Friday, November 16, 2018
Help California rebuild by managing our forests - Opinion
Interestingly, that's when devastating wildfires seemed to begin increasing.
Hmmmm. Anybody listening?...
On RegisterGuard.com, Bob Zybach included this in an article he posted on October 2017:
"Active management in forested environments involves timely marketing and salvage of dead and dying trees; selective thinning of some areas; clearcutting, prescribed burning or reforestation in other areas; good road access; maintaining native wildlife populations and providing recreational opportunities. From World War II until the 1980s, most federal forests were actively managed to provide for national defense, post-war housing, wildfire control, public recreation and wildlife habitat. There were only a few large-scale wildfires during those years.
Passive management of federal forestlands largely began with the 1964 Wilderness Act, creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and the 1973 Endangered Species Act.
This process accelerated in following decades with government land-use designations, burgeoning ESA and EPA policies, and public litigation resulting in roadless areas, spotted owl habitat, and other large preserves in which active forest management was discouraged or even outlawed.
Recurring large-scale and catastrophic wildfires in these areas has become a predictable result, beginning in 1987 and growing worse since then."
