Forest fires caused by Global Warming? Not likely. Enormous ground fuel loads and lightning struck “Dead Heads” (left to be struck again and fall burning to the forest floor) are the main cause of the 8 million plus acre loss of forest in our Western states within the last five years. Piles of dead branches and debris (sometimes 20′ high) carry the once minor forest floor fires directly into the forest canopy and total destruction. Endless lawsuits from NGO’s like the Sierra Club and the Mountain Conservancy have plagued our Forest Services and the BLM for years and prevented them from doing correct forest management.
No firewood cutting, grazing, debris or dead head removal, Pine Bark Beetle spraying, all in an attempt to “re-instate the natural forest environment.” Letting our forests go back to nature was fine when we had many millions of square miles of forests, but the policy is insane when our forests are shrinking. If you want to keep something, you had better take care of it. Good forest policies prevented from occurring is the cause of these fires. It is time for the adults. Get the idiots out of our forests.
Jim Glennon