To: EBUCK
a rare breed of person especially suited to the task of forest clean-up....they were called LOGGERS you friggin dolt! ROFL!!!...
But, seriously...When it comes to commercial timberland, I suppose loggers are the primary custodians of the forests. We just returned from a vacation to Yellowstone. There is still evidence of the massive fires that swept through about 2/3 of the park in 1988 -- fallen/burnt logs everywhere, but also the scarred land is littered with new pine trees, measuring any where from 6- to-10-feet high. What we were told there was that after the fire, biologists found that the diversity of plant and animal life in the burned-forest increases 3-fold. Fires add nutrients to the soil. It also clears out a forest and permits other kinds of trees to take root their (prior to the fire, Yellowstone was dominated by Lodgepoll Pines -- boring monotony of Lodgepoll Pines; now other trees have taken root). So the biologists are concluding that while man-made structures in the parks need to be protected from fire, the forest itself is benefitted by an occasional "cleansing" firestorm.
3 posted on
06/17/2003 2:53:59 PM PDT by
My2Cents
("Well....there you go again.")
To: My2Cents
Fire isn't the devil and does serve a purpose but the kinds of fires we are getting are no where near natural.
And sure, we will get increased bio-diversity afterwards, when the weeds take over.
Besides, going from boring to not-so-boring, isn't good policy in my book.
4 posted on
06/17/2003 3:17:04 PM PDT by
EBUCK
(FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
To: My2Cents
What you were told by the biologists was pure spin. Had they logged Yellowstone first, and then had their fire, they could have had the same improvements without losing all that topsoil into the lake or filling so many creeks with mud.
Now they'll let those young trees overpopulate and do it again. All to cover their sorry butts.
6 posted on
06/17/2003 4:19:19 PM PDT by
Carry_Okie
(California: Where government is pornography, every day!)
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