Debunking Timber Industry Propaganda: The Untold Story about Forest Fires
"Forest thinning" and "fuel reduction" are supposed to reduce wildfire, according to the timber industry. But instead they make our forests more flammable
Chad Hanson, PhD is an expert on the ecology of forest fires and author of the book Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate. He is also a National board member of the Sierra Club.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chad Hanson in this interview on my YouTube Channel. Please subscribe.
Did you know that the US Forest Service is in the timber business? They are supposed to be protecting our forests. But instead, they receive fees from timber companies for the privilege of extracting timber. For this and other reasons, the US Forest Service tends to promote unscientific claims about what is good for our forests and what will protect our forests and our citizens from wildfires.
For example, when they talk about “fuel reduction” they are claiming to reduce the amount of fuel available to wildfires, and therefore reducing the risk of wildfires. But Chad Hanson gives examples of how and why fires burn hotter and longer after “fuel reduction.”
Please join me for this informative and upbeat conversation.
Thanks for this excellent and informative interview. Hanson shows how complex ecosystems are and how simplistic our understanding is. Here in the northwest, clearcutting is still practiced and almost everything has been turned to plantation. The system is drying out and the salmon are dying and everyone blames CO2, with the elephant in the room, "forest management," left out of the picture.
We had thousands upon thousands of acres in the Rocky Mountain Region that died of beetle kill. These areas needed to be cut but the USFS had little funding to do the necessary clearances and so the trees were left standing till they rotted.