When it comes to wildfires ravagining the landscape, the Trump administration knows exactly what the problem is.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4392206/trum ... wildfires/“It’s not a global warming thing, it’s a management situation,” said Trump. “And one of the elements that he talked about was the fact that we have fallen trees, and instead of removing those fallen trees, which get to be extremely combustible, instead of removing them, gently removing them, beautifully removing them, we leave them to burn.”
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke then decried the import of lumber to the U.S. as fallen trees are left to rot on the ground.
“We import lumber in this country, and yet there are billions of board feet that are on the forest floor rotting,” said Zinke. “When you have rotting timber, when housing prices are going up, when a lot of Americans are right at that border of affording a house, and yet we are wasting billions of board feet for not being able to bring them to a local lumber yard.”
Fallen trees can be salvaged for lumber within the first year, Zinke said, reducing both the need for lumber imports and helping with wildfire management.
Much of what I know about logging is indirect, yet I'm pretty sure I can spot the stupidity, here. Logging is, like many businesses, about volume. Clear-cutting is efficient because you can get heavy machinery in and cut the living shit out of everything. I have watched a single machine clear two or three acres of a mature planted pine forest over the better part of a day. That was nice, level, easy to access, land. In an uncooperative forest, you can pluck mature trees here and there, but it involves expensive things like helicopters, and getting crews in and out.
Whatever - I don't know much about Zinke, but at his point I'm comfortable saying he isn't striking me as the brightest bulb in the Trump administration chandelier.
Not done with the subject, Trump went-on:
“Just to add, just to conclude, especially when Canada is charging us a lot of money to bring their timber down into our country. So ridiculous, here we have it,” said Trump. “We’re not even talking about cutting down trees… we’re talking about lying on the floor creating a hazard and a tremendous death trap.”
The U.S. has applied a tariff to Canadian lumber, meaning that American citizens must pay a duty to the U.S. government on top of its purchase price. It’s estimated that the tariffs — a tax collected by the U.S. government — has increased the price of the average U.S. home by US$9,000.
*rubs temples*
*long, slow, sigh*
Okay. Ugh. Where to begin?
Yes, forests need to be managed. First-nations people understood this. Unfortunately, the Smokey Bear type of initiatives were a bit too successful. With the idea of "no fires, ever", a lot of fuel built-up. Controlled burning is actually healthy for forests. Heck, some types of pines count on a good burn every now and then. Observing that forest management hasn't been ideal, and needs more attention, is valid.
Here, I'll take a moment to point-out that climate change is real. Moving-on...
Managing forests probably sounds a bit too hippy for Trump, so this idea of somehow vacuuming dead trees from the forest floor, within one year, obviously appeals to Trump and Zinke, because when these two put their heads together, the most likely result is a hollow knocking sound.
From there, Trump extends it to Canadian softwood lumber imports being expensive (further evidence that he really has a tough time understanding how his own tariffs work), and implies that Canada somehow makes money off of the increased costs to US consumers.
If Trump were still a private citizen, I could probably sell him branding rights (for a small fee, miniscule compared to the great big league revenue we are sure to make) to a forest vacuum company. Trump logs - the logs the forest shits-out, scooped from the forest floor, all without cutting-down a single tree! These, folks, are the trees which were ready to die so you can build your home, not the unwilling, unready, expensive, inferior, Canadian trees! These are the most amazing trees, magically found and teleported from the wilds of California and straight into our sawmill. They are even cut to order, so long as you want an eight-foot two-by-four. You will also enjoy the wonderful feeling of knowing that you have supported the clean-up of a hazard and a death-trap!
So long as the tariffs on Canadian lumber are high enough, it could work, Donald! Have your people get in-touch with my people... it'll be the greatest wood anyone's ever had, Donald!
A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.