Reply #42: On the contrary!

[Fotoware58]

They speak volumes about the current state of the Forest Service! Additions to inventory have increased at tremendous rates, and that surely includes sub-merchantable biomass trees as well. Much of that increased inventory is in the form of plantation trees from the near-elimination of clearcutting in our National Forests. Biomass used to be violently bulldozed and piled after taking all those merchantable trees out, then burned in the cutting unit. Today, in our modern surgical style of thinnings, much of that biomass is currently cut and removed to the landing and burned, because there is not much of a market for biomass, especially here in California. Generally, the existing biomass plants here get their feedstock VERY cheaply, only having to pay for the transportation costs of agricultural wastes. Trees above 9-10" dbh are merchantable trees that boards can be made out of and old growth is strictly off-limits.

What we DO know about the future is that mega-firestorms WILL continue, as tree densities have reached a critical mass. Tree densities in some areas are 1000-fold above the pioneer days. This is documented fact, both in historical records and even pioneer sketches! The future also tells us that the Obama Administration will NOT change their policy of forest management. The solutions put forth by the best scientific minds in American forestry are just too progressive and politically-unpalatable to Obama's advisors and campaign contributors. Hey, it took almost 6 months to get a new Chief of the Forest Service. They haven't even selected a replacement for Mark Rey's old job, who oversees the Forest Service in the USDA. That just shows you how committed they are to adressing this current disaster that dwarfs Katrina, in size and scope. It remains to be seen if the death toll will eclipse that mess but, the disaster rolls on over a MUCH wider area than Katrina. More than 200 died in Australian fires because the government didn't react to huge fuel loadings. 12 people died last year in wildfires. How many will die this year? My own Uncle passed away from the Cedar Fire's smoke in suburban San Diego.

The truth is that you cannot control firestorms without controlling the fuels. All the high tech firefighting equipment in the world cannot stand in front of a 200 foot flame front. Entire towns are at risk and people's lives ARE in jeopardy. The graph is VERY significant in showing just how much extra fuels are now in our forests, compared to just a few decades ago. How much more is there since Lewis and Clark?!? We ARE already approaching the record pace this year of 10 million acres burned and firefighting costs have again skyrocketed. The resource losses are ten times more than the suppression costs!! Firestorms are NOT natural for American forests, especially in ponderosa pine and other temperate forests. Flammable lodgepole forests have expanded well beyond their historical range. Free range fire IS the enemy!!

America MUST stop embracing catastrophic wildfires!! Biomass can mitigate them, if used properly, like you said.

Where is the Precautionary Principle when you need it?!?!?