I keep hearing different opinions,from let them burn to OMG we have to do more. These fires occur every year. Just curious about the opinions here.
Rams
Seems they've been getting worse every year. I'll let the CA residents speak to it... but from what I understand, the state Government dramatically cut back on brush clean-up and firewall sustainment... which has contributed greatly for the ability for fires to spread.
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Seems they've been getting worse every year. I'll let the CA residents speak to it... but from what I understand, the state Government dramatically cut back on brush clean-up and firewall sustainment... which has contributed greatly for the ability for fires to spread.
I disagree, this may be occurring in CA but, all of us help pay for West Coast fires. Mother Nature has always demonstrated her ability to do what she wants to do. I don't pretend to have the answer but, there's a lot of usable wood product going up in flames. Would seem that harvesting that wood before Mother Nature takes it would make some sense. Controlled harvesting? Replanting and repeating it down the road. There's a lot of timber out there, probably way too much to stop these wild fires but...……….. As I said, I'm no expert in forest harvesting or controlling wildfires but, I am an expert taxpayer.
I have stated my position on this many times. I spent most of my adult life around the lumber industry and I can tell you that what 82 and blackrams said is right on the money. The devastating wildfires that California, Arizona and other states have experienced over the last few decades are the direct result of misguided leftist policy.
Wildfires are part of nature, part of the life cycle of a healthy forest. They consume the available fuel and return nutrients to the soil. We have two choices; let nature take it's course or manage the forest.
But, the treehuggers have convinced the ill-informed that we need to do the opposite of both of those choices. We suppress all fires and do not remove available fuel. The result is catastrophic crown fires.
We can live in fear of, or in harmony with nature. I choose the latter. Manage the forest for the benefit of both man and nature. This is where capitalism can again shine. The best people to manage the forests are those who can profit from the forest: the lumber companies. Lumber is a crop, not that different from corn and wheat. A farmer will always do what he can to increase his yield, not destroy his land.
Some perspective......look at the year to date information. You would have to go back a number of years to find one that this far into the fire season that had LESS acreage burned. It's been a pretty mild fire season thuis far.
If you poke around on the National Interagency Fire center website, you will see the #1 cause this year is lightning.
I know people that live in the suburbs of calif and in rural areas, and the requirements for keeping brush down at the edges of their property are pretty tough and if they don't do it, can be fined and the counties do it for them and send them a big bill for doing it. In Oregon and Wash State, the old adage is 'cut it, graze it or watch it burn' but too many in the cities and most populous counties are opposed to that & won't let them do either.
Texas is certainly not immune to wildfires either. Between 2005 and 2014 9 1/2 million acres of Texas burned and over 75% of the fires were within 2 miles of a community, town or city. 4 million ac burned in my state alone in 2011.
I have stated my position on this many times. I spent most of my adult life around the lumber industry and I can tell you that what 82 and blackrams said is right on the money. The devastating wildfires that California, Arizona and other states have experienced over the last few decades are the direct result of misguided leftist policy.
Wildfires are part of nature, part of the life cycle of a healthy forest. They consume the available fuel and return nutrients to the soil. We have two choices; let nature take it's course or manage the forest.
But, the treehuggers have convinced the ill-informed that we need to do the opposite of both of those choices. We suppress all fires and do not remove available fuel. The result is catastrophic crown fires.
We can live in fear of, or in harmony with nature. I choose the latter. Manage the forest for the benefit of both man and nature. This is where capitalism can again shine. The best people to manage the forests are those who can profit from the forest: the lumber companies. Lumber is a crop, not that different from corn and wheat. A farmer will always do what he can to increase his yield, not destroy his land.
100% agree. The main problem is, we no longer have capitalism. We have globalist corporatism. Left to their own devices, the corporations would do exactly what they do in south america. Strip everything bare then move on to the next territory with no thought whatsoever to sustainability, future crops or anything besides next months margins. Capitalists plan, manage and use resources wisely to ensure future profits, corporatism does little to none long-term thinking.
------------------ Sarcasm and Alcohol are so much cheaper than Therapy and Bail Money.
I disagree, this may be occurring in CA but, all of us help pay for West Coast fires. Mother Nature has always demonstrated her ability to do what she wants to do. I don't pretend to have the answer but, there's a lot of usable wood product going up in flames. Would seem that harvesting that wood before Mother Nature takes it would make some sense. Controlled harvesting? Replanting and repeating it down the road. There's a lot of timber out there, probably way too much to stop these wild fires but...……….. As I said, I'm no expert in forest harvesting or controlling wildfires but, I am an expert taxpayer.
Rams
I agree with you, that's definitely part of it.
Sigh, I wish I remembered... but like two years ago, I really read into all of this to figure out why it was happening with more frequency. In the end... it had to do with regulations and laws that California had passed... I'm really pulling this from memory, so it might not be great... so loosely throwing these out there:
1 - Passed a law that affected the ability for workers to harvest trees. 2 - Passed a law that limited the amount of trees that could be harvested. 3 - Federal Government was doing a lot of brush clean-up FOR the state because they weren't... they were told they no longer could cause it's not their property. 4 - State cut back on brush clean-up and fire breaks
I think you're referencing issues #1 and 2 if I'm reading you right... but there was more to it as well that has led to (at least in frequency) more problems than they attempted to solve.
