How to prevent wild fires.

[oil pan 4]

It's only difficult for people on the west coast.

[freebeard]

No trees no forest fires?

[JSH]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Yes they clear cut, then the lumber company has 2 ways they grow it back. 1 way is just leave a few mature seed trees behind or replant saplings in rows. Either way everything grows back like crazy for about the next 6 years, trust me all the forest critters want to hang out in the young forest when everything is between 3 and 8 feet tall. Then at some point foresters come in and thin it out so the lumber trees can grow. They repeatedly come back and remove undergrowth.
Also trim the lumber trees so they grow straight and produce higher value wood.

You must be walking through different forests than me.

Yes, timber companies clear cut - and leave all the trimmings on the ground which dry and become fuel. Yes, they replant - which leaves a thick forest of small treas that easily burn. Yes they come back trim and thin when the trees get bigger - and leave the trimmings on the ground which dry and become even more fuel.

During the recent wildfires in Oregon the fires burned right across timber clearcuts on private land and on to the forest on the other side.

In 2018, a study co-authored by Christopher Dunn of Oregon State and Harold Zald of Humboldt University examined the 2013 Douglas Complex Fire. They found that weather was the primary factor in determining fire severity but concluded fire severity was greater on private plantations than in older public forests.

https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2020/09...ng-the-flames/

And the study.

https://www.emwh.org/issues/habitat/...0landscape.pdf

[oil pan 4]

In maine they put the cuttings in a pile and burned them.
So problem solved. In maine the paper company and lumber company comes through and burns.
So problem solved.
I don't know why west coast can't figure it out.

[freebeard]

In maine they put the cuttings in a pile and burned them.

And you're proud of this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level, resulting in a stool.....

Many silviculture practices involve cutting and regrowth; coppicing has been of significance in many parts of lowland temperate Europe. The widespread and long-term practice of coppicing as a landscape-scale industry is something that remains of special importance in southern England...

Typically a coppiced woodland is harvested in sections or coups[3] on a rotation. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity....

Coppicing maintains trees at a juvenile stage, and a regularly coppiced tree will never die of old age; some coppice stools may therefore reach immense ages....

[oil pan 4]

Putting the left overs in a pile and burning them is a solution. Leaving it clearly creates a problem.

[Fat Charlie]

Prouder than the guys feeding the wildfires, hopefully.

[freebeard]

Putting the left overs in a pile and burning them is a solution. Leaving it clearly creates a problem.

It also creates habitat for woodland creatures and bugs.

In the 1970s I wanted a school bus with an engine driven wood chipper on the front bumper, with a blower that would push the chips through a duct to a hopper on the rear roof. To feed a wood alcohol still in one rear corner (composting toilet in the other) to feed the fuel tank.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Putting the left overs in a pile and burning them is a solution. Leaving it clearly creates a problem.

Does Maine mandate the left-overs be collected in a pile and burned? I ask because that increases cost and companies hate to spend a penny more than necessary.

I have seen piles in Oregon and Washington but they tend to be on smaller plots not the huge plantations. I've driven past some of them for years because they never actually get burned.

I suspect Maine has weather for conducive to burning. Here in Oregon our distinctive wet / dry season means we are generally under a burn ban by May that continues into October. Different climate - different solutions.

Of course even if you could gather up all the debris and burn it that is incredible wasteful. Sweden has a huge forestry industry and since the 70's has had a huge push to use that biomass. They gather it and turn it into ethanol or burn it in power plants. 1/3 of their energy comes from biofuels and 90% of that is forestry waste.


At the end of the day there is nothing you can do to get around the risk of having closely planted trees all the same size. The goals of industrial timber production (maximizing yield per acre) and what is needed for fire resilience (forests with wildly spaced trees) are mutually exclusive.

[oil pan 4]

I don't know. All I know is its common practice.
My parents lived in the middle of paper company and lumber company land so I only observed their practices every logging season for several years.