[AuntB]

I believe you are wrong. The way the timber industry...including entire communities have been destroyed, they will take what they can get.

[RonF]

Then why didn't a logging company apply to clean out the forested areas that were denuded by the pine bark beetle? Thousands of trees were left standing and dead because of the beetle infection. They burned quite fiercely when the fires came. Logging companies would have had little trouble getting a permit cleaning those out, as they were a well-known fire hazard and next to residential areas. But they didn't apply to cut them down, as their commercial potential was limited.