DAN DONATO is enduring trial by fire. A graduate student at Oregon State University in Corvallis, he is under attack from academics and politicians with links to the logging industry. His offence? Suggesting that 鈥渟alvage鈥� logging to remove dead timber can slow forest regeneration after a fire.
This week Donato and his critics spar in Science, which in January published a paper by Donato on the recovery of a large expanse of Douglas fir hit by fire in 2002. He found that two years later there were fewer seedlings in areas that had been salvage logged.
Now Science is publishing complaints that the paper lacked 鈥渁dequate context鈥�, alongside an attack on its statistical methods from Brian Baird, a Democrat congressman from Washington State. Baird wants to expand salvage logging, and in February grilled Donato in a tense congressional hearing.
Advertisement
Donato stands by his findings, and says independent statisticians have backed his methods. He now hopes to return to 鈥渟ome semblance of a normal life鈥�.
