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ALERT - December 4, 2006: Protect Our Woods joins allies to submit a response to the Draft Supplement to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the German Ridge Restoration Project in Hoosier National Forest17e. Prescribed Burning (Part 5 of 6)9. Fire’s Effects on AmphibiansAccording to Forest Service scientists, fire could drive amphibians out of the area they inhabit by making the soil hotter and drier, and by reducing the leaf litter that provides cool, moist refuges.To test whether prescribed burning affects amphibians in southeast U.S. pine savannahs, Schurbon and Fauth (2004, "Fire as Friend and Foe of Amphibians: a Reply". Conservation Biology 18:4, 1156-1159) determined the diversity and abundance of 25 amphibian species in 15 temporary ponds in areas that were burned 0-12 years ago in the Francis Marion National Forest. Pine savannahs are home to several sensitive species (including the flatwoods salamander and the Carolina gopher frog, Rana capito capito) and have among the greatest amphibian diversity in the U.S., with 31 species in the Francis Marion National Forest alone. "A single pond can easily harbor more species of frogs than inhabit entire states in the northern and western U.S.," says Fauth. Schurbon and Fauth found that amphibian diversity and abundance was far lower in areas that had been burned more recently. An analysis correcting for variations in environmental factors (such as leaf litter and pond pH) suggests that there are roughly twice as many species per pond in areas burned 10 years ago than in those burned three years ago. Similarly, the analysis suggests that there are about 50 percent more amphibians per pond in areas burned 12 years ago than in those burned three years ago. The Forest Service should be able to supply us with the survey data for us to review regarding adaptation of species that are not listed as MIS. From "Fire In Eastern Oak Forests - Delivering Science To Land Managers", November 15-17, 2005, Fawcett Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio: http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/4153/FireConfPdfs.html "There has been some research done by the forest service on amphibians. For example, up to 11,452 salamanders have been counted per acre! These salamanders usually live within a radius of 15 yards on the forest floor and so cannot be expected to leave the area during the fire and then return to populate the new hardwood forest promised to us by the forest service after twenty years." 10. RESTORE THE FOREST TO SOME PREVIOUS CONDITIONThe Forest Service wants to restore the Hoosier National Forest to some previous, “historic” condition. However, they may not be able to restore the previous environment because the conditions which once existed might be gone (ex soil layers). In other words, the Forest Service may not be able to create conditions from one hundred years ago.Furthermore, it may not be appropriate to restore the forest to some previous, “historic” condition. For example, the Forest Service wants to log and burn pine trees on the Hoosier because pines are non native. However, since the pines are doing well and the climate is changing maybe these pine should/could be the future best condition of the area. 11. RESILIENCYThere is also the issue of non-ecological vs. ecological restoration or the issue of resiliency, or restoring the Forest to a ‘stable’ self-sustainable state.Many of the projects the Forest Service is planning, including German Ridge, require high maintenance. This is especially true of early successional habitat creation and burns. According to the Forest Service, maintaining early successional habitat requires high levels of logging and burning. While this is most certainly job security for Forest Service managers, it doesn’t bode well for a self-sustaining forest. A forest composition that is only achieved and maintained by such radical interference with natural processes does not leave room for the forest to develop natural resilience and adaptability. In addition, since the Forest Service admits that burning will surely bring more invasive species, this “treatment” will keep the Forest Service either addicted to herbicide spraying, or labor intensive and expensive mechanical pulling. 12. BURNING MIGHT HURT THE HARDWOODSWe are concerned that the Forest Service is ignoring the existence of the hardwoods within and surrounding pine plantations. What hardwoods will be harmed as a result of road building, logging and burning? Where are the surveys?13. FOREST FIRES HAVE RELEASED TOXIC CHEMIALS INTO THE AIRResearchers from Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico have found that forest fires act to concentrate certain dangerous chemicals such as radioactive cesium, which then get into water runoff. Others have found high levels of 1-butadiene, benzene and xylene in the air after forest fires.Where is this analysis? We should have seen this in the cumulative effects analysis section of the DSFEIS. Questions about whether or not these chemicals will be generated from prescribed burns and where they will go is reason enough to stop all plans to burn on the Hoosier until we find the answers to these questions. The Forest Service did attempt to include the effects of road building along with the effects of the prescribed burn project in the cumulative effects analysis. However, of equal or greater concern is the cumulative effectof burning the residues of the chemicals such as herbicides that the Forest Service uses to spray for invasive species. How are these residues dispersed with burning? Has this ever been monitored? Click here for Part 17f. Prescribed Burning (Part 6 of 6)Protect Our Woods
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