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One hundred years ago, an event took place in North Idaho that continues to have a major effect on our forest environment and management policies. On August 20, 1910, toward the end of an unusually dry summer, gale-force winds suddenly struck, transforming multiple existing fires into a huge, explosive conflagration that burned 3.1 million acres of forest, as well as numerous towns, mining camps, homesteads, railroad trestles, and other structures. Approximately 100 buildings (the eastern third) in Wallace were destroyed.

Miraculously, only 85 people died (although many more were seriously injured), mainly thanks to heroic efforts of individuals such as USFS crew foreman Ed Pulaski, who led 42 of his firefighters into a mining tunnel, where he commanded them to lie on their faces while he threw water on the burning support timbers of the tunnel before being overcome by the heat and smoke. Pulaski and all but six of his men survived and, although the survivors were “in a helpless condition” when rescued, all eventually recovered.
After the fire, many forest stands previously composed of white pine, larch and fir ended up regenerating with lodgepole pine. Also, serious soil erosion occurred on steep, denuded slopes, leaving vast expanses of exposed bedrock in many drainages. In fact, due to soil damage some areas never reforested and remain brush fields to this day. An estimated 30 to 40 percent of the fire area subsequently re-burned due to the dead timber left by the fire. In addition, a bark beetle epidemic developed following the fire and killed millions more board feet of white pine. Much of the burned area is now stocked with even-aged timber and heavy fuels, thus making conditions ripe for another catastrophic fire.

Forest management policies were forever changed. At the time, the fledgling U.S. Forest Service was being considered for elimination but the huge fire clearly demonstrated the importance of this agency, which immediately started a policy of aggressively suppressing all wildfires. (In 1950, the Smokey Bear campaign was created to help promote this policy.) This very proactive fire suppression approach has also contributed to the heavy fuel build up in our current forests.

This year, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the event, the Inland Empire Society of American Foresters annual meeting will focus on the 1910 Fires: their history, impact on forest management and policy today, and the likelihood of such devastating fires occurring in the future. The meeting will be held, quite appropriately, in Wallace, Idaho, on May 20 – 22, 2010. For more information about the meeting and how to attend, visit www.iesaf.org

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The expertise of a forester can be an invaluable asset as landowners work toward improving their forest. However, there oftentimes is confusion about who qualifies as a forester and how he or she fits into land management.

It is the role of a professional forester to maintain the balance between human needs and desires, and our forests’ ability to sustain these “services.” A forester not only sees the need to build a house but also incorporates science and biology to help understand how the landscape will respond to the removal of needed resources.

More than a hundred years ago, at a time when our forests were being harvested with little regard for the future, a father asked his boy, “How would you like to be a forester?” The boy, Gifford Pinchot, who later became one of the first (and most notable) professional foresters in the United States, later remarked, “I had no more conception of what it meant to be a forester than the man in the moon…. But at least a forester worked in the woods and with the woods—and I loved the woods and everything about them….” (Reference: ForestHistory.org)

Among his many accomplishments, Pinchot was instrumental in forming the Forest Service and urging President Teddy Roosevelt to protect and manage forests for future generations. He also worked to help define forestry as “The greatest good for the greatest number in the long run.”

Since Pinchot’s time, the forestry profession has become more specialized and diverse. Today’s foresters—university extension foresters, consulting foresters, state and federal foresters, urban foresters, industrial foresters, research foresters, etc.—fill many different roles and play an important part in determining how our forests are managed while working for the “greatest good.”

Although this diversity strengthens the profession, it can also lead to confusion as to who is, or is not, a forester. In essence, a forester is an individual who has obtained a four-year degree in natural resource management and works in the forestry field. Two professional organizations, the Society of American Foresters (SAF) and the Association of Consulting Foresters (ACF), provide competency and credentialing standards for foresters. The main difference between the two lies in how specific the certification is. The SAF offers its members a Certified Forester (CF) designation, which is open to all types of professional foresters, whereas the ACF offers its credentialing system specifically to Consulting Foresters (those foresters available to assist private forests owners on a fee basis). You can get more information on these two organizations and a list of qualified foresters in your area by visiting their respective websites at safnet.org or acf-foresters.org.

Regarding consulting foresters (like Inland Forest Management, Inc); they play a unique role in that they focus strictly on the welfare of the forest landowner. These foresters avoid conflicts of interests, such as buying logs or logging, and adhere to a stringent Code of Ethics.

Obviously defining what, or more importantly, who a forester is goes beyond training and experience. It is ultimately defined by the resource. In the famous words of Aldo Leopold, another leader in the field of forestry, “Conservation is a state of harmony between land and man.” It is a forester’s duty to help preserve this harmony.

Examples of Duties Performed by a Professional Forester:

• Preparing forest management plans
• Monitoring and assessing forest health, and developing management strategies for protecting the forest from insects, disease, and wildfire
• Preparing and maintaining inventories of forest resources
• Measuring and appraising timber volume
• Preparing harvest plans
• Marketing forest products
• Managing wildlife habitat
• Analyzing wildfire hazard
• Participating on teams with other natural resource professionals in the development and preparation of environmental assessments, environmental impact reports, and environmental impact statements.
• Providing expert testimony during litigation
• Managing community watersheds for water and timber production
• Educational assistance to forest landowners

(This article is also appearing in the Inland Northwest Land Trust newsletter www.inlandnwlandtrust.org.)