Forests Need Care Too Updated
6/19/2009 |
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.
Untreated Areas-All Trees Incinerated-May take hundreds
of years to re-forest |
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.
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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
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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!! |
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