In my 20s and 30s I was an environmentalist doing protests to stop clear cutting. Now in my 60s i realize the pendulum swung too far the other way. Before the human population grew so much in this country, natural lightning caused fires would clear out diseased forests, and create clearings where huckleberries and elk etc could thrive.
Europeans came along, spread across the country with our towns and cities, pushing into the forest boundaries. We did our best to stop all fires out of fear (understandably) of our communities burning. Part of the fear was also of losing our beautiful National Forests.
Next we rallied to stop the out of control logging. As a result the Northwest forests are now choked with dense stands of diseased and dead trees just waiting for lightning to spark enormous fires.
I grew up among loggers, but i hated clear cuts. Now i realize that selective thinning and prescribed burns help control the health of the forest as well as fend off the mega fires. We did not need to stop logging completely, we just needed to change our approach to selective thinning and prescribed burns. Keep many larger trees to be seed trees and eventually snags and then nursery logs. Remove any with early signs of Diseases, Spruce Bud Worms, Pine Bark Beetles and other pests that destroy entire forests.
I talked to a landowner with 50+ acres of healthy, beautiful, multi-aged forest. He explained that in 50 years he had selectively logged a large number of trees. Never once did he plant a tree, and yet there were currently more trees than when he started. Every tree was known to him, which ones were the best keeper seed trees, and which needed to be harvested for the health of the forest. These might be overcrowded trees, or those with a hint of disease that would endanger the forest.
Also, clearcuts i sat in and cried when I was young are now full of young, tall, beautiful forests, healthy and full of wildlife especially if they are thinned out as they get bigger. Nature does a great job of recovery, but as we interfere on one end we need to help balance on the other end.
