Congressman Ro Khanna Warns Forest Service May Be Endangering Lives, Calls for Hearing

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Congressman Ro Khanna says the U.S. Forest Service whitethorn beryllium putting Californians' lives successful information arsenic the effect of the agency’s wide utilized fire-fighting signifier known arsenic ‘post-fire logging.’

In the aftermath of an NBC Bay Area probe into the issue, Khanna, seat of the House Environment Subcommittee, said helium present intends to telephone for a proceeding connected the substance adjacent year.

“We volition marque definite radical work your reporting and we volition person this speech successful public,” said Khanna. “We yet are going to person the wood absorption sitting close there, nether oath -- they're going to perceive from scientists who person heavy concerns by astir commercialized logging.”

Post-fire logging, which has been utilized by the Forest Service implicit the past century, allows lumber companies to bargain and haul distant burned and dormant trees, astatine a discount, pursuing wood fires.

Supporters of the practice, including scientists astatine the national government, judge removing those trees reduces imaginable substance for aboriginal fires, thus, reducing the likelihood of higher severity wildfires successful the future. An expanding fig of scientists, however, interest removing burned trees often creates bigger, hotter wood fires.

The Caldor Fire burns supra the South Fork of the American River successful the White Hall assemblage of El Dorado County, Calif., connected Friday, Aug. 27, 2021.

“If you're making the wildfires worse due to the fact that you're taking down trees and you're expanding the dispersed and you're expanding the severity, past that is putting, by definition, much peoples' lives astatine risk,” said Khanna during an exclusive interrogation with the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.

Many of those burned logs and dormant trees person commercialized value. In selling trees to commercialized logging companies, the Forest Service collects astir $45 cardinal twelvemonth for its budget.

Despite repeated requests, the Forest Service declined to remark connected the ongoing statement implicit post-fire logging and the accrued disapproval surrounding the agency’s fiscal involvement successful the practice.

“What I privation to marque definite is that commercialized interests aren't dictating our policy, that subject is dictating our policy,” said Khanna. "My interest is that the wood absorption hasn't taken into relationship the wide technological opinion."

Khanna said successful an effort to scope a statement connected the champion mode to dilatory down California’s catastrophic fires, helium volition clasp a proceeding successful Washington D.C. adjacent year, summoning apical officials astatine the Forest Service and opposing scientists from crossed the state to attest earlier members of Congress. While a day for the proceeding has not yet been set, Khanna said helium hopes to clasp it aboriginal capable successful the twelvemonth to springiness the national authorities clip to reappraisal and reshape its policies earlier the commencement of adjacent year's occurrence season.

A 2019 study by the Investigative Unit, archetypal prompted Khanna to constitute a missive to the U.S. Forest Service, asking the bureau to reappraisal its logging policy.

Since then, galore reports from scientists person challenged the effectiveness of post-fire logging. The Investigative Unit got a archetypal look astatine the latest survey from Dr. Chad Hanson, laminitis of the John Muir Project. Hanson analyzed past year’s Creek Fire, southbound of Yosemite National Park. He recovered areas that were logged aft wood fires burned fastest and astir intensely during aboriginal fires.

“Even though it seems counterintuitive for a batch of people, removing some dormant trees and unrecorded trees from the wood really tends to marque fires pain faster and hotter,” helium said. “That oftentimes occurs adjacent towns, and erstwhile that happens, you tin person tragic consequences.”

At 1 point, the Creek Fire precocious 45,000 acres successful a azygous day, trapping hundreds of tourists astatine the Mammoth Reservoir. Some had superior injuries aft moving from what eyewitnesses picture arsenic a ‘wall of fire.’ Hanson’s findings amusement dead, fallen trees really sorb moisture from the soil. Instead of being “fuel,” helium contends these trees service arsenic occurrence breaks, slowing down a wildfire.

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Despite the caller research, supporters of post-fire logging support the process is indispensable to reducing substance connected the wood level and are convinced that unless much logging is done, wildfires volition yet hitch retired parts of California’s forests.

“The lone mode to woody with it, successful immoderate cases, is to bash post-fire logging successful immoderate areas to disrupt the continuity of substance into from the adjacent fire,” said Dr. Brandon Collins, a wood subject researcher. Collins works with the U.S. Forest Service, but spoke with NBC Bay Area lone successful his capableness arsenic a prof astatine UC Berkeley.

“If you play this retired agelong enough, we tin suffer a ample information of our forests.” said Collins.

Khanna says helium volition bring scientists, the U.S. Forest Service and lumber companies unneurotic to make a new, science-based program for reducing the menace of wildfire to lives and spot crossed the state.

“I don't deliberation it's for Congress to take which idiosyncratic is right, but what we tin marque a propulsion for is that commercialized interests aren't dictating this, that each of the technological perspectives are being considered,” helium said. “If determination are disagreements connected the science, fine, let's resoluteness that.”