Regarding a modern day CCC, the most logical thing I’ve heard is that we should use the overburden for sustainable biofuel energy production, which in turn makes thinning and management affordable.

I live in a forested area, have logged a little in my life, and spent 5 years as a firefighter for the USFS (Hotshot and IA crews)

The Northwest has been mismanaged as evidenced by clear cuts and subsequent landslide and watershed degradation. However many of the loggers in the NW are very environmentally minded folks, their livelihood depends on healthy sustainable forestry. Theses same people also spend all their free time hunting, fishing, mushroom hunting, etc.. in these forests. Not to say all loggers are light on the land, but with little logging allowed on public lands people have been trying to harvest timber in the healthiest way possible.

Interestingly as I was a firefighter in OR we had a logging operation in out forest, immediatly we had ELF, Earth First!, Green Peace, etc all come from the wood work and cause havoc. They had 3 tree sitters proclaiming they were were ’saving old growth’ these so-called environmentalist never realized that they were sitting in Fir trees in a Sugar pine Forest. These tree had been planted in the 1920, to replace the suga pines that had been clear cut. They talked about what a healthy pristine forest they were saving. This forest was planted, managed and then harvested by logging utilizing helicopters in early 2002. These people had no clue what they were talking about. They also left feces, a trashed van, and various litter all around the site when they left, Environmentalist? I think not!

During my short stint as I logger, I was dismayed by some practices, and in favor of others. Now I do lot clearing, tree removal on my own. I always try to convince landowners to keep diversity on their property, I tell them I can always come back and remove more trees, but cant come replace a 200 year old one…. Most others people in the tree business and loggers will echo the same thing.

In 2002 I was on the Biscuit Fire, just under 500,000 acres in OR and N Cal. The fire was healthy in some places and nuked other places, the nuked places were dense forests that had been logged previous and left to their own to regenerate. The places with a ‘healthy’ burn were either managed logging areas, or places where fire had been left to it’s natural course. We basically ran from the fire everyday, finally we established a fire line into the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, this area had burned in late 80s. The difference was amazing. Most places that had burned in the 80s were extremely healthy, Pines, Oaks, Fires, etc were huge and healthy. Right across the old fire line was a densley choke forest. We were actually able to hold the burn to the old fire area, once a few embers crossed to the densely tree areas the fire picked up intensity and kept burning nearly to the coast.

Point is we have put ourselves in a pickle, letting things just burn is not natural because the fuel load is no longer natural, putting out every fire is not natural. Logging is not natural. We need to get past the greenies vs. logging, vs, USFS and work together (sounds like Repubs and Dems huh?). Not all logging is bad, not all environmentalist are bad, and the USFS still has people that actually care about the forest not just being bobble headed bureaucrats (not enough though)

As far as houses burning, touchy subject. It has been said that letting houses burn and paying the owners may be cheaper than the cost of suppression. No one deserves to loose their house or do they? I have little pity for a homeowner that builds a $500,000 house and is too cheap to do a little mitigation work around the property, same as people who build in known flood plains and want to blame levys, the government, etc for their loss. I had a friend with property in the Missionary Ridge Fire (CO). The spring before I convinced him to clear some trees, limb trees, and reduce ladder fuels. We spent about 3 days on 3 acres doing this. His house escaped, but his neighbors did not. Luckily there were firefighters their to help save his house, he would have been fine had his surrounding neighbors created a buffer on their property. If you live on a slope in a forest on a 1 acre lot there is not much you can do unless EVERYONE in the neighborhood is on the same page.

I think that people in CO will not pull their head from the sand until most of Summit, Routte and Pitkin counties get leveled. Only then it will be to late as there may be few trees left to save and manage. People in CO really have no idea about fires in the urban interface, there was a wakeup in 2001 and 2002, but burnt homes is commonplace in CA, NV, OR, WA, etc…..

I wonder if a modern day CCC could be utilized to help thin/log forests to stimulate economy while providing jobs and timber for our country? It sure would leave a longer lasting impression that bailing out banks and corrupt politicians….

-Nature will cure it, but it will take a while, have some ugly repercussions, and not look so good in the short term.
-why is time such a big issue (real estate values and comp sales)? Forests have been here since the last big glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago!
-commercial logging will NOT cover all the acerage and replace it in a natural condition.
-how much should we spend to do it the “right way”?
-and to whom do we give the money to do this?
-is fire danger of urban interface homes (if you safely evacuate the people) really a big issue?

Didn’t the Flatops have a big bug infestation total their forest in the 1950s? result?

Check out Yellowstone since the big fires- lots of fire and smoke and ash for 4 months, but soil sterilization did NOT happen, mosaic pattens returned within a decade, the place is 1000% better post fire now some 20 years later.

Why do I pay extra to live in a town- small yard, pay for a fire department, pay fire insurance, and live within 250 feet of a fire hydrant, and yet be expected to pay for fire fghting for large acreage uninsured homeowners in the forest?
Why don’t these people tend to their own places (thin trees, remove fuels, build with fire resistant materials) and pay their own fire insurance and fire protection without my subsidy?- yet agin the rich make the rules, the common man pays.

I suggest we not waste the reasonably recovered resources (pellet and wood stove fuel, blue stain pine trimboards, house logs, etc.) near existing roads;
but let’s not use a 10 year bug infestation naturally fixing the unhealthy lodgepoles, or fire danger of the urban interface for 0.2% of the population, or corporate economics for a few big companies dictate the best solution.