Decimation of old growth forests

EDITOR: Within the national news reporting regarding the raging fires in the Northwest, many, including Governor Newsom, mentioned “Climate Change” as being a contributing factor that drove the destruction while ignoring or being ignorant of the glaring elephant in the closet that helped drive the present destruction: the historic decimation of most of the primordial old growth forests that thrived from California to Alaska before the arrival of Americans.

Trees in this huge coastal forest thrived before and after the arrival of first peoples on the continent. First peoples learned that the best way to control fires was to preemptively burn the understory of the forest….removing fuel while improving hunting conditions.

What mostly is left of this forest are densely packed small trees competing for light and a huge amount of fuel on the forest floor. A perfect condition to fuel the recent fast moving fires.

These fires would only need the strong east winds that come to us in the fall to push these fires over the hill to the coast.

It is not “if” only “when” this will be our fate.

Why is this absent from the local and national news reporting? Why are we avoiding reporting and addressing the primary reason for these huge fires and exploring methods and cost to possibly establish preemptive fire breaks to protect lives and property within our coastal community…yes a huge project…so is rebuilding our coastal communities. Bottom line: this conversation is also about saving lives…including our own.

— Baile Oakes, Westport