting.” They refused to respond to a question about opening public lands in favor of interests, except for saying that the agency “uses all strategies available to reduce the risk of wild fires”, including harvesting wood.

Even if it is certainly more ways to reduce the risk of fires, it is not clear that canceling the road -free base will lead to more of them. James Johnston, assistant research professor at the Institute of Organizations, Communities and environments at the University of Oregon, said the forest service lacks employees and financing to maintain the road system that you already own, and it is likely that building new areas is a challenge. The Trump administration has only exacerbated the problem The launch of 10 percent of the agency’s workers Since he took office.

“No one goes until next week, next month, or at any time in the future, building roads in an area the size of the state of Idahu,” he said, referring to 58 million acres covered by the road -free base. He added that private companies that want to build new roads on public lands also face barriers in front of building roads because they need to obtain environmental permits. On the new roads on forest service lands, they will have to comply with laws such as the Law of Endangery Sumatals and the Clean Water Law. Johnston also indicated that many areas that are not suitable for roads are inappropriate because they are very slope or rocky.

Ryan Talbot, a lawyer in the northwest of the Pacific Ocean of the Naghara Willger Guardians, indicated that it will take a long time for the US Department of Agriculture to cancel the baseless base. “There is an operation,” he said. “In normal times, they will put a notice in the federal registry declaring that they intend to cancel the uncomfortable base, and then there will be a public suspension, then they will reach a final decision.” A spokesman for the US Department of Agriculture said that an official notice will be published in the federal registry, which is the daily magazine of the government that publishes newly enactive and proposed federal rules, “in the coming weeks.”

Stevens Roman, at Colorado State University, said that if the Trump administration is serious in alleviating the risk of fires in the forests, it will make sense to increase the financing of forest services and employees, decisively, to perform burns and described trees in areas that already have roads. She said: “We have a lot of work that we can do in the areas that have been left before we go to the irrefutable areas.”

This article was originally appeared in Barrier in https://grist.org/wildfires/wildfire-prevenation-drouds-trump-repel-loadless-rule-weborest-service/. Grist is a non -profit and independent media organization dedicated to the novel of climate solution stories and a just future. Learn more in Grist.org.