But I didn't really realize how bad it had gotten until I read that a possible cause of the wildfires raging in California is that this sort of situation is so bad that you CAN'T EVEN CLEAR AWAY BRUSH. From this article titled "Feds Didn't Clear Brush In Wildfire Area"
Steve Brink, a vice president with the California Forestry Association, an industry group, said as many as 8 million acres of national forest in California are overgrown and at risk of wildfire. He said that too few days provide the conditions necessary for larger, prescribed burns and that the Forest Service needs to speed up programs to thin forests, largely by machine.
"Special interest groups that don't want them to do it have appeals and litigation through the courts to stall or stop any project they wish. Consequently, the Forest Service is not able to put a dent in the problem," Brink said.
This story pretty much speaks for itself.
Cross posted at Chicago Boyz
1 comments:
Herein lies the giant problem of wildfires. Ecomadness.
The dense, low lying brush needs to be cut or burned off in a controlled fashion, or you get giant fires like we have seen the past few years.
In the past, nature took care of itself with random fires, usually sparked by lightning. These fires kept the low lying brush down. But we fight these fires so fiercely now that the underbrush doesn't have a chance to burn out, and when there is a fire, there is TONS of energy waiting to be burned.
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