National Forest Neighbors Worry About Intensive Thinning-Arizona

[Lewis E. Ward]

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/intensive-thinning-upsets-neighbor...

[Brett Chedzoy]

Another great example of the general public judging forestry practices by the "if it looks bad, then it must be bad" criteria.

The reporter should have taken the time to better understand the subject matter instead of insinuating some sort of wrong-doing by the Forest Service by quoting neighbors who measure the large end diameter of butt logs (which is a poor proxy for diameter limits at dbh ("breast height") or think:“If they don’t pick up the debris, I can see how it will mess up the forest floor,” (an actual quote from the story!).  The Forest Service has a lot of work to do with their education, but unfortunately most of the neighbors will probably continue to think that they know better than the silviculturalists, forest ecologist, wildlife biologists, forest scientists and other professionals who developed these prescriptions through a painstaking process.

Ironically, these neighbors - who probably have their McMansions backed up against this national forest, will also be the first to demand that the USFS "DO SOMETHING!" when their homes are destroyed in the next wildfire.