Posted on 11/19/2018 8:27:04 AM PST by rktman
A national logging organization is offering support to President Trump following catastrophic wildfires in California and a political debate over the causes of the destructive blazes.
“President Trump blamed poor forest management for wildfires in California and throughout the West, and there is truth to statements he has made,” said Daniel Dructor, executive vice president of the American Loggers Council, a coalition of state and regional associations that represents independent contract loggers.
“It’s time to rise above political posturing and recognize that active forest management — including logging, thinning, grazing and controlled burning — are tools that can and must be used to reduce fire risks and help mitigate the impacts to landscapes,” Mr. Dructor said in a statement.
According to the council, some 60 million to 80 million acres of national forest are at “high, to very high, risk of catastrophic wildfire.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
My theory is that owners of private timber land (Weyerhaeuser, for example, owns 13 million acres of private forest) don’t want the competition from public forests.
Weyerhaeuser, Boise Cascade, Georgia-Pacific Corp, International Paper, Rayonier, Sierra Pacific Industries ...
On every trip I have made in the last thirty years through the Rockies and Sierras I was shocked by the sheer amount of dead standing timber among the green. I thought it was just a tinder box waiting to explode.
Then it did.
Oh they figured that it was better to let that slash burn uncontrolled up in the tree tops than have it on the ground and slash burn it where they can control it.
Not one stick of merchantable wood should be wasted. NOT ONE.
Legitimate experts have written a ton of books on this. Trump and the loggers could not be more right. Let’s put aside the fact that these idiots from the gov turn everything they touch to garbage, just for the moment. These drones have absolutely no knowledge of how to manage forested land. They have their precious little nihilistic agenda and whatever degree that shows they were suitably indoctrinated and that is it. These wildfires can be laid squarely at the feet of the left and they won’t take their blame because they are terminally and galactically stupid.
He's programmed to be stuck on stupid.
***He sounded like a Shaman about to pray for rain with a rain dance. ***
And six months ago they were crying because of too much rain.
A must read!!
The Tinder Box: How Politicallly Correct Ideology Destroyed the U.S Forest Service
Sep 17, 2014
by Christopher Burchfield
And they “rake” the forest too:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXh_HwJaXT8
And dimwits everywhere ridicule POTUS, again, for knowing what he is talking about.
Having once worked for Weyerhaeuser I can tell you their forest lands do NOT burn.
And their trees are worth billions and billions.
Jerry Brown is criminally negligent for repeatedly vetoing forest management legislation that was passed and sent to him for signature.
He belongs in prison, he is personally and most responsible for the current wildfire catastrophes.
Well, to assist in putting out the fire, the forecast is calling for 60% precip Tuesday night and then 90% for two days and possibly heavy rain for the Paradise area. Will there be mud slides and debris slides in the burn scar areas? Yup.
Let me add that I’ve been in or around the forest all my life, starting at six in a lookout tower near Noxon on the Clark Fork river in Idaho.
The book I recommended made me sick, literally sick, reading how much the FS has descended from a well run federal agency to a weak kneed, politically correct sham run by progressive liberals.
“I live in the middle of gov control forest. It is a massive fire hazard”
How do you reconcile the place where you like to live with the fire hazard? Do you have insurance if your home burns down? Do most of the people that lost homes have insurance?
Why does your government “manage” forests? Is it primarily for safety of people living amongst them?
Why not just not manage forests and have people realize they might not want to live in them?
Are the fires damaging to the forests themselves?
Has the California Forestry Management Department failed the California citizens? Have they failed to protect or failed to inform of the hazards?
What should be done going forward?
Living in the Ozarks, the only smoke we get here are from controlled burns in the national forests. The paper company forests never seem to burn.
Back in the 1950s-1960s, we used to get lots of wildfires from the trains throwing off sparks. When the railroad companies started properly maintaining the rights of way, the fires suddenly ceased. In the last thirty years, I’ve seen one near wildfire when the railroad workers were cutting up old rails and the local grass caught fire.
Today the most wildfires I’ve seen has been from idiots throwing live cigarettes out of car windows in late winter.
“The paper company forests never seem to burn.”
That’s because their forests are managed and “raked”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXh_HwJaXT8
I’ve scanned most of the comments and missing from what I saw is the biggest factor I see in our area:
People who complain to their legislators about smoke from prescribed burns.
Hence, they’ve all but stopped in the face of clean air regulations and a burdensome permit process.
Thus, those complaining about the smoke in CA can cry me a river. In fact, they should shed their tears into Lake Mead; they’re gonna need it.
Bingo! We have a winner.
Trump could pivot on this and instead say “Forest and Land Management”.
Yeah, I know, the broad category covers the smaller category, so it’s a bit redundant, but, it does get the message across, and is irrefutable, then.
Meanwhile, north of the border in BC and Alberta they had just as big of a Mountain Pine Beetle problem as we did. However, they aggressively harvested Lodgepole Pine that was dead over the last 10 years. Now, many of the interior BC sawmills are back to sawing mostly green timber.
The ironic thing is that blue stained Ponderosa Pine boards are in big demand especially in the Colorado lumber market.
Pine boards with blue stain were always sold at a discount until about a year ago. Now, there is a niche market that wants this product.
The problem with harvesting dead timber is that it typically has bug holes, shake, more splits and rot. Therefore, the grade yield is not as good. Most sawmills do not want it. In Canada the government made the sawmills take it along with green timber. Much of the low grade dimension got shipped offshore to places like China. China buys a larger percentage of low grade to build pallets and crates to ship all that crap back here to Walmart, etc.
The deadliest wildfires in US history were caused by logging without the subsequent burning. Jerry Brown doesn't want any burning. Therefore he doesn't want logging either, except a little lip service.
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