Clear Away the Dead Trees and Dry Brush

The USA Today newspaper says that a huge wildfire from downtown Los Angeles spread in all directions Monday and it has left firefighters wondering whether the blazing heat and the dry air will send it toward the L.A. neighborhoods. The fire has been blazing the last few days due to several days of triple-digit temperatures and low humidity. Two firefighters died Sunday in a wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains. U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Diane Cahir said the fire was growing in so many directions. On Sunday the fire was threatening the city of Acton in the Apple Valley. Many expensive homes in the mountainside area were in the fire's path. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the area Sunday and told residents to move quickly when ordered out by firefighters.

Whether there was any arson involved in starting this fire, I don't know. However, the high temperature as well as the low humidity made it ideal for the fire. The fire had crept to a half mile from the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory. It is home to a telescope that was used in major astronomical discoveries in the early 20th century. What I found interesting was the line that I read when it said, "Unlike most wildfires here, this one is being pushed along not by wind but dry brush that has not burned for decades and has been made worse by two years of extreme drought." Whatever has happened to the concept of preventative maintenance?

Common sense should tell you that whenever you purchase a vehicle for example, there has to be periodic maintenance done to it such as changing the engine oil, transmission oil, anti-freeze, replacing your brakes, etc. If you want your vehicle to possess long endurance, then there has to be periodic maintenance. Whatever happened to common sense when it comes to periodic clearing of the dead trees and the dry brush in the forests? Gov. Schwarzenegger and the politicians in California don't have any backbone to stand up to the environmentalists when it comes to the safety of the residents of California. I don't believe in unnecessarily clearing away live trees and any type of vegetation that adds to the beauty of the forest. However, how do dead trees and dry brush benefit a forest? You can go to extremes either way when it comes to the environment. You don't want to cut down trees that you don't need from the forest. You can raze a forest to the point where it's not healthy for the environment. However, dead dry trees and shrubs are a detriment to the forest especially when it comes to fires.

If it wasn't for the low wind, this forest fire would be raging. All that brush that's been in the forest and hasn't been burned for years is what's adding fuel to the fire. If the dead trees and brush had been periodically cleared away, this fire wouldn't be spreading as extensively nor have as dramatic of an impact than it's going to have. The environmentalists are foolish in trying to discourage any type of forest clearing. There has to be a minimal amount of deforestation. I recognize you can go overboard in either direction. However, we're talking about clearing away dead trees and dry brushes--not live trees and vegetation. Dead trees and dry brush are a fire hazard.

The National Forest Service needs to periodically clear away dead trees, timber, and dry brush from the forests. That's common sense. A periodic clearing of the forest will help prevent future fires from having the widespread impact that they're now having. I recognize there are a combination of reasons why forest fires do happen. Some of the reasons are arson, dry temperatures and low humidity. However, it makes things worse when there are dead timber and brush that could help ignite a fire and add fuel to it. The forest fires that California has been experiencing wouldn't have been half as widespread and devastating if all the brush and unnecessary objects were cleared from the forest. A public workplace could be sued by OSHA if there's anything that could prove to be a fire hazard. There's no excuse for the environmentalists to tell us that we can't periodically clear away unnecessary brush from the forests. Lives have been lost and homes have been destroyed partially because of the policy that we can't clear forests. Smokey had a famous adage that said, "Only you can prevent forest fires."