Forestry subcommittee hearing gets contentious over OSU research paper

A controversial one-page report in the prestigious journal Science last month filled the Medford City Hall council chambers to overflowing Friday afternoon.

The paper, "Post-Wildfire Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk" by six researchers led by Oregon State University graduate student Daniel Donato, was the focus of a sometimes heated debate during a field hearing of a House forestry subcommittee chaired by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River.

The controversy was sparked during intense grilling of Donato by U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., co-sponsor with Walden of the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act (HR 4200), a forestry bill that would speed decisions on post-fire salvage.

"Our goal was present the data and let people draw their own conclusions," Donato said. "We didn’t want to make any specific management recommendations."

"I find that disingenuous," interjected Baird, who seemed particularly upset by the title of the article.

Advertisement

"The grammar of it, my friend, is a generic continuous generalization," he added. "If I was your reviewer, I would have said your title was deliberately biased ... people are taking this to imply far more than the study suggests."

He charged the study was published to influence policy, an accusation Donato repeatedly rejected.

"This does not preclude salvage as a management option," he said of the study results.

The controversy over the three-year study of a section of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire flamed up when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management decided on Feb. 6 that Donato had violated rules in a $300,000 federal fire research grant prohibiting use any of the funds to lobby Congress.

The protocols of government-funded research specifically prohibit reference to any legislation before Congress, Walden observed. However, the journal’s editors have accepted responsibility for inserting the reference to the legislation, Hal Salwasser, the dean of OSU’s College of Forestry, testified during the hearing.

The agency suspended funding for the study's final year, then reversed itself the next day following criticism that the Bush administration was stifling academic freedom for political reasons.

"The fact a one-page paper has generated this level of discussion underscores the paucity of direct scientific information that exists on the effects of management intervention following natural disturbances," Donato told the panel.

More than 250 people crowded into the chambers, prompting Medford fire chief Dave Bierwiler to waive the 200-person capacity limit.

Joining Walden and Baird in the hearing were Democratic U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio of Springfield and Jay Inslee of Washington.

One of 11 experts testifying at the hearing, Donato didn’t back off his study that suggested seedling regeneration was reduced by some 71 percent because of salvage logging operations.

He explained the study covered a series of plots, half of which were salvage logged while the others were not.

The unlogged plots were then followed through time, he added, to make sure those seedlings didn’t also die.

But upon pressing by Walden, Donato acknowledged he believed the BLM had cause for reviewing the process.

"Yeah, I think there were some issues where there was miscommunications and some perceptions of certain verbiage that raised some questions" about the report, Donato responded.

"Did you have a project investigator you were supposed to report to prior to submission to any publication of your work?" Walden asked.

"That was less than clear," Donato replied. "The communications between the agency and the university turned out to be an unclear two-way street."

However, he said the team had submitted the data at a joint fire science program meeting in November and to the project inspector Tom Sensenig, a BLM ecologist who now works for the Forest Service.

Walden countered that he had an e-mail from Sensenig that indicated Donato had not told him the paper had been submitted for publication.

Donato repeated it was a miscommunication, one that had been resolved.

Baird, who taught statistical analysis in college, questioned the study’s methodology.

"You have chosen a methodology for analysis and data report that is subject to significant misinterpretation," Baird said. However, Donato stood his ground, later noting the study should not be perceived as a threat to HR 4200.

Inslee, who has called for an investigation by the Interior Department’s Inspector General into the funding withdrawal, cited Donato for what he described as humility in the face of the public debate.

"I found your study to be critical ... and there is evidence that logging may have some consequences we may not fully understand," Inslee told Donato.

"We are really in a country today that is living under a cloud of suppression of science from this administration," he said, noting that includes everything from global warming to birth control.

DeFazio said he wasn’t overly concerned about that study and the resulting controversy, noting it isn’t any surprise that logging equipment damages seedlings.

"That, to me, doesn’t take much study," he said, later adding, "I read stuff I disagree with all the time."

However, DeFazio said he believes the Bush administration has an "aversion to science."

In his testimony, Jerry Franklin, a professor at the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources, said more concern should be focused on the health of green forests than on salvaging burned timber.

"We need to move on," he said.

Rich Drehobl, a retired BLM Medford District field manager who originally asked for the study, took issue with the way the funding withdrawal has been portrayed.

"The notion the BLM is stifling academic freedom is absolutely false," he said, noting the agency’s concern was that the contract was not being met.

While he disagreed with Inslee on nearly every point, he agreed that an investigation was in order, but one which considers why the study is being allowed to continue.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.