Post-Wildfire (Salvage) Logging - The Controversy

Module Description: The Fire Ecology and Management Series is provided by the Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources and includes six modules. This series “is designed to address both the general role of fire in ecosystems as well as specific wildfire management issues in forest ecosystems.” The six modules include Ecological Role of Fire, Historical Fire Regimes and their Application to Forest Management, Anatomy of a Wildfire – the B&B Complex Fires, Pre-Fire Intervention – Thinning and Prescribed Burning, Post-Wildfire (Salvage) Logging – the Controversy, and An Evaluation of Media Coverage of Wilderness Issues.

Post-Wildfire (Salvage) Logging – the Controversy is the fifth of six modules. This module “examines our current state of knowledge on post-fire salvage logging and restoration.” The module can be taught independently or as part of the series.

Module Contents: The PowerPoint presentation includes lecture notes and covers arguments that support and oppose salvage logging. The presentation also covers scientific research that “challenges some long-held beliefs regarding the benefits of salvage logging as a tool of post-fire management.”

The 48-page document provides information about the module and includes five sections: Module Description, Post-Wildfire (Salvage) Logging – the Controversy, General Lecture Outline, PowerPoint Slides with Instructor’s Notes, and Resources.