As CO2 levels hit 40% above a hundred years ago, 415 parts per million, Montana’s summers are longer, hotter and drier. The record breaking fires in California are a preview of what’s coming to Montana. Farming is threatened as well. Yet some of our leaders insist on attempting to fool us about the real causes of the fires by saying it is forest mismanagement that’s causing the fires. This is partially true because fighting fires increases fuel buildup. But Sen. Steve Daines and others mention only lack of logging as the mismanagement. This is a myth. Study after study shows that logging does not prevent forest fire, and in fact can increase fire. That’s because the forest floor is heavily littered with dead limbs and trunk tops (slash) when logged over. This increases the wind speed and evaporation of the wood and topsoil, increasing the rate the fire moves through an area. This is widely accepted science that’s found in any forestry school based on many studies. One can just fly over a logged over area and see that it’s fire prone.
The Forest Service logging projects often cost the taxpayer millions of dollars per project because the timber is substandard or the roading is too extensive. The costs of loss of fishing and tourism lost due to sedimentation from roading isn’t factored.
Daines has received about $800,000 from oil and gas interests just in the last two years. Blaming the fires on poor management protects those industries as well.
