Here's a rule change that timber companies actively participated in that led to a science-based adjustment requiring more trees to be left. Seems to me the process worked in this case. So lets give everyone some credit here.

One of the reasons buffers are left is to provide wood to streams, many of which were "cleaned out" under old rules requireing landowners to remove all wood from streams after timber harvest. Much of that wood was piled and burned under those rules, which we now know was a huge mistake by the regulators. So having a portion of a buffer blow down is not necesarily a tragedy or failure. Might actually be the best thing for the fish. Buffers are there to provide wood to streams, as well as provide other ecological functions.