Decades Of Mismanagement Turned US Forests Into ‘Slow-Motion Time Bombs’

Big Chief

http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/08/mismanagement-forests-time-bombs/?utm_medium=email

"Zybach said Native Americans used controlled burns to manage the landscape in Oregon, Washington and northern California for thousands of years. Tribes would burn up to 1 million acres a year on the west coast to prime the land for hunting and grazing, Zybach’s research has shown."

earlyagain

This has been known for several years.

Burning intentionally for conservation is a complexed quagmire of political pot holes in a patchwork quilt of residential lands. Targeted and selective deforestation and subsequent regeneration faces an opstical course of special interests.

What I want the land managed for is of course best for everyone😈

Bigslug

Link wants too much clingy attention before it lets you read it.

Leave it completely alone with no human intervention whatsoever. . .It's gonna burn eventually.  It's just a question of what timetable.  There's species of trees that don't even spit out seeds until you light them on fire, so the notion that a forest fire is inherently "bad" is simply a matter of perspective.

Jayhawker

Yeah...they were going on about "mismanagement" the last time Yellowstone burned....still haven't learned...regular controlled burns don't allow fuel to build up to explosive levels and enrich the soil...any Kansas farmer/rancher can tell you that...

orchidman

Jayhawker said:

Yeah...they were going on about "mismanagement" the last time Yellowstone burned....still haven't learned...regular controlled burns don't allow fuel to build up to explosive levels and enrich the soil...any Kansas farmer/rancher can tell you that...

Kansas has trees? When did that happen?............

Jermanator

I used to think that clear cutting was horrible but now understand that it is rather necessary to prevent stuff like these unnatural occurrences from happening.

Michigan DNR...

https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79137_79770_79873_80003-385756--,00.html

Greenpeace co-founder, Patrick Moore...

http://greenspiritstrategies.com/trees-are-the-answer-wood-is-good/

Old Ron

They had trees orchid ......then they burned them off for the dust bowl to send them to California. lol

Jayhawker

orchidman said:

Jayhawker said:

Yeah...they were going on about "mismanagement" the last time Yellowstone burned....still haven't learned...regular controlled burns don't allow fuel to build up to explosive levels and enrich the soil...any Kansas farmer/rancher can tell you that...

Kansas has trees? When did that happen?............

Trees grass same thing....

rberglof

I was at Yellowstone before the fire and it was sad, stands of dead trees were everywhere.

Went back about 7 years after it and the change was dramatic, new growth was everywhere.

I was watching the news of the fire and it was obvious that the reporters had never even been there talking about how the fire was jumping from one area to another oblivious to the fact that it was jumping from dead stand to dead stand.

Lodge pole pine is one of the trees that must have fire to reproduce.

https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/lodgepole-pine-trees-love-forest-fires/

earlyagain

We have massive acreage of dead pine here in Colorado from bark beatle infestation.

If you ever used dead pine as fire starter, nuff' said.

Jayhawker

knitepoet said:

Jayhawker said:Trees grass same thing....

Cows and beavers might disagree with you on that one Jayhawker
LOL

In the grand scheme of things, trees are just big grass...

snake284

Conservation minded logging makes for natural fire breaks which thwart major wild fires. When the leftist Dummycraps shutdown the logging industry they created a bomb in the forests.

1965Jeff

Yeah we got have trees in the flint hills the deer need them this year, we are on our third August of this year . Mostly white oaks in the draw by our house.

Antonio

When in CO last year in the vicinity of the recent fires our host showed us the huge amount of trees in the area that were dead or dying due to a bug plague that was hitting the fores badly; according to him it could be controlled and cured but those in charge weren't investing in healing infected trees and removing the dead, dried ones that have become a huge fire hazard.

tennmike

About the best and only control for pine beetles is to remove ALL the infected trees and burn those unsuitable for lumber. Pine borer beetle grubs find the trees easiest to infest in the hot dry months as the sap won't flow over them and suffocate them. The pines grown for pulpwood are really susceptible to the pine borers; there's thousands and thousands of acres of pulpwood pines on the Cumberland Plateau that are standing dead from beetle infestation. The paper company that owned the pines sold the land at least 15 years ago and the pines are still standing with secondary growth taking over. It's a bunch of fires waiting for a spark or lightning strike to start them burning. The secondary growth is a HUGE fire load in itself due to the high dry weeds and small hardwoods.

Buford

snake284 said:

Conservation minded logging makes for natural fire breaks which thwart major wild fires. When the leftist Dummycraps shutdown the logging industry they created a bomb in the forests.

Some stupid regulations on the books that's for sure.

earlyagain

Ive read speculatory articles supposing the regeneration of vast tracts of aspen in the aftermath of the pine forest destruction. The mountains here are dotted everywhere with private residences. The pending danger is catastrophic.

I read about a fire in the 1880's that raged west from Minnesota and Wisconsin jumping Lake Michigan to flash accross to Lake Huron. The intensity incinerated people that jumped in wells to escape. Imagining a similar recurrence is frightening.

Jayhawker

I think you're referring to the Peshtigo WI fire that occured in 1871 on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire....killed somewhere between 1500 and 2500 people...never could get an accurate count because entire towns were vaporized..
There was basically a fire storm all over the Great Lakes States...

earlyagain

Yes, I think thats it👍

CaliFFL

earlyagain said:

Ive read speculatory articles supposing the regeneration of vast tracts of aspen in the aftermath of the pine forest destruction. The mountains here are dotted everywhere with private residences. The pending danger is catastrophic.

I read about a fire in the 1880's that raged west from Minnesota and Wisconsin jumping Lake Michigan to flash accross to Lake Huron. The intensity incinerated people that jumped in wells to escape. Imagining a similar recurrence is frightening.

As someone who lives inside a Nat'l Forest, you must be prepared to bug out. It hasn't rained in two months and was 106° and windy yesterday. We have a sprinkler perimeter set up around the buildings with a generator to power the well. Start the genny, open the valve, and haul ass. 


Check out the Great Fire of 1910. Said to be the largest fire (not the deadliest) in US history. There are remains of big burned cedars throughout the forest, including a couple on my property. 

earlyagain

The quote feature on this new board sucks bad!

I kept the book about the 1910 fire.

CaliFFL

I took a short hike to take this. 

earlyagain

That burnt stump is surrounded by some serious fuel. At least its mostly green.

tennmike

earlyagain said:

That burnt stump is surrounded by some serious fuel. At least its mostly green.

Got a similar fern here in TN. If the stuff is dry, even though it's green, it will burn like it's been sprayed with gasoline. In the background of that picture you can see why conifer tree fires spread so fast. The limbs are just barely above the ground and the needle leaves are easy to get started burning. There's some dead standing timber in the upper right of the picture, too. Nothing like dried and resin filled dead timber to make a hot fire. And the resin inside some of them will explode when heated and spread fire even further.

CaliFFL has the right idea. If that stuff catches fire, then start the generator, turn on the sprinklers, and bug out!

CHIRO1989

CaliFFL said:

I took a short hike to take this. 

How preserved is that stump? Could you cut it and get some usable lumber out of it? Might be interesting. We have some monster cedar tree stumps and white pine stumps up at our hunting shack too, logged, not burned, much shorter.

CaliFFL

tennmike said:

earlyagain said:

That burnt stump is surrounded by some serious fuel. At least its mostly green.

Got a similar fern here in TN. If the stuff is dry, even though it's green, it will burn like it's been sprayed with gasoline. In the background of that picture you can see why conifer tree fires spread so fast. The limbs are just barely above the ground and the needle leaves are easy to get started burning. There's some dead standing timber in the upper right of the picture, too. Nothing like dried and resin filled dead timber to make a hot fire. And the resin inside some of them will explode when heated and spread fire even further.

CaliFFL has the right idea. If that stuff catches fire, then start the generator, turn on the sprinklers, and bug out!

The branches near the ground are usually dead from lack of sunlight. Excellent fuel that spreads fast. There are no trees within about 100 feet from my house. I keep this area mowed to reduce the fuel. The trees nearest the house are trimmed as high as I can reach with an extension saw. Again, to reduce the fuel. The remaining acreage is completely wild except for some quad trails and tree stands. I drop the standing dead and remove windblowns for the most part. The dead tree in the photo needs to go, but it isn't firewood quality. We are on a chainsaw ban until it rains. So I wait for cooler temperatures. 

CaliFFL

CHIRO1989 said:

How preserved is that stump? Could you cut it and get some usable lumber out of it? Might be interesting. We have some monster cedar tree stumps and white pine stumps up at our hunting shack too, logged, not burned, much shorter.

That particular stump is just a shell. I know people who will use them for kindling. If you scrape of the burned material, the wood underneath still smells like cedar. Surprised me after so long. On NF land the burned stumps are informally viewed as "historical". The last evidence of the 1910 fire. People leave them alone for the most part.