Читать книгу The Best-Laid Plans - Randal O'Toole - Страница 11

The Forest Service often claimed that the softwood timber species they wanted to grow, such as Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, “needed” clearcutting for optimal growth. In fact, in many areas the harsh conditions created by clearcutting were more ideal for less valuable hardwood trees and shrubs, such as alders, maples, and oaks. Forest managers applied herbicides, often from helicopters, to kill the hardwoods and allow the softwoods to grow. Because of differences in the way that hardwoods and softwoods grow, managers had a small window of opportunity every spring during which herbicide spraying would kill hardwoods without hurting the softwoods.

Herbicide opponents charged that the Forest Service sprayed chemicals whether or not they were needed. DuLaney’s report proved this to be true. As part of reforestation, many national forests routinely built one or two herbicide applications into the K-V plans for every sale. In turn, regional offices would give the forests an annual target to spray so many acres with herbicides so the regional offices could forecast their share of K-V overhead. Forest managers who were rated on their ability to meet targets had no incentive to find out whether herbicide spraying was actually needed on a particular clearcut because the money was available and if they didn’t spend it, they might fail to meet their target. Many managers admitted to DuLaney that, during the years when cutting rates were low, they sprayed herbicides during the wrong time of the year, when they knew spraying wouldn’t do any good, just to meet their targets.