This is a perfect example of the unforeseen consequences of moving too quickly on something still uncertain; in this case the strict environmental controls over forest management which has created a worse environmental problem in addition to the economic problems which wiped out many people’s livelihoods in the virtually shut down California logging industry.
A burning question
Some fear that the closure of the state's farthest south sawmill eventually could lead to massive Sierra wildfires.
By Tom Knudson - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, January 22, 2007
TERRA BELLA-Inside the cavernous sawmill, a big log thundered across a metallic platform. Bam! It crashed into position on a cutting track. Shriek! A band saw sliced it into thick, cream-colored slabs.
Another log rolled into place. The result: more noise, more boards and more conifer-scented sawdust that hung like a woodsy perfume in the air.
The pace of the action was frantic. But it was also misleading. For by June, the Sierra Forest Products mill here may be out of business, stilled by years of dogged environmental opposition that have throttled the flow of national forest timber from the southern Sierra Nevada.
If that happens, something more may disappear than the last sawmill south of the Tuolumne River. With it could go the best hope of managing the forest by thinning the dense stands of smaller trees sapping the health from the Sierra Nevada and fueling massive wildfires.
"Without a mill, forest management will virtually cease in the southern Sierra," said Larry Duysen, the mill's logging superintendent.
Two decades ago, more than 120 sawmills peppered California from Yreka to east of Los Angeles. But a steep drop in national forest logging has forced many to shut down. Now only 38 remain and about 8,000 workers have lost their jobs.
None is more imperiled than Sierra Forest Products, a four-decade-old facility sandwiched between two orange groves along County Road 234 south of Porterville.
Once, it ran two shifts -- now just one. Once, it employed 250 people -- now 130.
Once, it had a mountain of logs available for cutting -- enough to last two years. Now less than six months' worth remain.
But while the industry's decline may appear to be a victory for the environment, it also comes with a catch. With California's forests growing more dense and fire-prone every year, who -- or what -- will thin the woods?
One answer can be found among the soot-black ridges and charred trees around Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear.
In the 1980s, a sawmill -- the Big Bear Lumber Co. in Redlands -- worked the area. But when the San Bernardino National Forest ratcheted down logging because of environmental concerns, the mill struggled and died.
The forest, though, kept growing. By the late 1990s, it was a tangle of trees competing for sunlight, moisture and nutrients. Then, drought struck. Trees grew weak -- and bark beetles finished them off. Stands that once glistened as green as Seven-Up bottles turned brown and yellow.
Worried homeowners and federal land managers began to clear out the dead trees. But with no local mill, progress was too slow, and too costly. Vast quantities of wood were buried in a landfill or burned. In October 2003, huge wildfires ripped through the area. More than 1,000 homes were destroyed; six people died.
