Y2Kyoto: State Of Ignis Envirosa

How environmentalists destroyed California’s forests;

Right now I’m seeing the mountains I grew up in — where I went to school, where I hung out, camped, backpacked, boated, cheated death and generally formed the foundation of my character — burning down. It makes me sad and angry.
 
This didn’t have to happen. Once upon a time, forests in California were logged, grazed, and competently managed. It wasn’t always perfect, but generally it worked.
 
Fires, which are a natural part of that ecosystem, were generally small — not just benign but beneficial. Land management focused on keeping the forest healthy for all involved, whether they were loggers, ranchers, fishermen, hunters, homeowners, or backpackers.
 
But then things started to change. Groups such as the Sierra Club and National Resources Defense Council began to drive a myopic agenda of protecting environmental interests at all costs. Logging was shut down. Grazing was banned. Controlled burning and undergrowth clearance were challenged and subjected to draconian regulations. Fires were put out as quickly as possible.
 
So the trees grew closer and closer together. Undergrowth, unchecked by grazing, cutting, or burning, grew thick and tall enough to reach the branches of mature trees.
 
The forests became thick and overgrown, but man, they sure looked nice and green from a scenic overlook.
 
Sawmills shut down and the cattle business went elsewhere. Thriving towns dried up and nearly went under. We started importing lumber and beef from Brazil and other places with objectively horrible environmental track records. And the vegetation kept growing.

38 Replies to “Y2Kyoto: State Of Ignis Envirosa”

  1. It’s a bloody shame what has happened to Cali.
    One consolation in that they can’t mandate that the Pacific Ocean be removed.

    Saw Trump speaking to Marc Levin on FNC a few days ago. He said that Cali has plenty of water. But no water. Geeks have to save the smelt fish!

    The Geeks won’t just stop there. They’re killing Canada. Our Dictator is putting the final touches on it right now. It’s called the Toilet Speech, rather, the Speech from the Throne. Excuse me.

    1. Nancy, pretty much the same thing from our point of view, and we peons sometimes refer to the toilet as a Throne, whereas in the case of the government one, it’ll be a speech thrown at us, whether we like it or not.

    2. Specifically, we are talking about the Sacramento River here. It pours fresh water into the San Francisco Bay and thence to the Pacific Ocean. Efforts to dam the river and control the flow were defeated by “ecologists” who said, as I understand, the Delta smelt needed that flow rate to survive. The dams would have provided much needed fresh water in the San Joaquin valley (Merced to Bakersfield) farmers, but the stupid fish is more important to the “ecologists” and the politicians who run California. So the fresh water still pour into the bay, instead of form lakes, like the Colorado River with its Hoover Dam and other dams. So they literally value the lives of the stupid fish more than the farmers.
      Right now reservoirs constitute a small fraction of the water supply in the summer (dry season) for California. We get some water from the Colorado, but mostly it is in the form of snow packs in the Sierras, which melt in the summer. Damming the Sacramento would have been beneficial all around … except for the precious Delta smelt.
      Not only do the “ecologists” not want to dam the Sacramento, they want to blow up existing dams and “return the rivers to nature.” Specifically, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite supplies water for San Francisco, and “ecologists” have targeted that reservoir for years.

      1. There was a series of articles in Science recently about mud.

        One of them dealt with the “restoration” of North American rivers and streams to the condition they were in prior to European settlement. The authors contended that those rivers and streams were in pristine condition before the settlers came and cleared forests. How dare they cut down trees to create fields and habitations, causing all that topsoil to be washed into the water by rain and spring runoffs, making those rivers and streams to change course or slow down.

        Uh, that’s been going on for thousands of years in other parts of the world. That’s how civilizations began and sustained themselves. The respective landscapes adapted and thrived. Look at what happens when beavers build dams.

        But, no, it happened in North America, so, therefore it has to be bad. Now there are projects underway to “restore” some of those systems by digging up the respective riverbeds. Yup, that’ll maintain the underwater environment, won’t it?

        1. Species have often successfully adapted to changes in their environment. The green mafia want a return to an imaginary “golden age”.

  2. I am cheering for the fires. Burn baby burn! The trees will grow back. Just like they always have for the last billion years.

        1. Yeah PO, they like to chain emselves to the trees, wait until they do that, then have a backburn!

          The ultimate Forest management.

      1. So it takes a few more years to grow back. So what. A tree has no value for 30 to 50 years anyway which is too far out to show up in any kind of financial analysis. In 30 years I doubt we will be harvesting trees anymore. Its too expensive. Much cheaper to manufacture building products from other materials. Plus 3D printing tech will be building houses. In fact, they already are and at a fraction of the cost.

        1. “3D printing tech will be building houses”

          Perhaps, and flying cars will finally be a reality.

          However, I don’t think I will be around long enough to see either of those.

        2. What happens when the power goes out? Don’t 3-D printers work on electricity? The last time I checked, trees could be cut down and trimmed using axes and saws, all using muscle power.

          1. First of all, tree harvesting is all mechanized. There are no axes and saws anymore.
            Secondly, 3D printed houses are all being done on-site running off a power train.

            Checking to see if/when we can buy one of these units. We have a use for them for one of our businesses and I can already see this will save us big $.

          2. My point is that a tree can be felled without the need for electricity. A 3-D printer isn’t of much use when there’s no juice coming out of the wall socket.

          3. BADR I am not understanding your point. Sorry about that. Watch the vids. These 3D printers work on remote sites running off a generator. No wall sockets. These things are big! They can build structures for a fraction of the cost. Mechanized tree harvesting is too expensive. You need to build a road to the harvesting area. You need to bring in feller bunchers, skidders and trucks to harvest and haul. Huge capex there. You need to spend a lot of money on transport to a sawmill. Only half the lumber is recovered, the rest being slabs and bark. Then you need to transport the finished product. Then you have to pay for road deconstruction and reforestation. Then you need to pay for a huge labour cost for stick frame construction. With this process all you need is a cement mix. Sand and lime all mass produced at a much smaller cost per sq ft than lumber on a finished cost basis. There is no comparison. It is an order of magnitude cheaper.
            As soon as we can, we want to get one for small buildings like picnic shelters, public lavatories, and various simple buildings with less strict building codes. Then move into larger more complex buildings as the technology evolves.

          4. Consider this. What happens if you live in a post-apocalyptic society, which, considering what’s going on nowadays, we’re coming close to? The power grid has been destroyed and there’s no gasoline or diesel fuel available anywhere.

            How will you run your 3-D printers to build your houses? An axe and a saw can still be used to build structures as they require only muscle power if all else fails. They’re relatively cheap, require next to no maintenance and they’re readily available, and they’re easy to use.

            Besides, pre-fabbed houses are an old idea.

          5. Good grief BADR! We already live on a farm and I was raised off grid. Already have solar and geothermal and all the wood we need. We can heat our house on wood if we want but dont because it is a lot of work. Still have grid power because solar still sucks. But we follow Swanson’s Law and battery tech and are optimistic that one day soon solar will generate a better payback than it does now. Note that we are against government subsidies for solar but we made sure that we got all the credits we could in return for all the money the government confiscates from our businesses.

            Rural crime is a big problem where we are. We are part of an informal community group that logs all strange vehicles. We have sealed up access to our property as best we can. We have cams everywhere and tied into our phones. My husband and I both hunt so we have bows and guns and lots of ammo.

            We have back up generators and lots of fuel for our farm and construction equipment. If I need to run the small 3D printer to make a plastic toy for my kids, I have lots of ways to power it!

            So we can survive the apocalypse much better than most.

  3. IGNORANCE born of Piss poor EDUCATION. One with ZERO Historical perspective.
    Unionism of Public Service along with a massive increase in its size world wide.
    Far Far Far too much Free money – WELFARE handed out.

    We have allowed Socialism to creep its way into our Western Hemisphere society and its slowly killing us. Just as Nikita Krushchev predicted it would in the early 60’s.

    3 Very good reasons we see our World Burning … not just the Forests.
    (And aside from BLM-AntiFa….how many of these arsonists were ISIS Scum.?? Seems to me they too have been exhorted to burn the infidels forest down)

    1. Seems to be happening with that “second wave” of Chinah Flu, up here in Kan-eh-duh. Fascist Rules.

  4. The irony is that by restricting forest maintenance, they are simply ensuring bigger more destructive fires.

    As in Canada, the majority of the fuel is low scrub and conifer, the scrub dries quickly in hot weather and wind, which provides a good ground fire, crowning takes place immediately due to the dead or dying ladder fuels (dead branches) and the devastation begins.

    Now if those pesky humans would just stop dying or getting burned things would be fine.

  5. “This article was published under a pseudonym as the author didn’t want to risk his job.”
    Kinda says it all.

  6. Re: “Because politicians and bureaucrats stopped listening to the people that actually lived in the forest. ”

    Substitute “worked on the ocean” for “lived in the forest” and you would have the collapse of the cod fishery in Newfoundland in the early 1990’s.

  7. Public forests are “managed” for every species and interest group which leaves little room for forest management aimed at minimizing damage from fires, diseases and insects. Good forest management and politics, being the schoolyard battle for the hearts and “minds” of the mindless mushy middle of the electorate, are seldom aligned.

  8. I am at the point where I wish someone would tell me something I DON’T know. This crap has been happening for decades and it never changes, everybody really is stupid, otherwise, it would change. I know you folks are tired of hearing about stupidity, then why not do something about the stupid? We all have the opportunity to try and educate the terminally stupid. I try daily, face to face and sometimes the odd fool actually grasps what has been said. They may forget the next day but hey, at least I try.

  9. These are forests of MY youth as well. It is beyond disgusting to go back to my old fishing spots and stand in the middle of a charred forest with no shade and only scrub shit growing to “replace the forest”. I weep for the CA of my youth.

    Man is IN our forests. Man USES our forests for many purposes. Burning it down is not an option. Unless you are a Sierra Club functionary. A Sierra Club who believe the Sierra “starts” above the tree line.

    Fire is natural … and so is mankind. Many forces shape nature … and we are one of them. Forests are a human resource … as well as a Natural Resource … with many facets. Allowing it to be destroyed in some misbegotten notion of environmental stewardship is akin to allowing the Mississippi River to flood every year and build up silt, flooding out all human habitation. Sounds natural and wonderful doesn’t it? Just try it. Take out every levee along the length and breadth of the river, and allow the river to meander and change course every year. Push man off the river banks. End all river commerce.

    This is what CA “environmentalists” have done to our forests … attempted to remove man from the forests. And the sad part? These vast, raging, fires will continue for another generation. The fires will continue until they finally consume all the $2.5M A-frame Lake Tahoe basin shacks recently purchased by Silicon Valley Googlaires. It’s OK to allow my remote fishing spots to burn to the red dirt … but heaven forbid a ski resort burns to the granite dirt.

    Nature will survive. It always does. But CA cannot survive the human stupidity of the left.

  10. And when you get a fire that hot thanks to the massive fuel load, it sterilizes the ground and it will take much longer for the biosystem to regenerate.

  11. When is Trudoh going to plant his 2 billion trees? Only 600,000 to plant per day for 9 more years.

  12. 10 signs you’re a middle-class environment hypocrite

    Sir David Attenborough has admitted to eating chicken while telling others to cut down on meat. Do you share these other tell-tale traits?

    1. You have an electric car for the school run, but take at least three holidays a year

    2. You wouldn’t turn down a shooting weekend

    3. You use vegan paint, but enjoy roast lamb on a Sunday

    4. You have an Aga…

    Said roast lamb just doesn’t taste the same when it’s been cooked in a conventional fan oven. Plus, your daughter loves sitting on it to warm up after a long day protesting with Extinction Rebellion

    5. …and a fire pit

    6. Forgetting your keep cup won’t stop you purchasing a morning coffee

    You try with all your might to remember the lurid bit of plastic that helps you get 20p off in Pret A Manger and do your bit for the planet. But sometimes on a hectic morning, the reusable cup slips your brain. And when the caffeine crash hits, it doesn’t matter that 6.5 million trees are cut down each year for coffee cups. You need your fix. Now

    7. You recycle your milk bottle tops… but have a coffee pod machine

    8. You replace meaty meals with imported vegetables

    9. You take staycations… at your second home

    10. You indulge in the odd bacon sandwich

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/family/2020/09/22/TELEMMGLPICT000031954839_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq0cFmALfDe88GEY3O6DWJb1LLmY7ncXfe_RIE_ZZW5lA.jpeg?imwidth=960

    From paywalled https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/10-signs-middle-class-environment-hypocrite/

  13. And in California they have the added problem of feral Eucalyptus trees.

    As a native of Australia, I have some experience with them.

    They are a FIRE CLIMAX species; that is, they DEPEND on fire to propagate. Their seed pods are so tough that they need a quick warm-over from a passing fire to crack open. Once established, they start to dominate the landscape. One of the things that they do is the constant shedding of leaves AND bark. The leaves contain eucalyptus oil, much of which is retained even after the leaves have dropped to the ground. When the leaves burn, fresh or dry, they generate quite a bit of black smoke.

    What all this “litter” does is to steadily leach chemicals into the soil. This starts to alter the soil chemistry and you start getting soil that is technically known as a Podzol; Eucalypts and some other hardy species can survive quite well in this degraded soil. Others are simply “out-competed” by the gum-trees.

    Not sure about North American pine forests. Has anyone looked closely at the soils, pre and post plantation pine forests?

    Here in Oz, the locals who have been wandering about the countryside for forty-thousand hears or so, had a practice called “fire-stick” hunting. Line up the tribe on the up-wind side of a piece of real-estate. Send the strong and agile around the proposed killing zone to the down-wind side. Start a linear fire in the drying summer grass and let it go. The fire would race down-range trapping and “cooking small critters that could not escape. Bigger stuff, like kangaroos and emus ran ahead of the flames, straight into the blokes with spears and clubs. The day’s shopping was tidied up and everyone was happy for a while.

    The trick was that by burning off the grass, pretty much anything sprouting above ground was killed off and teh first thing to regenerate was the grasses, which, if they grew fast enough, would choke out any other species. The nomads used to leave a burn site alone for several years, letting the grass and wildlife return and flourish, before “harvesting’ was repeated.

    When “European” explorers first went through these area, they noted two key things: There was ALWAYS smoke on the horizon, somewhere but what they also saw, but misinterpreted was the huge swathes of waving grasslands. It took quite a few decades, but the Eucalypts and Acacias steadily came back, but were not “controlled” and the endless grassy plains started to sprout an assortment of trees.

    There is another, social / political” issue here, as well; the “Tree Change”.

    What sort of brain-dead cretin builds a million-dollar house in the “bush”, with trees in VERY close proximity to the (usually timber) structure? A “crown fire” in a Eucalyptus forest creates its own weather and can move at a ferocious rate. The radiant heat from a decent crown fire will “flash” ignite houses and vehicles at thirty or more yards. Pretty much cooks people at the same distance, too.

    Also lost in the “fire-prevention at all costs” caper is the steady buildup of plant detritus on the forest floor. When, not if, it goes up, the ground fire will be well-fueled. TWO things will happen.

    The heat will defeat the bark “insulation” on the trees and burn into the vital layer that conducts nutrients in the tree; a sort-of thermal ring-barking, the tree is doomed. Secondly the heat of the floor-fire will penetrate DOWNWARDS, several feet into the soil, killing all the tiny critters, bacteria, worms, etc. that process rotting bark and leaves, etc. into nutrients for the living vegetation above. The soil becomes, essentially, STERILIZED dust. WHEN the next rain comes after the fire, this dust, having no fibrous material to constrain it, is simply washed away to clog up watercourses and smother aquatic life.

    Regular, slow, creeping ground fires or raging, forest-killing fire-storms? Decisions, decisions…

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