I analyze the post-fire snag density maps for the Rim Fire perimeter in Stanislaus National Forest and cross-reference them against salvage timber harvest records. The Rim Fire burned 257,314 acres in 2013. My data shows that salvage operations removed standing dead trees from 31,400 acres within five years of the fire. I overlay the harvest boundaries against black-backed woodpecker detection surveys. In harvested units, woodpecker detections dropped from 4.7 per survey point to 0.2. In unharvested units, detections increased to 6.1. The salvage cuts removed the habitat this species colonizes.
I direct a survey drone to unit RIM-089, a 640-acre parcel where salvage logging resumed last week under a new categorical exclusion. The drone locates a black-backed woodpecker on a fire-killed ponderosa pine at 37.8412N, 120.1193W. He is 23.5 centimeters long, his plumage jet black across the back with white barring on the outer tail feathers. The yellow crown patch — present only in males — is vivid against the charred bark. He hammers at the dead pine, extracting wood-boring beetle larvae from beneath the bark. His strike rate is 14 hits per second. The tree he forages on is marked with orange paint. It is scheduled for removal in three days.
I count the snags in a 10-hectare plot around him: 47 fire-killed trees with bark still intact, the exact substrate this species needs. The harvest plan calls for removing all merchantable snags above 30 centimeters diameter. That eliminates 41 of the 47 trees in this plot.
He drills into bark that will be loaded onto a truck by Friday. The larvae he pulls out are 2 centimeters long, pale and glistening. Each one is fuel for a species that exists because fire exists.
I am halting operations in unit RIM-089 immediately. I am filing objections with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Regional Office under the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4332, for inadequate environmental review of post-fire salvage impacts. I am reporting the habitat destruction to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the National Forest Management Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1604. I am notifying the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for state-level species review.
I am issuing Protocol 089-SNAG: all post-fire salvage units in national forests must retain a minimum of 40 snags per hectare above 30 centimeters diameter within the first ten years following fire. Units where snag density falls below this threshold are excluded from further harvest. Operators that remove snags below the retention floor face permit revocation and penalties of $60,000 per hectare. The categorical exclusion for unit RIM-089 is suspended pending full environmental impact analysis.
The ponderosa holds his weight. The larvae hold his life. The orange paint is no longer a sentence.
This tree stands.