Uncompahgre Plateau, west of Montrose, CO. I am pleased to stumble upon my second "forest miracle" in one summer. Up here at 9000 feet the locals are busy as beavers harvesting firewood in various areas where it is allowed. It's nice to see them actually get some use out of their oversized, overpowered, and overpriced pickup trucks, the official car of Colorado. Maybe one of them will tell me how much a full load of firewood is worth, compared to buying heat from the power company.
Of course, I just love seeing downed timber get cleared away. It makes the forest a lot more attractive and removes "ladder fuel" from a potential forest fire. And Coffee Girl can chase squirrels up tree with fewer speed bumps on the forest floor. (Then again, she has amazing buoyancy in bounding over logs.)
Progress is being made in this forest, and I don't want to sound greedy, but do you think that commercial companies can get permits to cut firewood and then sell it to the general public? It would certainly make sense since many people lack the chain saw and pickup truck, as well as the desire and ability to get out there and do it.
I'll bet most grass-roots-level environmentalists would have the same reaction to firewood cutting that I am having. After all, what is the point in whining about an economy addicted to non-renewable resources (oil, etc.) if you don't take advantage of resources that are replenishable and sustainable, such as forests or agriculture in general? (And don't they use catalytic convertors in the chimneys of wood-burning stoves, these days?) Of course environmental organizations and federal judges are unlikely to use any of the common sense of a grass-roots environmentalist.
But I'm not going to jump on one of my favorite stump (ahem) speeches about the Church of the Holy Green. Instead, it's time to show how 'fair and balanced' this blog can be. Let us accept, without protest, the basic tenet of Green theology: as long as no business makes a profit doing it, cutting trees might be not be a Mortal Sin under certain circumstances. (Recall the New Testament story about Jesus showing rage in throwing the money-changers out of the Temple. Thus feel the Greens about evil capitalists in their Cathedral of Nature.)
So we'll let the Forest Service hire unionized government employees -- and what could be more sacred to Green Democrats than that? -- and they will take a chainsaw to trees that are sick or old or growing too close to each other. (Or maybe they could use AmeriCorps volunteers, or unemployed college graduates.) They could even bring along a New Age or Native American shaman to say a prayer for the soul of each tree just before it is cut -- just before it is severed from Mystical Union with the forest. After lying on the ground for whatever time period is needed for drying, the firewood scavengers will be turned loose on them.
Seriously, how many homes could be heated if dog-hair-thick national forests were thinned for firewood? If I have been too satiric, can you think of a non-satiric way to explain the vast scale of forest mismanagement that has taken place over the last 20 years?
Comments
Two years later the FS payed to have those same trees removed. This is not management of the resources.
In years past the FS had to show income to offset the expenses. Now it just an expense.
Like you said it is a renewable resource and managed well the forests will be healthier and the rist of large fires would be diminished.
Sorry to vent.
When will the FS's balls drop and they really manage the resource?