National Forest - Bush road building misinformation?

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The width of the Missouri River in Montana -- you'll probably have to provide a link. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I remember camping on the shores of the banks of the Missouri in Montana, near a town called Yankton on my way to the Black Hills.

[CORed]

If i'm not mistaken, the areas in California where so much damage was done, are chock full of roads. I know the Hayman fire in Colorado crossed many dirt roads, a paved two lane highway, and the South Platte River.

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If only the loggers had been able to cut down ALL the trees in time!

[wacki]

If you look at the link I posted it had several quotes from people who are in the field including Jim Wright, deputy director of fire protection for the California Department of Forestry. I tend to have faith in the expert opinion, as I am very familiar with the concept that what naturally feels right isn't always the correct path to choose, and sometimes it's even the worst path to choose. Experts have enough background in their specific subject to be able to seperate the emotional decisions from the rational ones. It's sometimes just very difficult to know who the experts really are.

I will admit the link that was posted in my first post had me all but sold on fire prevention via thinning for some (not all) of the forests. And I hope you guys realize how I could come to this conclusion by reading that article, as it does point out some significant problems. I also hope you realise that I have repeatedly said if the experts say yes, then I say yes. If the experts say no, then I say no.

It's just to bad there isn't a PubMed or NCBI for Wildfire/Forestry so you could easily look up the good from the bad. Even though resources have been hard to come by, from information I have seen on the NIFC website I am starting to think that every policy implemented in the last 50 years has been flawed, not just the current policy.

Again, that conlusion is premature as I still don't even know who the leading experts are on the subject. And I doubt anyone that has posted in this thread does. And when I say experts I mean experts that scientists/firefighters agree on as experts, not just the guys the News cameras run to. Both the practical and the analitical experts. Most experts won't do interviews with reporters because the concepts they have to explain are to complex to fit in a 3 minute soundbite so their message gets twisted anyway.

Thanks Ed I for the links. You are the only one who actually took the time to post some hard data, and I appreciate your efforts.