To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
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Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#2Wouldn't it be better to practice proper forestry and harvest the timber, rather than let it burn and release hundreds of kilotons more CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere?
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#3Wouldn't it be better to practice proper forestry and harvest the timber, rather than let it burn and release hundreds of kilotons more CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere?
Other than making sure forest fires pose minimal risks to man-made infrastructure, what is 'practicing proper forestry'? These forests existed for millions of years before humans started managing them.
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#4Wouldn't it be better to practice proper forestry and harvest the timber, rather than let it burn and release hundreds of kilotons more CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere?
It's natural for forests to burn from time to time. Preventing such is actually much worse in the long run.
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#5Does not seem like a valid argument at this point. The latest big wildfire in California (Paradise) included portions of the forest that had burned a few years prior and were mostly grassy at the time of the fire.
I can't find the source I had heard, but it was one of the firefighters giving an interview and talking about forest management... Maybe I should have taken what he said with a hint of salt though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#6Wouldn't it be better to practice proper forestry and harvest the timber, rather than let it burn and release hundreds of kilotons more CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere?
Stephen Pyne, an environmental historian who studies fire, emphasized that logging would not keep wildfires at bay. “Logging takes the big trunks and leaves the small stuff because there’s no market for it,” he said. “Fire burns the little and leaves the big.”
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#7Wouldn't it be better to practice proper forestry and harvest the timber, rather than let it burn and release hundreds of kilotons more CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere?
Other than making sure forest fires pose minimal risks to man-made infrastructure, what is 'practicing proper forestry'? These forests existed for millions of years before humans started managing them.
Mostly making forests friendlier to humans. In their natural state the forests were perpetually burning and a lot of plants depended on those burns. But when you build million dollar houses in the middle of the pretty forest that likes to burn every 5 years...
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#8Wouldn't it be better to practice proper forestry and harvest the timber, rather than let it burn and release hundreds of kilotons more CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere?
One of the goals stated in the article of proper forest management is returning of nutrients from the burned trees to the ground. That wouldn't be accomplished by harvesting the timber.
Besides which, sustainable fires (i.e. ones which don't, in the long run, substantially change forest coverage or makeup) are by definition carbon neutral.
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Other than making sure forest fires pose minimal risks to man-made infrastructure, what is 'practicing proper forestry'? These forests existed for millions of years before humans started managing them.
Mostly making forests friendlier to humans. In their natural state the forests were perpetually burning and a lot of plants depended on those burns. But when you build million dollar houses in the middle of the pretty forest that likes to burn every 5 years...
The blame here seems to be squarely on the system that allows expensive houses to be built in places that naturally need to burn every now and again.
Re: To Help Prevent the Next Big Wildfire, Let the Forest Burn
#10Does not seem like a valid argument at this point. The latest big wildfire in California (Paradise) included portions of the forest that had burned a few years prior and were mostly grassy at the time of the fire. I can't find the source I had heard, but it was one of the firefighters giving an interview and talking about forest management... Maybe I should have taken what he said with a hint of salt though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Here's a 99 Percent Invisible podcast on the topic that goes against what you're suggesting. I thought it was pretty convincing but I haven't seen much argument for the current practices being helpful, so maybe those are also convincing.