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We need to do a better job caring for our forests. We need to put more resources into thinning them out, clearing debris and undergrowth, and clearing areas cl

We need to do a better job caring for our forests. We need to put more resources into thinning them out, clearing debris and undergrowth, and clearing areas closest to developed areas. Preventative maintenance designed to reduce the impact of fires. Unfortunately we can't, because Trump brought it up one day in his patented ham-handed way. Now people just talk about "raking forests" and laugh it off.

cowmoo728 4y ago
The US Forest Service, CalFire, National Park Service, aren't doing better forest management because Trump talked about raking the forests? That's a pretty reductive take. It's because of the immense manpower cost that they don't have funding for, how quickly human settlements are expanding into and encroaching on forest areas, the incredible risk of doing prescribed burns that could get out of control, and myriad other bureaucratic messes between native rights, federal land and agencies, and state agencies and air quality regulations. https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/why-isnt-california-using-more-prescribed-burns-to-reduce-fire-risk/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/why-isnt-california-...
- godshatter 4y ago
  I shouldn't have added the bit about Trump (I'm not an R or a D, btw), I just find it annoying that the idea gets shut down so quickly. Funding is an inherently political subject, and we've never been great as a country about working together and thinking ahead. I acknowledge all the problems mentioned and I realize the cost is huge to address them. But I live in the PNW and have seen the air quality get so bad due to locally close fires that I couldn't see the house across the street from my doorstep due to the smoke. For whatever reasons, movement politically on this subject has been a non-starter. I just hope we decide somewhere along the line that some preventative maintenance might go a long way to helping mitigate this.
Lochleg 4y ago
So, forests won't be worked on to prove a point or what? The idea is decades old from at least when railroad companies were dealing with Canadian forests, so it seems like apathy or complacency won and still rules the day. It must have been a pretty good joke if people are still laughing about it though.
buildsjets 4y ago
I think that you are fundamentally unable to conceptualize how large our forested areas are. As another poster noted, there are 360 million acres of forest in the western United States, and a lot of it is in extraordinarily remote areas. The population of the United States is ~330M, so over one acre for each individual in the country. It takes me a full weekend every year just doing a light spring cleanup in my 1/4 acre yard. How many acres of forest can you personally rake in a day? How much in taxes are you willing to pay to hire other people or machines to do it?
- godshatter 4y ago
  I live in the mountains of Idaho, so, yeah, I'm aware. I had friends in high school and in college in the 80s that did precisely this. As for taxes, we can either pay them on the front end by doing more preventative maintenance or we can pay them on the back end handling damages and knock on costs. In reality it will be a mixture of both, but the more we put up front the less we would (should) have to pay later. Of course, one stroke of bad luck can throw all our best laid plans to the winds.

cowmoo728 4y ago

The US Forest Service, CalFire, National Park Service, aren't doing better forest management because Trump talked about raking the forests? That's a pretty reductive take. It's because of the immense manpower cost that they don't have funding for, how quickly human settlements are expanding into and encroaching on forest areas, the incredible risk of doing prescribed burns that could get out of control, and myriad other bureaucratic messes between native rights, federal land and agencies, and state agencies and air quality regulations. https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/why-isnt-california-using-more-prescribed-burns-to-reduce-fire-risk/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/why-isnt-california-...

godshatter 4y ago
I shouldn't have added the bit about Trump (I'm not an R or a D, btw), I just find it annoying that the idea gets shut down so quickly. Funding is an inherently political subject, and we've never been great as a country about working together and thinking ahead. I acknowledge all the problems mentioned and I realize the cost is huge to address them. But I live in the PNW and have seen the air quality get so bad due to locally close fires that I couldn't see the house across the street from my doorstep due to the smoke. For whatever reasons, movement politically on this subject has been a non-starter. I just hope we decide somewhere along the line that some preventative maintenance might go a long way to helping mitigate this.

Lochleg 4y ago

So, forests won't be worked on to prove a point or what? The idea is decades old from at least when railroad companies were dealing with Canadian forests, so it seems like apathy or complacency won and still rules the day. It must have been a pretty good joke if people are still laughing about it though.

buildsjets 4y ago

I think that you are fundamentally unable to conceptualize how large our forested areas are. As another poster noted, there are 360 million acres of forest in the western United States, and a lot of it is in extraordinarily remote areas. The population of the United States is ~330M, so over one acre for each individual in the country. It takes me a full weekend every year just doing a light spring cleanup in my 1/4 acre yard. How many acres of forest can you personally rake in a day? How much in taxes are you willing to pay to hire other people or machines to do it?

godshatter 4y ago
I live in the mountains of Idaho, so, yeah, I'm aware. I had friends in high school and in college in the 80s that did precisely this. As for taxes, we can either pay them on the front end by doing more preventative maintenance or we can pay them on the back end handling damages and knock on costs. In reality it will be a mixture of both, but the more we put up front the less we would (should) have to pay later. Of course, one stroke of bad luck can throw all our best laid plans to the winds.