[snopercod]

...start all over with a clean slate.

Not true. The weed seeds survive these fires and easily take over once their competition is destroyed.

[OldFriend]

These policies are being adhered to with religious ferocity by Feinstein/Boxer.......

The deaths from the fires is on their heads to say nothing of the monetary loss to the great state of CA.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

by 1994 the ten million acres of National Forests in the Sierras of California the 2.18 billion board feed of lumber logged in 1988 had dropped to only 360 million board feet. Since 1994 that has dropped to such an extent that, in effect, logging in El Dorado County, and its associated businesses have closed down

If the 1988 rate of harvesting had continued, we would have extracted almost 2.2 x 15 = 33 billion board-feet of lumber; the above numbers suggest the actual number was about 1/3 of that.

How many tons of greenhouse gases are produced by the combustion of 22 billion board-feet of lumber?!!

This is an outrage!

[Starboard]

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.

[old school]

Preserving the natural state of the forests, by preventing logging, is a two-edged sword. True, the forest won't be subjected to depredation by loggers; instead, they'll burn to the ground because the dead and dying trees have been allowed to remain on the forest floor, piling-up like tinder! They won't even put-out lightning fires, because that's the "natural order" of things! Been to Yosemite lately?

[Cicero]

From what I saw watching logging operations in the Northwest for three years back in the sixties, the lumber companies can't be trusted. They naturally prefer to maximize profits, which means clearcutting steep slopes and cutting down ancient, first-growth trees.

Proper sustainable forestry such as that mentioned as practiced in the Black Forest, is certainly possible. But it's not as profitable as going in, making a mess, and logging the most profitable trees.

What's needed is a SENSIBLE environmental policy and SENSIBLE regulations. What we have is left wing nut cases on one side and greedy timber companies on the other. There are solutions to these problems, but they won't be realized as long as lumber companies pay off politicians on one side and envirofreaks lobby for impossible regulations on the other.

The first order of business should be for conservatives to get back into environmental presevation and start working for sensible policies that are best for all concerned.

[ArmstedFragg]

This would be an interesting argument regarding the Trinity fire or some of the other North Coast fires, but doesn't have much to do with the fires in San Diego County.

While there was some forest lost, the vast majority of what burned was brush, and the homes lost were all in areas where brush was nearby. While we do have some enviromental regulations that limit clearing coastal sage, the primary issue here is simply the improved efficiency of firefighters when it comes to putting out the smaller fires. Every time we do that, we leave more fuel to be burned in the bigger ones.

Last year, county officials were presented with a map showing the areas where there hadn't been a significant fire in twenty years or more. All the blases we had this year were in the "red" areas.

The spotted owl issue is pretty much a north end phenomenon, five hundred miles up the road on the other end of the state. It's been a huge economic tragedy up there.

[Marysecretary]

OOPS! NOW where are those spotted owls? Hmm. Deader than doornails I would say. These environuts should be taken up by helicopter and parachuted right into the fire, with a water gun. Let them fight their way out.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

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[First_Salute]

Author of the article, is Mary Mostert.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Bookmarked.

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt