[82lsju]

I’m so sorry to the people reading this who’ve lost their homes. I recently learned of a friend whose extended family lost 3 in the same neighborhood. The devastation is immense. I’m also sorry that you all have to read political posts trying to use your pain as leverage to advance their pet political projects that have little or nothing to do with the fires happening in the LA area now.

FWIW, i got most of the information I know about forestry practices back in 2020 from sources such as this, the MIT Technology Review - https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09...e-forests/, and this - https://bit.ly/3BVlDh9, - from the National Association of State Foresters. 

The bottom line is that California forests are badly overgrown and in need of drastic reduction. We can talk about improving the safety of power lines, but the critical issue is not so much how fires start as how they are fueled.  It seems to me necessary to change the approach from one in which the goal is to maintain the forest in a ' natural' state as to accept the reality that that is no longer a practical possibility, and move to a curated model. That implies licensing significant tracts to logging companies such as Weyerhauser. But the reality is that these corporations have done a good job in maintaining forests in good health.

Finally, the difficulties in initiating dam projects and other water infrastructure obviously have no direct effect on fire prevention, but are emblematic of the difficulties society has had in reorienting attitudes towards a more practical approach to these problems.

don't forget all the dead trees from the pine beetle...

[82lsju]

I’m so sorry to the people reading this who’ve lost their homes. I recently learned of a friend whose extended family lost 3 in the same neighborhood. The devastation is immense. I’m also sorry that you all have to read political posts trying to use your pain as leverage to advance their pet political projects that have little or nothing to do with the fires happening in the LA area now.

FWIW, i got most of the information I know about forestry practices back in 2020 from sources such as this, the MIT Technology Review - https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09...e-forests/, and this - https://bit.ly/3BVlDh9, - from the National Association of State Foresters. 

The bottom line is that California forests are badly overgrown and in need of drastic reduction. We can talk about improving the safety of power lines, but the critical issue is not so much how fires start as how they are fueled.  It seems to me necessary to change the approach from one in which the goal is to maintain the forest in a ' natural' state as to accept the reality that that is no longer a practical possibility, and move to a curated model. That implies licensing significant tracts to logging companies such as Weyerhauser. But the reality is that these corporations have done a good job in maintaining forests in good health.

Finally, the difficulties in initiating dam projects and other water infrastructure obviously have no direct effect on fire prevention, but are emblematic of the difficulties society has had in reorienting attitudes towards a more practical approach to these problems.

don't forget all the dead trees from the pine beetle...