Preaching to the choir.

rico said:
In case you haven't notice we have reached the point of no return folks, so as lovely as mulch is, it certainly isn't gonna save us from this inevitable disaster of our own making.. Despite all the evidence, we as a species, and we as a nation are carrying on business as usual. We had our chance to respond, but in typical human fashion, we thought we knew better. That door is now swinging shut and now we must pay the price..

I think that we as an industry really need to have an honest talk with ourselves as to how much we are helping or hurting the situation..Since removals dominate this industry, and we use massive amounts of fossil fuels in the process, I have come to my own conclusions..Do I have the conviction to hang up my spurs?
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It’s very sad and true. With drastic and immediate changes fucken tomorrow the best we can hope for is mitigation or slowing. But the ball has started rolling down the hill and there is no stopping it.
I wouldn’t hang the Spurs up just yet, but I’d certainly apply a thin coat of oil cause they might be used much more infrequently. It’s way way too much to type out, and not a 100% cohesive thought but I am phasing out of normal tree work and going into mitigation. It’s a model that can be adapted anywhere using localized specific. Essentially it cannot be a one size fits all approach.
I have been doing a lot of grieving, it’s lost, and we now live in a 100% non natural environment. There is no going back to normal but we can help cushion the transition of regional flora. There are many many more mistakes that are being made right now with snake oil cures.
 
27RMT0N said:
Not as bad as in CA, but fire risk is a big and quickly growing risk in my area. Unnatural and extremely overstocked forest, combined with 100 years of fuel buildup and drying conditions are making for a perfect storm for catastrophic fire potential. As both a tree guy and a volunteer fire fighter this is ALWAYS on my mind.

All we can do about it is reduce fuel loads and the ability for fire to start and spread, but the scale is so large in reality there isn't a lot of hope if I'm honest. People can thin stands around their own homes/property and local governments and power companies can work around power lines, but the work is hard, time consuming and expensive. The terrain is so difficult in my area much of it can't be mechanized. It's hard enough to find a single guy to hold a rope and feed a chipper around here, getting a crew to thin acres of land is almost impossible. Living in the woods is risky and as more people move into these areas the problem grows when people expect their property to be somehow protected in the event of a fire.... That said, I'm not about to move to the city to avoid potential fire. No easy answers.

(example photos from quick google)

View attachment 76534

View attachment 76535
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Fire mitigation is getting shoved down our throats in the pnw. Your area is different than mine, but fire threat is just one side of the coin, we are also projected to get 5 degrees warmer, and fucken 20-30% WETER in the non fire months! Most of the water is peak storms, so landslides and erosion is a huge threat which will be worse with the loss of rain water interception. Can’t be fire safe and effectively mitigate stormwater with the two extreme. This projection is by 2050, the fine print below that date indicates 2050 is equal to +/- 2030-2070!
the most jaw dropping is the NW quadrant of Washington state is also projected to LOOSE 40% of its BIOMASS by 2100 (if I recall the date correctly but certainly no later).
the only way we can get though this is by helping others, seriously hit me up and we can figure something out, I’m likely in the same boat down here
 
rico said:
Yep. Being able to cultivate food was a big turning point, which allowed us to fornicate and procreate like a bunch of randy rabbits.
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I agree and disagree.. ‘western’ industrial ag certainly, but the entirety of the America’s were cultivated and ‘farmed’ for thousands of years before the dumb fucks got lost here.. personally I blame that cloning event which supposedly happened right around the year 0, after B.C. but before A.D.
 
evo said:
...we now live in a 100% non natural environment.
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When I hear the line that 'fires are natural' and others alluding to the idea that prescribed burns would solve all of the problems I cringe. The era that worked in is long gone. There are subdivisions built into wild areas where there is no way prescribed burns would be allowed.
 
I certainly don't know anyone advocating for controlled burns in subdivisions. The issue (or at least one of many) is where people have chosen to live. Just like people live in areas that are hurricane prone, people also live in areas that are fire prone, and climate change is making both of those situations worse. What I do know is that I only have a basic understanding of the situation at best and luckily there are a lot of people smarter than myself doing research. Time will tell, but unfortunately the dollar usually wins...
 
I saw so much housing development in fire prone areas around Denver. With that housing density it changes how the FS has to respond and the consequences of not being able to control the fire. The subdivisions I'm talking about aren't first tier suburbia. These are out in wild areas on 3-4 acres with terrible road access. The owners expect fire control like they would get from a city fire department. That's not reasonable. Either is public supported repairs in soil slide/beach cliff areas.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
I saw so much housing development in fire prone areas around Denver. With that housing density it changes how the FS has to respond and the consequences of not being able to control the fire. The subdivisions I'm talking about aren't first tier suburbia. These are out in wild areas on 3-4 acres with terrible road access. The owners expect fire control like they would get from a city fire department. That's not reasonable. Either is public supported repairs in soil slide/beach cliff areas.
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I disagree. But in a situational sense. I’m clueless on your area, but here in the pnw it is still a great tool and option. BUT not the only option and the fires need to be very carefully controlled, also suburban sprawl also needs to be very carefully control. I have five acres, in a area that was divided into nine five acre lots. Still plenty of room for micro control burns, but also with heavily managed vegetation.
 
rico said:
In case you haven't notice we have reached the point of no return folks, so as lovely as mulch is, it certainly isn't gonna save us from this inevitable disaster of our own making.. Despite all the evidence, we as a species, and we as a nation are carrying on business as usual. We had our chance to respond, but in typical human fashion, we thought we knew better. That door is now swinging shut and now we must pay the price..

I think that we as an industry really need to have an honest talk with ourselves as to how much we are helping or hurting the situation..Since removals dominate this industry, and we use massive amounts of fossil fuels in the process, I have come to my own conclusions..Do I have the conviction to hang up my spurs?
Click to expand...
Someday, a genius will invent a wood fired air conditioner, and then we'll all be ok.
 
And here is our climate change ‘today’ photo.. heat wave is over and the news is calling this ‘smog’, but other sources say it’s Siberia burning (the fires never went out, just underground in -40 degrees! And east China is smoking too)
76ECD060-D86E-46FA-A9C9-D48812EED61A.jpeg
 
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