A rhetorical question...

The epidemic isn't so much a result of climate change (0.00 / 0)

as it is a symptom of almost 100 years of fire suppression.

When you hear Tester say things like:

"removing some dead trees before they burn and destroy a watershed may be the best thing to do for the land."

And: "Since the forest is primarily dead"

You've got to realize that the guy has no understanding of fire ecology. He's just another farmer who wants to run his tractor through the stubble to turn the soil in prep for another round of seeding and harvesting. Which isn't how you manage forests.

This is really sad because he has some people on staff who should know better than to let him say totally stupid things about forests and watersheds. After all, his Missoula Field Director ran the Clark Fork Coalition for years, and has her MS in Environmental Studies from the UM. I daresay that she didn't write lines like the above for him, and must cringe when she reads them in print. And his press secreatry used to be a Park Ranger in Yellowstone--a land where lodgepole regeneration has revealed how beautiful and natural of a process fire can be.

Watersheds are not destroyed by fire. There may be short term degradations, but in the long run, a regenerated-by-fire lodgepole forest provides for a higher quality watershed than does one with the overstory removed.

A forest with an abundance of standing dead lodgepole is not a "dead forest." Far from it. It is a forest awaiting fire to regenerate. There is no more beautiful forest than a lodgepole forest in the years after it has burned. The diversity of plant live is phenomenal, compared to a forest that has been clearcut or had the overstory removed.

---

by: JC @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 04:46:23 AM UTC

bark beetle... (0.00 / 0)

...and climate change...

---

by: Jay Stevens @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 12:53:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

PDO (0.00 / 0)

The reason there is no linkage is that such connection would not pass the laugh test.   The PDO is impervious to such legislation.  See: http://cses.washington.edu/cig...

The PDO, El Ninos and La Ninas drive weather in the western half of the US.

---

by: Craig Moore @ Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 15:38:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]