@ZilWerks This comic was a sort of straw for me; it made me look into what Finland actually does do WRT forest management. I found this handy page: https://mmm.fi/en/forest-management-practices
In it, there is a sequence of two very telling sentences: "Younger commercially managed forests are typically thinned out periodically, with some 25−30% of the trees removed during thinning. The increasing demand for wood for bioenergy has created new markets for the trees cut during such thinnings, and for logging residues such as branches and stumps which earlier used to be left in the forest."
That sounds an awful lot like the practices of thinning (it says so explicitly) and raking (clearing debris from the forest floor). I get that there are cultural and linguistic nuances at play here, as well as political posturing. But, really, exactly what you want in California is exactly what Finland does, even if they don't call it raking.
I live in Washington (state). Our wildfire areas have a bit more self-control than you guys do... but still not enough; we need thinning and raking as well.
And, for everyone who thinks that anyone is talking about individual citizens going out there with garden rakes and clearing the forest floor; that is not what anyone is talking about. Here's a picture from the USDA website showing a (fairly small) forest raking setup: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb5177289.jpg
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@ZilWerks This comic was a sort of straw for me; it made me look into what Finland actually does do WRT forest management. I found this handy page: https://mmm.fi/en/forest-management-practices
In it, there is a sequence of two very telling sentences: "Younger commercially managed forests are typically thinned out periodically, with some 25−30% of the trees removed during thinning. The increasing demand for wood for bioenergy has created new markets for the trees cut during such thinnings, and for logging residues such as branches and stumps which earlier used to be left in the forest."
That sounds an awful lot like the practices of thinning (it says so explicitly) and raking (clearing debris from the forest floor). I get that there are cultural and linguistic nuances at play here, as well as political posturing. But, really, exactly what you want in California is exactly what Finland does, even if they don't call it raking.
I live in Washington (state). Our wildfire areas have a bit more self-control than you guys do... but still not enough; we need thinning and raking as well.
And, for everyone who thinks that anyone is talking about individual citizens going out there with garden rakes and clearing the forest floor; that is not what anyone is talking about. Here's a picture from the USDA website showing a (fairly small) forest raking setup: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb5177289.jpg