Fire Fighting and Healthy Forests

There is debate about the methodology of forestry and also debate on Global Warming and the disappearance of our natural resources on the surface, namely forests and Rain Forests. Last year the Alaska Fire burned over 280,000 acres in the very first day and it continued to grow as all big fires do. Obviously the Spruce Forest is an important natural resource. An ongoing debate is do we tackle these fires or let them burn themselves out clearing the younger trees and underbrush build up? Luckily in this case we got some help from Mother Nature to save some of the spruce forest there, yes you guessed it; Rain!

Often smaller fires if allowed to burn get rid of the underbrush accumulation. Under the canopies of the North American forests lie about 75 tons to 125 tons of burnable underbrush or fuel for such fires. Large amounts of such fuels can result in much hotter and intensive forest fires. These forest fires burn hotter and for longer periods which often kill the older growth. Smaller more frequent fires would normally spare the older growth and thus a few smaller fires from time to time set off by the natural patterns of mother nature through the weather patterns bringing lightening storms is not a completely bad thing. Certainly no one wants to watch a forest burn as it saddens our human psyche, but it is part of nature. One thing at issue is that with growing population bases of large cities many times the urban heat from countless miles of concrete intensify storms as the surface temperature heats up to sometimes five degrees the natural temperature of unbroken terrain causing unnatural intensive storms. Then we also see during El Nino season when the Pacific Ocean heats up on the surface about 1-2 degrees bigger natural storms on known cycles, which we know makes a major change in the weather patterns, level of the jet stream. These cycles effect our entire country for weather, cause droughts in some areas and a deluge in others

We need to prevent arson fires and careless fires from humans and have a reasonable strategy to take into consideration the natural cycles of nature to ensure healthy forests. Think about it.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs