[stevew]

or thin out at least....that's the question?

Experts say a combination of decades of vigorous fire suppression and the waning of the timber industry over environmental concerns has left many forests a tangled, overgrown mess, subject to the kind of super-fires that are now regularly consuming hundreds of homes and millions of acres.

 

[Pesqueeb]

You can thin it out now or your going to see lots more fires like are happening right now in New Mexico and Fort Collins.

 

[jimmydean]

I think select harvesting has helped here. There is still a lot more damage done by clear cutting. Nature knows how to recover from a fire.

 

[syadasti]

Was on CBS in 2007, 2009, and 2011:

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-3380176.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-215_162-20071835.html

 

[jimmydean]

Mother Nature can be a bitch, too.

 

[dante]

I'd still like to know what "experts" are claiming that it's the lack of logging that's causing this... Everything I've read (and seen personally) on it states that logging actually causes more problems, since they harvest only the large, old-growth trees which are naturally resistant to brush fires and leave all of the underbrush and dead wood that feed the wildfires. If you've ever seen the destruction left after a logging company comes through, you'd know what I mean.

 

[stevew]

Was on CBS in 2007, 2009, and 2011:

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-3380176.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-215_162-20071835.html

cbs sunday morning had done a story on it earlier than 2007 that i am having no luck in finding.

 

[SkaredShtles]

It's too fvcking late out here. Once all the forests have burned/blown over we can only hope we've learned a few things.

 

[jimmydean]

I'd still like to know what "experts" are claiming that it's the lack of logging that's causing this... Everything I've read (and seen personally) on it states that logging actually causes more problems, since they harvest only the large, old-growth trees which are naturally resistant to brush fires and leave all of the underbrush and dead wood that feed the wildfires. If you've ever seen the destruction left after a logging company comes through, you'd know what I mean.

I recall going up to Dallas for a ride (pre-Black Rock days) one weekend. I had just been up there 2 weeks earlier and there was some fresh trail work done. When we got to the second gate, my jaw hit the floor. The whole top of the mountain was gone. The trailhead used to start just after the second gate, but at some point over the last 2 weeks, the entire top section had been harvested and was nothing but dirt.

A burned forest starts to regrow the next year. I bet the top of Dallas is still naked 10 years later.

 

[Pesqueeb]

It's too fvcking late out here. Once all the forests have burned/blown over we can only hope we've learned a few things.

There is still a lot more to burn in the American west. It can still get worse. Smoke down here is so thick I can't see Pikes Peak right now.

 

[jimmydean]

Smoke down here is so thick I can't see Pikes Peak right now.

Roll your window down, jackass.

How can we get a proper hot box if you keep opening the door?!?!

 

[Pesqueeb]

Roll your window down, jackass.

 

[Nick]

I'm am 100% for clearing the millions of beetle kill pine trees which cover the mountains out here. Roadless initiatives or not. The complete loss of landscape and habitat is far worse than the impact of managed access.

Not indiscriminate logging, but more being active in preventing these fires. There must be a way to balance, no?

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>

A burned forest starts to regrow the next year. I bet the top of Dallas is still naked 10 years later.

Naw - there'll be plenty of weeds growing up there...

 

[SkaredShtles]

There is still a lot more to burn in the American west. It can still get worse. Smoke down here is so thick I can't see Pikes Peak right now.

Oh there's no doubt that it can (and likely *WILL*) get worse. I don't think we've even SEEN the big ones yet.

 

[SkaredShtles]

I'm am 100% for clearing the millions of beetle kill pine trees which cover the mountains out here. Roadless initiatives or not.

Better open up your wallet. Really wide.

The complete loss of landscape and habitat is far worse than the impact of managed access.

Naw - that beetle kill is gonna fall down fairly soon if it doesn't burn. And to be honest, the environment up there will be quite a bit more healthy even after a fire. Have you visited Yellowstone lately? Just about that entire park burned to the ground in '88 and it is amazing what it looks like 15 years later.

Not indiscriminate logging, but more being active in preventing these fires. There must be a way to balance, no?

You've seen what the beetles have done in a lot of these areas... clearing those trees will amount to clearcutting. And there's very little value in the trees at this point.

Don't forget the Wilderness Areas - you can't even take a chainsaw into those...

 

[johnbryanpeters]

It's too fvcking late out here. Once all the forests have burned/blown over we can only hope we've learned a few things.

We haven't. We won't. The only hope on the larger scale is that we may in time die out.

 

[SkaredShtles]

We haven't. We won't. The only hope on the larger scale is that we may in time die out.

Oh, I think that is a lock.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Oh, I think that is a lock.

Just a question of how messy its going to be.