Fire surrounds a pair of deer in a Northwest river in this picture which traveled the Internet. Contributed photo

One of the most dramatic photographs from recent fire seasons is the image of a pair of deer stranded in a river between towering walls of flame. What we don’t know from looking at this picture is what happened next. Most likely, the fire consumed the dense vegetation, including massive thickets of large trees, on either side of the river. What happened to the deer can only be guessed. Let’s just say this wasn’t a “Bambi” movie. We don’t want to lay odds on a happy ending for the unlucky deer.

With this grim image in mind, we need to continue to make the case that all public lands deserve active management. We’re looking at a win-win outcome if the public and environmental groups can be persuaded that entry along riverbanks is not just a crass grab for extra timber.

Roger Williams, forest supervisor for the Malheur National Forest, understands the need for active management along waterways. He also understands the prevailing distrust directed toward land managers who even hint that they want to tiptoe into a riparian area.

“There’s been some instances where I think folks have gone into those areas and attempted to go into those riparian areas to remove commercial-sized timber for the wrong reasons,” he acknowledges.

However, Williams adds, “Does that mean we can’t go into riparian areas? No, it doesn’t mean you can’t go into riparian areas. It means you have to have a different mindset, you have to have a different objective, and it just takes more analysis and more time. … I’m trying to make some business decisions in order to be successful.

“A lot of the areas that we have that would be called off limits, ‘no touch’ … I think if we continue with this mindset long enough, we run the risk of losing those areas, too. Management needs to be done in those areas, but it needs to be done very carefully.”

Well said. We would suggest a new twist on Dave Traylor’s laudable concept of public safety fire corridors. Traylor hopes to see the day where land managers can create “a healthy fire-resistant swath of forested land up to one mile on each side of a road.” Well, if the state is going to determine that our waterways really were just navigable roadways of commerce, why not share the concept of roadside buffers? Why not work toward creating a healthy fire-resistant swath of forested land up to one mile on each side of a river? Do we want to protect forests along streams and rivers, our most precious resources, or do we want to see them reduced to charred banks and blackened, mud-choked tributaries where catastrophic fires found their most abundant fuel loads? It seems like a simple choice. Careful, low-impact management wins the day in the court of reason.

However, the political world often excludes reason. That’s why riparian area treatment will not appear in the three environmental impact statements evaluating plans for restoration of the Flagtail, Easy and Monument fire areas on the Malheur. We understand the reasoning. It’s a sad and frustrating reality. It’s a misguided and tremendous waste of resources. Managers will leave burnt trees that offer little more than fuel for future fires and feeding grounds for destructive insects. These vestiges of failed management bear only one liability. That liability is their location. They abut streams or rivers.

Maybe we need to remind the skeptics of riparian management that we’re not living in a “Bambi” movie. Lightning (not malicious hunters) will continue to ignite most of our fires in Grant County. Excessive fuel loads will remain an unforgiving factor in how much devastation results. Sadly, in the real world, “Bambi” and the rest of the forest animals may wander into the middle of a river to escape a catastrophic fire, just like in the photograph. But we’re not writing a script with a happy ending. Their escape is unlikely. All we can do is try to manage these areas so rivers and streams can become refuges, not disaster areas where we will lose the watersheds and the wildlife we all so desperately want to protect.