Pianotech

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

 
As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic. 

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss

Between 1990, in 2000, I worked for the state of California doing natural resources management. Dealing with fires was a large part of my job; prevention, cleanup, and restoration. I was not in management, I worked in the forest. In this post I hope to clear up some misconceptions, and explain why prevention is not possible anymore. 

The first misconception is the concept of forest thinning. Thinning a forest is destruction of habitat. A healthy ecosystem depends on dead trees, standing dead trees as well as those laying on the ground. There are scores of insects and birds that feed on or live in dead standing trees. Additionally dead trees slowly rotting on the forest floor are a critical part of an ecosystem.  Last, in order to thin forests, roads need to be built into the forest. Obviously that leads to a tremendous amount of ecosystem destruction. 

Another problem is the actual management of these areas. There are multiple agencies managing them, federal, state, and local. These large bureaucracies are not designed to work together. Even if they get along, they may have different purposes. Sometimes those purposes  conflict.  Also in a large government bureaucracy the right thing to do doesn't get done. This is because there are power struggles among people, frequent personnel or political changes, conflicting agendas, and the slow moving wheels of a large bureaucracy.  Usually the people working in these agencies are good people, but the system just doesn't allow for efficiency. 

As for prevention; periodic fires prevent massive fires. Throughout history forest fires have always occurred naturally and are the only healthy and natural way to maintain a thriving ecosystem. They naturally prevent the buildup of massive amounts of fuel.  However given the population density of California that solution is not  practical, except in small isolated areas. 

Too many houses and communities have been built in areas where they absolutely should not be. Areas where it is impossible to prevent or defend a fire. But beyond that, there are simply too many people living in the state of California. The population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. Therefore only true way to prevent these catastrophic events is to very significantly reduce the population and number of buildings in California.  Obviously that is not realistic.

David Weiss