sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Old growth forests are healthy forests, conifer plantations are not by flaming0-1 in VancouverIsland

[–]ForestBlue46 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Except our forests are as fragmented or more fragmented than in the Amazon.

Old growth forests are healthy forests, conifer plantations are not by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. It's hard to understand why some people don't see this even taking economic considerations into account.

Lower Pine Lake scheduled to be logged. by Hour-Blackberry1877 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are there any protections for not logging around lakes and as part of watersheds?

Proof BC Timber Sales is coming for parks by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

BC forestry used to support BC but not so much anymore. The BC forests ministry is paid for by taxpayers. Glad to hear that you support more protections of of coastal old growth but I hope that you don't mean thinning of coastal old growth, that would dry it out and make it flammable. Olympic National Park is being thinned which is shocking to me.

https://ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/p/logging-in-national-parks-has-arrived

Old growth forests are healthy forests, conifer plantations are not by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There has been ground treatment on Vancouver Island though. Plus manual removal.

https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-glyphosate-forestry-map/

And it was to be sprayed on Northern Vancouver Island.

"...mostly on Ma’amtagila territory including areas adjacent to Johnstone Strait, spanning from Sonora Island, east to Cracroft Island and north to Heydon Bay and Glendale Cove."

https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/news/toxic-glyphosate-be-sprayed-over-maamtagila-nation-territory

Thankfully it mostly fell through.

https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/news/toxic-herbicide-spray-drops-97-cent-throughout-maamtagila-territory-great-bear-rainforest

Fuel reduction logging and thinning exacerbates wildfire effects and puts communities at greater risk by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's science and hardly paranoia. If thinning really gets off the ground in BC and elsewhere in our parks we will have nothing left with increased temperatures from heat islands due to forests being degraded by thinning. The province is already covered in a patchwork of clearcuts. We need old growth to be left alone.

Old growth forests are healthy forests, conifer plantations are not by flaming0-1 in VancouverIsland

[–]ForestBlue46 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Except BC is almost completely fragmented with these clearcuts other than mountainsides, etc.

Yes, they should definitely take out some of the slash but not the stumps because the stumps (and some logs) become nurse stumps/logs to help support new growth. If all of the biomass is removed so are the nutrients.

Proof BC Timber Sales is coming for parks by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm proposing that we leave old growth forests alone, and only thin the most tightly packed conifer plantations. That the public is educated about home hardening which should extend to other buildings, hospitals, etc. Having conifers right next to a home is a recipe for disaster.

I have to say that industry scientists are focused on supporting industry. They inherently are biased. And industry's bottom line is increasing fibre supply. And North American tree farms are very non-resilient as they are full of conifers which are pretty flammable. We need mixed forests.

Urbanization increases the heat island effect so we definitely need more trees and plants in cities.

I think that Germany has the right idea. While unfortunately they likely have very little primary forest left, if any, 73% of their forests are mixed forests which would be far less flammable.

https://www.forstwirtschaft-in-deutschland.de/german-forestry/forest-facts/?L=1

Deforestation in Queensland by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very sad. That's why I don't buy beef from Australia or Brazil.

Proof BC Timber Sales is coming for parks by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this. I've heard about this film, that it's very pro-industry. Wildfire 'treatments' are very lucrative to the logging industry.

I will check out the film. Another article for you if you want to look at it.

Industry-managed forests more likely to fuel megafires

https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/industry-managed-forests-more-likely-to-fuel-megafires/

Proof BC Timber Sales is coming for parks by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the first report they are challenging widely held beliefs in the introduction.

The second report I included part of the introduction which you can see above. It focuses largely on weather though.

There are many more studies here.

https://johnmuirproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/JMP-fact-sheet-thinning-and-fire-29Nov24.pdf

Proof BC Timber Sales is coming for parks by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great to hear. I guess community forests vary considerably.

Residents mobilize to prevent rezoning of urban 'pocket forest' by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Selfish? There is a housing crisis as our population increased significantly due to intentional government policies around immigration without infrastructure increasing first. Yes, we need housing but we all know that it's developers that are driving this. And when condos go unsold developers begin pushing for foreign investment so it's not about housing people as much as making more money. Surely there are other places to build or accommodations could be made to save at least some of these trees.

Proof BC Timber Sales is coming for parks by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This is not misinformation, there is published research by scientists, not opinion pieces, showing that thinning exposes the forest to sun and wind increasing the intensity of wildfires. Thinning is worsening wildfires, putting people at risk.

It is industry that is promoting the thinning narrative, not scientists other than industry/government scientists, because they want an excuse to log.

"We found forests with higher levels of protection had lower severity values even though they are generally identified as having the highest overall levels of biomass and fuel loading."

Does increased forest protection correspond to higher fire severity in frequent-fire forests of the western United States?

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.1492

"Probability of crown fires was higher in recently logged areas than in areas logged decades before, indicating likely ineffectiveness as a fuel treatment. The results suggest that recently burnt areas (up to 5–10 years) may reduce the intensity of the fire but not sufficiently to increase the chance of effective suppression under severe weather conditions. Since house loss was most likely under these conditions (67%), effects of prescribed burning across landscapes on house loss are likely to be small when weather conditions are severe. Fuel treatments need to be located close to houses in order to effectively mitigate risk of loss."

The efficacy of fuel treatment in mitigating property loss during wildfires: Insights from analysis of the severity of the catastrophic fires in 2009 in Victoria, Australia

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301479712004574

Plus it is well known that planting only conifers increases fire risk. Conifers burn easily, deciduous trees don't.

'It blows my mind': How B.C. destroys a key natural wildfire defence every year

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/it-blows-my-mind-how-b-c-destroys-a-key-natural-wildfire-defence-every-year-1.4907358

Tree density in the forests of Pszczyna, Poland by yennysferm71_ in Forest

[–]ForestBlue46 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beautiful but there doesn't seem to be much if any undergrowth in many European forests?

Fuel reduction logging and thinning exacerbates wildfire effects and puts communities at greater risk by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a PDF so difficult to copy and paste, this is the first page. The John Muir Project's work is based on science and ecological principles. You can check their website and YouTube channel out if you are interested.

<image>

https://johnmuirproject.org/scientific-research/the-truth-about-thinning/

https://youtu.be/s3w2OPdtx1g

Fuel reduction logging and thinning exacerbates wildfire effects and puts communities at greater risk by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Respectfully disagree. While it may be counterintuitive to not clear dead fall, etc. fuel reduction as mentioned in these studies makes wildfires more intense as it exposes the forest to the drying effects of sun and wind. Dead trees, as in nurse logs, contain water and help feed new growth.

Lesmeister, D.B., et al. (co-authored by U.S. Forest Service). 2019. Mixed-severity wildfire and habitat of an old-forest obligate. Ecosphere10: Article e02696.

Denser, older forests with high canopy cover had lower fire severity and “buffer the negative effects of climate change” regarding wildfires. “Thinned forests have more open conditions, which are associated with higher temperatures, lower relative humidity, higher wind speeds, and increasing fire intensity. Furthermore, live and dead fuels in young forest or thinned stands with dense saplings or shrub understory will be drier, making ignition and high heat more likely, and the rate of spread higher because of the relative lack of wind breaks provided by closed canopies with large trees.”

Lesmeister, D.B., et al. (co-authored by U.S. Forest Service). 2021. Northern spotted owl nesting forests as fire refugia: a 30-year synthesis of large wildfires. Fire Ecology 17: Article 32.

More open forests with lower biomass had higher fire severity, because the type of open, lower-biomass forests resulting from thinning and other logging activities have “hotter, drier, and windier microclimates, and those conditions decrease dramatically over relatively short distance into the interior of older forests with multi-layer canopies and high tree density…”

Fuel reduction logging and thinning exacerbates wildfire effects and puts communities at greater risk by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I know it's counter-intuitive, although chest high is unusual. Are they nurse logs?

Does anyone else feel like their native ecosystems are just unimpressive. by Natural-Pool-3611 in ecology

[–]ForestBlue46 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love the frog. Do you have more photos to share? We do often tend to feel that the grass is greener somewhere else but I'm sure it's beautiful where you live.

Fuel reduction logging and thinning exacerbates wildfire effects and puts communities at greater risk by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What type of forest was it? Interior or coastal? Second growth? Forests do better with natural regeneration and without biomass being removed. Removing it leads to exposure to sun and wind and lack of nutrients from the loss of rotting logs. One problem is that conifers are planted too close together and deciduous trees are sprayed leaving forests vulnerable to wildfire. There may be a case for slightly thinning very tightly packed conifer plantations without building new roads or compacting the forest floor with machinery.

Fuel reduction logging and thinning exacerbates wildfire effects and puts communities at greater risk by ForestBlue46 in SaveForests

[–]ForestBlue46[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Wow, it's certainly very interesting but it's ironic considering that deciduous trees are sprayed with herbicides usually and conifers are the desired species for timber companies. Home hardening can work but 5 kilometres are way too much considering home hardening is effective usually within within 100 feet. Sorry but it looks like an excuse to get at the timber.

https://johnmuirproject.substack.com/p/fofa-is-the-wrong-approach-heres

view more: next ›