Don,
Unfortunately even today, "good forest management" = "fire suppression" in many jurisdictions. Also, it is absolutely unnecessary to remove the debris from a fire, such as stumps and so on. It is essential for the new plant life to have the nutrients unlocked by the fire.
As for clearing the underbrush - this is made necessary by the years of suppression. Normally, underbrush is cleared by fire that is not intense enough to harm more mature/established trees. But the sheer amount of fuel now available means these little fires turn into raging infernos that are hot enough to get into the crowns of the big trees. then --- look out
We (collectively) seemed to have managed our way into this mess. Hopefully we can manage our way out by trying to better understand what happens naturally.
There is hope for the desert... just because we may not live to see the results (human lifespan is very short compared to some cycles in nature) doesn't mean it will never recover. Hopefully some restoration efforts will pay off though - google "Sudbury Ontario restoration" (or something like that). Sudbury was so destroyed by the local mines that NASA tested the lunar rover up there as it was deemed the "most-lunar like environemtn" on Earth in the 1960s. Very green now, and well ont he way to recovery.
Andrew
Unfortunately even today, "good forest management" = "fire suppression" in many jurisdictions. Also, it is absolutely unnecessary to remove the debris from a fire, such as stumps and so on. It is essential for the new plant life to have the nutrients unlocked by the fire.
As for clearing the underbrush - this is made necessary by the years of suppression. Normally, underbrush is cleared by fire that is not intense enough to harm more mature/established trees. But the sheer amount of fuel now available means these little fires turn into raging infernos that are hot enough to get into the crowns of the big trees. then --- look out
We (collectively) seemed to have managed our way into this mess. Hopefully we can manage our way out by trying to better understand what happens naturally.
There is hope for the desert... just because we may not live to see the results (human lifespan is very short compared to some cycles in nature) doesn't mean it will never recover. Hopefully some restoration efforts will pay off though - google "Sudbury Ontario restoration" (or something like that). Sudbury was so destroyed by the local mines that NASA tested the lunar rover up there as it was deemed the "most-lunar like environemtn" on Earth in the 1960s. Very green now, and well ont he way to recovery.
Andrew