Here are parts seven and eight in the series of 12 videos produced by the Santa Fe National Forest on the topic of fuel management and forest restoration.
Fuel Management is defined as:
An act or practice of controlling flammability and reducing resistance to control of wildland fuels [vegetation] through mechanical, chemical, biological, or manual means, or by fire, in support of land management objectives.
Forest Restoration:
Actions to re-instate ecological processes, which accelerate recovery of forest structure, ecological functioning and biodiversity levels towards those typical of climax forest, i.e. the end-stage of natural forest succession.
Part 7, Smoke Impacts
Part 8, Wildfire and Watersheds
The reason that we have a thicket of small diameter trees choking our forests is because we logged out the large diameter trees on a wholesale rate for a century. That opened the canopies all at once in nearly every forest in the SW enabling the seedlings, that once would have remained stunted, to grow into the dense small diameter trees shown in video #7. Along came this intractable drought and you have a recipe for disaster. The FS spends a great deal of time and public funds to convince the public that the fires in the SW are inevitable and that our only real choice is smoke from wildfires or smoke from prescribed burns. First of all, the FS capitalizes on lightening strikes and often expands them to thousands or tens of thousands of acres in order to achieve their burn goals. In fact, these “managed wildfires” are becoming increasingly popular with the FS because they are unregulated by stare air quality agencies. So, this choice that the FS presents the public that we must choose between the smoke from wildfires or prescribed burns is less than honest. Even more dishonest is the fact that the FS has set out to reintroduce fire to our SW forests in exclusion of other viable and ecologically helpful strategies. One particular glaring example is their failure to petition congress for changes to our outdated log export laws that would provide a market for these low value, small diameter trees that the FS is telling us are the problem. Instead, they have not uttered one word about these laws publicly in their NEPA documents or in their massive re-education programs that emphasize the necessary evil of living with and adapting to constant smoke in the air that the public must breathe as a result of their burn programs. The presenter presents the case that we are to choose between one prescribed burn with monitored smoke impacts and an out of control wildfire when, in fact, the FS is conducting multiple prescribed fires and sometimes managed wildfires that combine across the SW rolling from one state to the next. Check out the educational programs that the FS presents to our public school children. There is one for the fourth grade that is particularly disturbing in which they portray and elderly man as synonymous with an older, diseased tree whose time has come to die. They have one kid represent fire with a wand and is instructed to touch the old man tree so that he can die. Considering all the non fire strategies that the FS has turned down flat, the fourth grade lesson plan is just plain sick. Just a reminder that the pm2.5 found in smoke shortens the lives of people with heart, lung, stroke, diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases. This idea that fire was every where in the west before man settled these areas does not equate into letting the FS dictate public health policy to our citizens. What has been the hardest for me to grasp as a citizen is how quickly my fellow Americans are brainwashed into agreeing that our citizens must die an early death for a “higher cause”, reintroducing fire into our western forests. Every successful large scale assault on public health has been achieved with the help and cooperation of lots of good people who believed that it was necessary to harm their fellow citizen for a higher goal. That is when it gets really dangerous. Who decides what is a higher goal? How far do we go in our zealous goals? Are we willing to brainwash little children that when grandpa can’t breathe or is swallowing nitroglycerin during a prescribed burn or managed wildfire, that its all for the best? The FS does not really listen to the public during the NEPA process. They do not obey the intent and the guidelines of the Federal Land Management Act. The FS decides that they are going to do something and then proceeds to re-educate the public as to what is common sense or is acceptable. The public is an annoyance, like grandpa. Grandpa just needs to practice averting behavior. He needs to prepare. He needs to invent a hermetically sealed home. He needs to take a vacation to San Diego when there is smoke in the air. Never mind that grandpa cannot afford to do any of those things. An annoyance.