If You Were Placed In Charge Of Managing Forest Fuel Reduction, What Would You Do?

[arakboss]

It is the same on Hwy 22 on the east slope. All they need to do is extend those same management practices throughout federal lands. Letting the forests burn is a poor substitute.

Pre-commercial thinning, brush removal, and controlled burning is the way to go.

That would be ideal but probably not realistic given budgets and resistance to forest thinning. As an intermediate step I think we should look to performing a patchwork of this management like discussed in this video.

I think of fire refugia like bombshelters. Sure it would be great if every building could be bomb resistant but that would be very costly and difficult to accomplish. Instead we could install bombshelters scattered throughout an area so people can easily access them when under threat of bombing. That would allow some people to survive and repopulate the city after the threat is over.

 

[arakboss]

Indigenous say ‘controlled burns’ can tame Oregon wildfires

PORTLAND, Ore. (Portland Tribune) — For Indigenous tribes in the Pacific Northwest, fire has always been a part of the landscape. Klamath Tribal Council Chairman Don Gentry says his ancestors…

www.koin.com

 

[Member 52301]

Federal and State governments are constantly be blamed for the severity of wildfires due to mismanagement of the forest. If you were in charge of reducing fuel loads in the forest, how would you tackle it?

Good thread but I will have to come back to this. Thank you.

Cate

 

[Artilleryman]

Defoliate. Kansas doesn't have this problem.

 

[arakboss]

Defoliate. Kansas doesn't have this problem.

Operation Monsanto to the rescue

 

[HighlandLofts]

Clear cut and pave.

 

[albin25]

This is an easy one.....
.... it would be a Government job, So, I'd cash my huge paycheck, take big bribes, travel the World (first class), eat in expensive restaurants, ,and lotsa hookers,

.... and do.....well........ NOTHING about forest fuel loads (or I'd be out of a cushy job!)

 

[Gunner3456]

Before the white man came those fires would start and burn until the Fall rains came. That kept the floors clear of excess brush so that the fires didn't burn hot enough to kill the larger trees.

Then the "smarter than thou" Europeans took over and here we are.

 

[arakboss]

Before the white man came those fires would start and burn until the Fall rains came. That kept the floors clear of excess brush so that the fires didn't burn hot enough to kill the larger trees.

Then the "smarter than thou" Europeans took over and here we are.

Exactly right. We need to get back to letting more of that happen. The Don't Leave Trace" message doesn't seem to apply to wildfire management practices.

 

[3MTA3]

I'd go back to the controlled burns of the '90s that were uased to both control the forest killing pine beetles and the threat of wildfires. We knew and used the answer decades ago, but then for several decades decided to ignore the hard lessons of the past.

Oh, and I'd make Governor Brown show up with a bubbleguming shovel and work her bubblegum off as penance for her role in placing the forest at risk through 1) gross negligence and 2) getting in a pissing match with the feds because "orange man bad" when she should have been working to fix the problem.

 

[Member 52301]

Responsible and carefully PLANNED LOGGING.

USE the trees that you log from a to z and plant some more.

It is a sin and a HUGE waste to see GOOD LUMBER BURN UP in these crazy forest fires when the trees could be logged properly and sanely.

The trashy trees and SOME of the good trees that you want to clear - log could be used for WOOD HEAT and many other wood based products.

The TREES of all types that need to grow NEED sunlight, space to grow and water.

You need healthy trees and not what has become of our forests from disease to you name it.

ALL TREES need sunlight, space to grow and water and/or water/snow/ice NO matter where you live in the USA and not only OUT WEST.

One of my MT husband's old, long gone relatives was a logger and he was a responsible logger too. I think that he had a few others in that profession too. I saw the one handsome relative in a MT PBS show a couple of times.

Much more to say when it comes to these God awful fires but I will leave this here for now.

IT is INSANE to have to buy so many wood products from Canada and elsewhere when we could put people to WORK and THIN out - log HUGE forests across this nation so that they could THRIVE AGAIN.

But that makes too much SENSE in this day and age.

I do NOT mean huge clear cuts and leaving only barren land when I TALK about responsible logging.

Cate

 

[TNThomas]

That would be ideal but probably not realistic given budgets and resistance to forest thinning. As an intermediate step I think we should look to performing a patchwork of this management like discussed in this video.

I think of fire refugia like bombshelters. Sure it would be great if every building could be bomb resistant but that would be very costly and difficult to accomplish. Instead we could install bombshelters scattered throughout an area so people can easily access them when under threat of bombing. That would allow some people to survive and repopulate the city after the threat is over.

Thanks for the link!

 

[arakboss]

Thanks for the link!

This fire refugia idea is still new but I think it is a great strategy for treating forest more economically. We can't realistically treat the entire forested areas. But maybe we can go in and treat islands throughout the forest areas so when fire does move through an area we will hopefully have surviving pockets of forest within the burned areas. Some of this refugia already happens naturally.

 

[PaulF]

Federal and State governments are constantly be blamed for the severity of wildfires due to mismanagement of the forest. If you were in charge of reducing fuel loads in the forest, how would you tackle it?

2 chicks at the same time.

 

[PaulF]

Get a law passed that makes forest fires illegal. Collect paycheck.

Or you could mandate universal background checks to be allowed to start a forest fire, and limit all lighters to ½ second burn time, you know "common sense" forest fire laws.


Ooh and require masks to enter the forest to you know "curb the spread"

 

[arakboss]

2 chicks at the same time.

I loved that movie.

 

[PaulF]

I would add that moving our feral street population into a labor camp situation to do this work would also serve a multi purpose approach as well.

Our streets would be cleared(garbage and feral humans), our forests would be cleaned of dry brush, and the ferals might learn an employable skill(forest management practices).

And all the possums, raccoons, and squirrels would have access to all the heroine they could consume and more

 

[PaulF]

I loved that movie.

Just don't take Milton's stapler, or he'll burn the whole place to the ground.

 

[arakboss]

Just don't take Milton's stapler, or he'll burn the whole place to the ground.

I wonder if Milton and Bubbles are related.

 

[PaulF]

I wonder if Milton and Bubbles are related.

View attachment 1066510


View attachment 1066511

They got the same eyes.