Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
Around here, there used to be a massive network of forest service roads. Those roads were built by logging operations that thinned the forest out. Clear cutting wasn't widespread unless it was to salvage dead or dying trees. Then the forest service policy was to use those roads and manpower to immediately put out the first spark of wildfires. So we thinned and cleaned forests, and aggressively stopped fires. Now every mill has been closed, they don't cut any trees on the national forests. They closed and destroyed most of the roads. They won't fight most fires until they are too big to fight and then waste billions throwing manpower at it when nothing's going to stop it but winter. I am a big hunter and hiker and have been since 1975 in this area. I remember what it used to be like. I remember each fire in a 200 mile radius. I see before and after of fires, and of logging, fires in logged areas and fires in natural aeras. Aeras that are still managed and aeras that have gone wild. It may not be the only cause, but it is certainly a huge cause, and if you have seen the emissions a forest fire puts out and were concerned about CO2 caused global warming, there would be a bigger effort to stop fires, use the wood to build with, which sequesters the carbon for 100s of years. Use it or just watch it burn.
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Like I said, the entire state is dead. If you want to chop down all the dead trees you'd need to clear cut the whole state, right now.
About the only thing that would fix it is just evacuate the whole state and throw a match and let it do its thing. Then come back and start from scratch.
The wood isn't allowed to be used for export because it's diseased, mostly pine beetles, and could cause the same condition elsewhere. If you go sit in the forest you can hear all the pine beetles chewing on the wood inside the trees. And although there's a big need for building in Colorado, you wouldn't be able to use all that wood due to the low population.