World-class American scientist Dan Donato visited the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences at the CULS for a quarterly scholarship internship. Who is it? The first author of an article in the journal Science, the holder of a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, a moral authority, but above all an inspiration for all who do not believe that they can do something on their own against the majority. Let's learn more about his story…
The year was 2002, when in Oregon, USA in the area with a predominance of primeval coniferous forests, a fire broke out on more than 2,000 km2 (i.e. more than the area of the Šumava National Park and Protected Landscape Area Šumava combined). An ambitious plan for remediation logging was soon presented, promising to reduce the risk of further fires through the reduction of flammable biomass and cultivation intervention as the only way to sufficiently restore vegetation after the fire. The alternative opinion argues with the logic of unfortunate changes in the long-term development of the forest and interventions in the wilderness due to the remediation logging and subsequent plantings. However, neither side had its opinion based on a scientific study. And here a master's student – Dan Donato – appeared on the scene with his colleagues.
The design of their research was relatively simple, which is only to the benefit of the persuasiveness of the results. They compared the natural recovery and supply of flammable biomass in the areas after logging with those that were left to natural development. In areas left to spontaneous development, the natural regeneration reached 767 seedlings per hectare, which even exceeds the regional standard of cultivated stands. On rehabilitated and excavated areas, the restoration due to soil disturbances was not even a third. The results of the second part of the study also disregarded the arguments concerning the reduction of lying flammable biomass, when about four times more lying biomass remained on logged and remediated areas than on non-remediated areas. Such a dramatic difference is caused mainly by the slow and gradual disintegration of burnt trees on unrehabilitated areas compared to remediated areas, where all unsaleable material (branches, etc.) is left on the ground, thus increasing the risk of fire.
Few will probably be surprised that the conclusions of the study consider remediation after fire for the above reasons to be counterproductive both in terms of reducing the risk of further fire and in terms of recovery. Thus, we can even leave aside the public interest in nature protection, which the majority society has not yet succeeded in appreciating.
However, the whole case has no less interesting political consequences. By the time the article had been reviewed and approved for publication, the U.S.A. Forest Administration had joined forces with a group of professors (including six from Donat's home Oregon State University) requesting either a delay in the article until the original authors can respond to the group's comments or an explanatory comment as a column next to the original article. These efforts to interfere with academic freedoms and the standard course of review, bordering on censorship, were even supported by the United States Congressman, but the editor-in-chief of Science remained adamant and the article was published in January 2006. It was only in the August issue that a common exchange of views emerged between the two groups, where Donato and his colleagues defended the accuracy of the methods used and the statistical evaluation. This is the classic order in which the world of science proceeds, and from which the whole of society ultimately benefits, and not just certain interest groups.
Let us leave aside the individual heated events that lined the whole case and made it an explosive political issue far beyond the grounds of not only the University of Oregon, but also the entire forestry sector. A Czech or Slovak can imagine them, because in both our countries we experience stories with very similar themes. Donato and his colleagues faced great pressure in both personal and professional life, and yet they were able to stand up for their truth and not burn their fingers.
It is also interesting in the whole story that after obtaining a doctorate and postdoctoral internships, Dan Donato got a job as a senior researcher at the Oregon State Forest Administration.
Prepared by: Jiří Lehejček