States and the federal government own a lot of land, and they hold it in the public trust. That requires some complicated conversations among administrators about how to best manage land for the public’s interest. For Jason Hayes, the Mackinac Center’s director of energy and environment, that means using it to better human interests rather than leaving it untouched by human hands. I speak with him about this approach for the Overton Window podcast.

“There’s a popular fiction that has been promoted over the past several decades that you should wrap a big fence around areas and leave them as untrammeled and roadless wilderness,” Hayes says. “But if you don’t manage nature, Mother Nature will do it for you.”

He cites large wildfires, insect infestations and diseases that can spread out from unmanaged forests and harm people and places outside public land.

Human activity also affects unmanaged forests. “The majority of big wildfires happen because somebody does something,” Hayes says. Cigarettes, chain sparks and campfires have started more fires than lightning, he says, and this can rapidly spread through unmanaged forest.

“As forests age, they go through a seral progression from mineral soil to grasses to lichens to early forms of trees to more dominant forms of trees,” Hayes says. “As that happens you get ladder fuels — flammable materials, like grasses, shrubs, and smaller trees that allow fires to climb into the canopies of forests. If you abandon a forest then you will eventually get dense forests with a lot of ladder fuels as we see in Western states.”

The tendency toward more dense, fire-prone forested areas is compounded by the fact that we actively suppress wildfires in these supposedly unmanaged areas.

“We tell ourselves that we’re not managing an area. But at the first sign of a fire, we immediately send in water bombers and put it out,” Hayes says. “We’re pretending we’re not managing an area but we are managing an area.

“Additionally, as we learn more about forest ecology, we recognize that forests don’t only just go to old growth and stay there. It’s a dynamic changing state. So when wildfires come through, when pests like bark beetles, or disease come through, these natural events create openings that are very similar to those openings you create when you harvest an area.”

Those openings end up as good habitats for wildlife: large mammals like deer, elk and moose, or birds that use a mix of old-growth forests and open grass or shrub-covered areas. Hayes relates some of the ways to encourage wildlife and ecosystem services through various forest management techniques including harvesting, spacing, thinning, and the use of controlled burns.

“It sounds funny that we would support burning in a forest to protect it.” Hayes says. “But, if you do it properly, you’re reducing fuel levels and protecting the forested areas for the long-term. And in those areas where prescribed burns are used, you can see the intensity of future fires reduced, which allows them to regenerate quickly.”

There is more to forest management than limiting wildfire risk. Some people want land managed as habitat for specific species. Others prefer outdoor recreation activities like hiking, biking, camping, off-road-vehicles and more. Still others want to mine, harvest forest products, and drill for oil and natural gas. All land can’t be used for all purposes, and forest managers have to manage the demands of competing users and uses.

“That’s what the U.S. Forestry Service just did for North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest,” Hayes says. “They put together a long-term forest management plan. They hold a variety of public hearings. They allow public comment. Then they try to balance out the uses.”

While foresters ought to keep in mind a broader but disengaged public, they hear more often from diverse interest groups. “There are green groups, groups that are interested in endangered species, biologists, First Nations or Native groups; outdoor recreation groups, hunters, fishing; pretty much anyone with an interest weighs in on proceedings,” Hayes says.

The Overton Window for forest use is wide. To some people, the hands-off approach to land management is the only acceptable use, and some forests are managed for that. On the other end, managers also sell rights to cut down trees, harvest forest products and extract other resources from federal lands.

Hayes notes that extraction industries pay royalties or “stumpage” fees to governments for the privilege of harvesting and mining on public lands. “There’s a fee that you have to pay because you’re using a publicly owned resource to make a profit,” He says.

For areas valued for specific natural, historical, or archeological features, “The best way to protect the natural environment is to be very rich, because then you can afford to do things like set aside areas. If you’re living hand-to-mouth, you’re much less likely to preserve valuable land for future use,” Hayes says.

“North Carolina has done an excellent job balancing a multiplicity of uses when everybody wants access to this land,” Hayes says.

Check out our conversation at the Overton Window podcast.

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