Letters: Reduce the fuel and you will reduce the intensity of the fires

Reduce the fuel and you will reduce the intensity of the fires

I rarely reply to a letter to the editor regarding my boss, state Sen. Sam Aanestad, but I don't feel that I can let the inaccuracies of Derrick Jensen's opinion piece ("Logging will not make forests safer," Aug. 28) go unchallenged. Sen. Aanestad helped sponsor the Fire Forum held in Sacramento because people in his district were demanding answers. I know because I took many of those calls in the Redding office. He gathered together, with the help of his colleagues, some of the nation's foremost experts on fire. In addition, he also gathered together many of the people who work to solve these wild fire problems on a daily basis. Here is what a few if them had to say.

Linda Blum from the Quincy Library Group: "It makes no sense to stand by while fire finds its own way and time back to the landscape, with the inevitable collateral damage. In the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group projects, the Forest Service typically underburns after thinning and removing small fuels; the air is much cleaner and less carbon is released to the atmosphere, but more-natural fire still gets back on the land."

JoAnne Fites, a 20-year veteran with the U.S. Forest Service and an expert in fire behavior, showed pictures of fire that had dropped down when it hit areas that had been treated like those mentioned by Linda Blum. She also shared a personal story about how one of these treated areas saved her and her crew from a fire.

All together, 17 speakers, including county supervisors, private landowners and the president of the Feather River Hospital, gave testimony to the impacts of the fires on air quality, water quality, and forest health.

There are many people that would like to make this into a complex issue with conspiracy theories in abundance, but it is really quite simple. Like a backyard barbeque, the more charcoal briquettes you put in, the bigger the fire. It is that simple! For the last 100 years, we have suppressed fire, and for the last 20, we have stopped harvesting the wood that grows in the forest. We are putting more fuel on the fire. Reduce the fuel and you will reduce the intensity of the fires and the amount of smoke.

Nadine Bailey

Redding