Yet when mature forests are clearcut logged through industrial practices, that complexity is lost, and the forest dries out. While clearcutting claims to replicate disturbances like fire, but that is entirely false - naturally occurring low to mid intensity fires tend to burn through the more flammable fine woody materials in a forest, whereas clearcutting removes those big dominant naturally fire-resistant trees and leaves behind many fine woody materials which act as fuel for more frequent fires.
The second growth forests that follow clearcutting have a brief window when they are young in which they store a lot of moisture and are more resistant to fire, however, after about 15 to 20 years, they form tight, even-aged stands which persists for another 30 years or so. In this phase, these forests are highly flammable, and are the primary forest type burned in the catastrophic wildfires we see more and more of across the continent. All together, these factors create dangerous, unnatural forest conditions that promote devastating fires that threaten communities, infrastructure, and longterm health of our lands and waters, and are a direct result of ongoing industrial logging practices.
Though it is no substitute for the preservation of mature, complex fire-resistant forests in the first place, ecological restoration of the vast tracts of unhealthy secondgrowth forests created through industrial logging can help promote structural diversity and moisture storage that collectively reduces fire risk and helps create healthier forests for all those who live amongst them.
@b.c.isburning is industry propaganda, don't get it twisted
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