DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. (AP) 鈥� Using chainsaws, heavy machinery and controlled burns, the Biden administration is trying to turn the tide on worsening wildfires in the U.S. West through a multi-billion dollar cleanup of forests choked with dead trees and undergrowth.
Administration officials in interviews and during testimony maintained that the thinning work is making a difference. Work announced to date, they said, will lessen wildfire dangers faced by more than 500 communities.
Yet one year into what鈥檚 envisioned as a decade-long effort, federal land managers are scrambling to catch up after falling behind on several of their priority forests for thinning. And they鈥檝e skipped over some highly at-risk communities to work in less threatened areas, according to data obtained by The Associated Press, public records and Congressional testimony.
With climate change making the situation , mixed early results from the administration鈥檚 initiative underscore the challenge of reversing and that allowed many woodlands to become tinderboxes. The ambitious effort comes amid dissatisfied with progress to date and criticism from some environmentalists for cutting too many trees.
鈥淎s much money as we're receiving, it's not enough to take care of the problems that we are seeing, particularly across the West,鈥� said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. "This is an emergency situation in many places, and we are acting with a sense of urgency."
Congress in the last two years approved more than $4 billion in additional funding to prevent repeats of destructive infernos that have leveled communities including in California, Colorado and Montana.
By logging and burning trees and low-lying vegetation, officials hope to lessen forest fuels and keep fires that originate on federal lands from exploding through nearby cities and towns.
The enormity of the task is evident in an aerial view of California's Tahoe National Forest, where mountainsides are colored brown and gray with the vast number of trees killed by insects and drought. After work on the Tahoe was delayed last year, Forest Service crews and contractors recently started taking down trees across thousands of acres.
鈥淭he forests as we know them in California and across the West, they鈥檙e dying. They鈥檙e being destroyed through fire. They鈥檙e dying from drought, disease and insects,鈥� said forest Supervisor Eli Ilano. "They鈥檙e dying at a pace that we鈥檙e having trouble keeping up with.鈥�
Earlier this month, tracked vehicles including one known as a 鈥渉arvester鈥� worked through dense stands on the North Yuba, clipping large trees at their base and stripping them bare of their branches in just seconds, then piling the trunks to be burned later. Elsewhere, work crews walked slowly behind a wood chipper as it was pulled along a forest road, stuffing the machine with small trees and branches that were cut to clear the understory.
The infrastructure bill passed two years ago with bipartisan support included a requirement for the administration to treat forests across 10 million acres 鈥� 15,625 square miles or 40,500 square kilometers 鈥� by 2027. Less than 10% of that was addressed in the first year.
鈥淭he Forest Service is obligating hundreds of millions of dollars, but not in the areas required by law,鈥� said Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Forest Service spokesman Wade Muehlhof said the agency was confident in the administration鈥檚 strategy, but declined to say if it would meet the acreage mandates.
Key to the government's strategy is addressing forest patches where computer simulations show wildfire could easily spread to inhabited areas.
Architects of the Forest Service鈥檚 strategy based it on tens millions of computer wildfire simulations being used to predict areas that pose the greatest risk. Those scenarios showed fires on only 10% to 20% of the land would account for 80% of exposure to communities.
鈥淭his is a mapped plan through time, where we can laser-focus on one highly important issue: the problem of communities being destroyed by wildfires started on public lands,鈥� said Forest Service fire scientist Alan Ager.
An AP analysis of federal data reveals the scale of the challenge: Hundreds of communities are threatened by the potential for fires to ignite on federal forests and spread to populated areas.
In 2022, the Forest Service came up short of its treatment goals in four of 10 areas targeted as priorities. One was the Tahoe National Forest's North Yuba region, where the agency addressed only 6% of the acreage planned.
Small towns tucked into the forest鈥檚 canyons escaped disaster two years ago when the Dixie fire raged just to the north, destroying several communities and burning about 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers) in the Sierra Nevada range.
The increased logging needed to reach the government鈥檚 lofty goals has gained acceptance as the growing toll from wildfires softens longstanding opposition from some environmental groups and ecologists.
鈥淕one are the days when things were black and white and either good or bad,鈥� said Melinda Booth, former director of the South Yuba River Citizens League. 鈥淲e need targeted treatment, targeted thinning, which does include logging.
Even where thinning is allowed, officials face other potential constraints, such as protecting older groves important for wildlife habitat. A Biden inventory of public lands in April identified more than 175,000 square miles (453,000 square kilometers) of old growth and mature forests on U.S. government land.
The inventory will be used to craft new rules to better protect those woodlands from fires, insects and other side effects of climate change. It's uncertain how that will affect the thinning program.
鈥淲hat's driving all of this is insect infestation, drought stress, and all of that is related to the climate,鈥� said Dominick DellaSalla, chief scientist at the conservation group Wild Heritage. 鈥淚 don't think you can get out of it by thinning."
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Matthew Brown, Terry Chea, Caleb Diehl And Camille Fassett, The Associated Press
