Loggers Wanted

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY ^ | Thursday, October 30, 2003 | Editor

[SauronOfMordor]

I agree in general with your post except for the part about them finally getting it. I don't think they ever will. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

It's not that they don't see, it's that there are hidden incentives.

Outfits like Weyrhauser which own huge tracts of private timber land would have the value of their holdings increased if there was no logging on federal lands to compete with them.

Mega-wealthy people who like their home in the wilderness will not have to feel crowded if common people are unable to build due to not being able to get fire insurance

Whenever you ask "why don't they", the answer can be discovered by looking for who benefits from conditions the way they are

[Heyworth]

Thank you. I keep seeing people blaming the environmentalists for this, but the fact is that the lumber industry pulled out of Southern California long before anyone had ever heard of an environmentalist. The only place that buys logs down there is in Bakersfield, and it's so far away and the price is so low that it doesn't pay to bring them there. There's nothing commercial that can be done with chaparral, which is probably what 80% of these fires has been, plus the fact that if you cut it, it'll destablize a lot of steep slopes.

[kellynla]

a lot less than what it costs us not to...shall I send you the bill for the forest fires this week...

[Looking for Diogenes]

On the contrary, you and I will be getting the bill for future brush and tree clearing. Last year Southern California received $4 million for fuel reduction. Right now, the Senate is debating a bill to increase that substantially. I wish they'd done so years ago.

The point is that brush clearance is necessary but it isn't free. No logging company, for example, wants chaparral. If we want to protect these areas from future fires it will require expensive brush clearing and dangeous controlled burns.

[kellynla]

I think we all realize that nothing is free...but clearing and control burns are a hellofalot cheaper than the alternative...

[Looking for Diogenes]

clearing and control burns are a hellofalot cheaper than the alternative...

I agree. Now we need to convince our congressional representatives of that. The "Healthy Forests Inititiative" isn't written to do much for Southern California. I'm sure hoping that will change.

[FreedomCalls]

Huh? Disrupting again?

[Dark Wing]

FYI