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We forget so quickly. We used to burn the forests out of indifference and perceived abundance. > By the act of March 3, 1875, all land-grant and right-of-way r

We forget so quickly. We used to burn the forests out of indifference and perceived abundance. > By the act of March 3, 1875, all land-grant and right-of-way railroads are authorized to take timber from the public lands adjacent to their lines for construction purposes; and they have taken it with a vengeance, destroying a hundred times more than they have used, mostly by allowing fires to run into the woods. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1897/08/the-american-forests/305017/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1897/08/the-ame...

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
> "We forget ..." We also forget that pre-european cultures in the Americas seem to have regularly practiced deliberate forest burning, for several reasons. They were much more measured and careful than the idiots who arrived after the 1500s, but American human-driven forest management didn't started with Europeans.
- fathompinball 5y ago
  >They were much more measured and careful than the idiots who arrived after the 1500s I doubt it. There just weren't nearly as many of them.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    They also had a few thousand years of practice figuring out what works in the local environment. Human nature is one of the few things that seems to be consistent throughout all of history across all civilizations. The natives probably had just as many idiots as every other civilization.
    - wizzwizz4 5y ago
      > The natives probably had just as many idiots as every other civilization. If one person can cause a tragedy by mistake, you have a systematic failure, not a failure of the individual. A sign of a good system is that the occasional fool doesn't end up with the horizon burning.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    The estimates of the human population of north America in 1491 (the year before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean) are in the range of 7-18 million.
fathompinball 5y ago
> We forget so quickly. We used to burn the forests out of indifference and perceived abundance. A quick look at some papers indicates that prehistoric California burned much more acreage than the modern variety.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

> "We forget ..." We also forget that pre-european cultures in the Americas seem to have regularly practiced deliberate forest burning, for several reasons. They were much more measured and careful than the idiots who arrived after the 1500s, but American human-driven forest management didn't started with Europeans.

fathompinball 5y ago
>They were much more measured and careful than the idiots who arrived after the 1500s I doubt it. There just weren't nearly as many of them.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  They also had a few thousand years of practice figuring out what works in the local environment. Human nature is one of the few things that seems to be consistent throughout all of history across all civilizations. The natives probably had just as many idiots as every other civilization.
  - wizzwizz4 5y ago
    > The natives probably had just as many idiots as every other civilization. If one person can cause a tragedy by mistake, you have a systematic failure, not a failure of the individual. A sign of a good system is that the occasional fool doesn't end up with the horizon burning.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  The estimates of the human population of north America in 1491 (the year before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean) are in the range of 7-18 million.

fathompinball 5y ago

> We forget so quickly. We used to burn the forests out of indifference and perceived abundance. A quick look at some papers indicates that prehistoric California burned much more acreage than the modern variety.