Proposal Writting
Qin 1
Kai Qin
ENGL
11/21/2019
Providing sufficient funds for increasing logging in Santa Fe National Forest is right, because selective cutting is one of the most important ways to reduce the risks of wildfires. The most effective method that can be used to reduce the risk of wildfires in Santa Fe National Forest is to diminish the risk of intensity and quickness with which any possible fires may spread. According to Nijhuis, fires should be kept from burning intensely and spreading so quickly. Diminishing the risk of intensity and quickness is the most effective strategy that the United States Forest Service has been employing for over a decade by treating the forests stands with risk of wild fires with prescribed burning and selective logging. Prescribed burning and selective logging solution is not strictly aimed at preventing all possible fires from happening. Prescribed burning and selective logging solution, however, is aimed at reducing the risk of severe and large burns in an event of the occurrence of a wildfire in Santa Fe National Forest.
One other very important factor that needs to be taken into consideration when using this solution is for these treatment areas to be effective in reducing the severity and scope of wildfires, they have to be large. According to Nijhuis, treatment areas need to be thousands of hectares or even tens of thousands of hectares for them to be effective. One major issue that has always undermined the use of treatment areas strategy has been the use of small scale treatment projects due to scarcity of person power and funding. To curb small scale treatment limitation in Santa Fe National forest through the use of prescribed burning and increased selective logging, sufficient funding should be allocated to the forest’s wildfire prevention measures. Prescribed burning and increased selective logging solution is a scientifically proven method to reduce the scale and severity of wildfires in forests.
(possible new paragraph) Roderick Nash (cite the name of article here) identifies the importance of the protection of the wilderness by outlining several arguments to show the value of the wilderness. These arguments include the fact that the wilderness acts as a reservoir of various normal ecological processes; sustains biological diversity; influences American national character; nourishes American arts and letters; sustains human diversity; and acts as an important educational asset that helps in developing environmental sustainability.
Works Cited
Bassett, Steven. “Wildfire Risk Assessment.” 22 March 2018, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57b62cb1ebbd1a48387a40ef/t/5b0d8e6d6d2a73fa9 a91226b/1527615136172/GSFFC_WildfireRiskAssessment_FullReport.pdf
Nash, Roderick. “The Value of the Wilderness.” 1977.
Nijhuis, Michelle. “Forest fires: Burn out.” Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science, 19 September 2012, https://www.nature.com/news/forest-fires-burn-out-1.11424
United States Department of Agriculture. “Santa Fe National Forest.” Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/santafe/fire/?cid=fsbdev7_021059
United States Environmental Protection Agency. “What Climate Change Means for New Mexico.” August 2016, https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016- 09/documents/climate-change-nm.pdf