What if you needed to have a tree removed in your yard and one tree service quoted a thousand dollars to do the job, while another one said they would pay you for the fire wood value of the tree?

I bet you would choose the one that pays you instead of paying for the same job.

On a 2009 public field trip the Sequoia National Forest staff showed where many years ago they thinned some trees in our overgrown forest to improve forest health. These projects also provided jobs, paid taxes and produced wood products we all need and use.

When the Piute fire raged through our forest last year, vast sections of overgrown forest were incinerated, but when the fire reached the treated areas, where the forest had been thinned, the fire abated and the trees survived. This illustrates how vitally important it is to manage our overgrown forests.

The alternative is to continue to waste hundreds of millions of dollars each year fighting ever larger forest fires which produce charred hillsides, destroyed watersheds and larger tax deficits. Kind of like you paying to have a tree removed while wrecking your yard in the process.

Treated Area-Forest remains healthy

In response to the Piute fire, Sequoia National Forest will be removing many dead trees in the Piute burn area along 32 miles of roads so they will not fall on people.

Within the huge areas of dense matchstick forest they propose thinning a couple of small areas to reduce the risk of even hotter wildfires 20-30 years from now.

Native trees will also be planted to speed reforestation.
 

This is all necessary work and the Forest Service needs your support because there are people who will oppose these projects, just as before the fire they filed lawsuits which blocked the Forest Service from thinning Clear Creek and Alaska Flat areas under the grounds that there was no risk of wildfire and therefore no need to thin the forest. These so called preservation groups bear much of the blame for the devastation of our forests, wildlife and watershed.

Please contact the Sequoia Forest Service to voice your support for active management at 760 379-5646

Chris Horgan
Stewards of the Sequoia

Piute Fire Burns around Treated Areas and leaves them Green and Healthy Please support active management to keep our overgrown Forests from being destroyed by unnatural Wildfire!!

Return to Stewards of the Sequoia Home Page