Study: ‘Intense’ forest thinning best way to ease future wildfires [Captain Obvious story]

SIERRA VISTA Herald/Review ^ | CASSONDRA STRANDE

[Inyo-Mono]

My only comment was that most of the forests here in California, unlike Germany, are in remote wilderness areas that are difficult to reach in the 14,000 foot high Sierra Nevada range. Even the U.S. Forest Service is not allowed to bring any kind of motorized vehicles into the wilderness, so clean up by hand crews would be nearly impossible as the poster was suggesting. Fire is the only way that these forests can be cleared.

In fact, as we have every Summer, a huge fire was raging in the mountains for two months. They had to let it burn because they was no way to reach it to fight it. The houses you see on the news are of course near heavily developed areas. I am a firm believer in cleaning up the underbrush and removing too many trees as a forest management tool, but fire is really the only way to do it here.

[dools0007world]

So we have remote wilderness because we do allow vehicles into these areas. We also do not allow the use of airplanes in some places—even to rescue firefighters. Probably due to envirowachos.

Yo Inyo-Mono, you can try to spin the story any way you deem necessary. But you choose to ignore my seminal point: Because of the existence of some bonafide wilderness area, you believe we are far better off having no forest management at all.

It is not a sustainable premise.

[PapaBear3625]

The liberal/environazi solution will be for the USFS to hire companies at prohibitive prices to go in there and clear-I know because they already do.

Rather than having lumber companies PAY the government for the trees. What happens to the trees?

[Inyo-Mono]

??? This is all I said in my original post

"Do they have millions of acres of forest in inacessable wilderness in Germany."

Then in my second post I said:

"I am a firm believer in cleaning up the underbrush and removing too many trees as a forest management tool, but fire is really the only way to do it here."

How you came to think that I believe we should have no forest management at all is beyond me.

[jimfree]

It’s called forest management.

[crz]

Hire someone to do it. But, in your case, I would single out the healthiest trees to leave stand and then cut. Space the leave trees out to about 50 to 60 feet apart. So if you draw a square, you’d have a tree on each corner about 60 feet apart. Thats called a seed tree cut and works well with spruce, fir and some pines. The leave trees will most likely get blown down-thats not the point. The point is to hope they stay up long enough to drop their seeds to create a healthier forest in the future. Those that are now healthy might be more resistant.

The Aspen should be clearcut. Oh you can leave those under 4 inches in Diameter alright, but cut the rest.

Problem is...I understand there isnt much of a market out there. So as to that point..its kind of futile.

[ModelBreaker]

Thanks. I’ll save this one.