Decades Of Mismanagement Turned US Forests Into ‘Slow-Motion Time Bombs

[Sanguine]

Michael Bastasch | Contributor

    Wildfire experts say poor management, not global warming, is the major reason behind worsening wildfires.

    Forester Bob Zybach warned decades ago that environmental regulations and less logging would make fires worse.

    The Trump administration is doing more active management of lands, but is it enough?

Bob Zybach feels like a broken record. Decades ago he warned government officials allowing Oregon’s forests to grow unchecked by proper management would result in catastrophic wildfires.

While some want to blame global warming for the uptick in catastrophic wildfires, Zybach said a change in forest management policies is the main reason Americans are seeing a return to more intense fires, particularly in the Pacific Northwest and California where millions of acres of protected forests stand....

http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/08/mismanagement-forests-time-bombs/

[Wingnut]

Tree huggers are to blame for most of this. 

[KittenClaws]

Agreed.

Tree huggers, don't like land owners clearing brush, they don't like anyone clearing brush or cutting trees or anything, now they, and everyone else, reap what they have sown.

Time to tell these new agers to eff off.

[roamer_1]

As I sit here in a valley full of smoke, where saw mills used to be, I am here to testify.

A quarter million acres on average every year goes up in smoke. Just here in MT.

And with the loggers all gone, and their equipment all gone, all the roads they put in, gated off and in complete disrepair, and USFS can almost literally do nothing about it.

[Night Hides Not]

I worked two summers in college for what was then the California Division of Forestry, one at Saratoga Summit, and the other at Big Basin State Park. I learned a lot about forestry management during those two summers. Commercial tree farms, for example, would plant 7 trees for every one they harvested.

That was 45 years ago. Was glad to see one of my old fire captains get promoted up the chain.

Little factoid: a giant Sequoia produces over a ton of needles every year. You can imagine how much fuel to a fire those would add.