faithful_servant
DP Veteran
- Joined
- May 18, 2006
- Messages
- 12,533
- Reaction score
- 5,660
- Location
- Beautiful Central Oregon
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
Isn't Columbia River Gorge just a part of the millions upon millions of acres of federal lands that have been part of the the federal government land grab out West over the last century? It would be interesting to learn out of all the fires occurring, how many started on federal lands and spread to homeowners whose properties butt up to them.
I recall a beetle infestation in Montana which involved forests of trees dying. Did the feds go in and clean up all the dead so as not to leave them for tinder? How about removing excessive vegetation around the trees in the forests that can easily turn into tinder during dry spells? Can't the Federal government afford bush hogs? They scarfed all the lands from states and now they can't take care of them?
No timber cos. went in and cleaned up all the dead, just as they did in a lot of areas. The wood went to chips for paper, MDF, OSB, etc. Good logging practices would keep these forests healthy, but we won't see that happen, since there are some very ignorant people in high places who think that trees are more important than forests. Expect these stands to end up over-grown and infested again in about 20-30 years.