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I must disagree with a premise in Brian Yablonski’s recent op-ed, “Chicago’s haze underscores the need for better forest management” (June 29). He contends that choking smoke in Chicago and elsewhere is because “there is simply too much wood in the woods.” That catchy clause is akin to a Florida beachfront homeowner complaining that the ocean has too much water. The way to reduce fires and stop rising seas is the same — reduce human-made warming.
Don’t be fooled by private forest land lobbying and letters to the editor that say smoke in big cities is because the woods have too many trees and need “thinning.” Thinning leaves lots of dry soil and trees open to winds that fan the flames.
Hulking modern logging technology — chain saws are a thing of the past — that grabs, cuts and cleans logs in seconds has rendered thinning impossible. Permits to “thin” forests result in wholesale land clearance, except for the dry slash that burns like no tomorrow. It’s debatable if thinning or clear-cutting leads to worse wildfires.
The second-growth Canadian forests that are suffering from prolonged drought are also burning more fiercely than ever. A warming climate and misguided fire suppression are the causes of the wildfires that are causing so much ecological damage and smoke in urban areas across the United States.
Reversing climate disruption and allowing more forest land to grow old and ecologically sound are the real solutions for making wildfires less intense and making our cities and towns more livable. Part of that process is protecting post-fire habitats from salvage logging and “restoration” efforts. Fires have been part of the natural ecology of forests for millions of years but are increasingly becoming an excuse for increased logging.
In the short run, clearing brush and combustibles around 100 feet of homes and buildings, and constructing fuel breaks in and around communities during the offseason, will reduce harm to people and property.
Don’t let private forest landholders and their spokespeople blow smoke in your eyes with their calls to have faster permitting for more aggressive logging. In the face of a warmer and dryer North American climate, the sooner we adopt policies that protect forests from extraction, the sooner we’ll recover from overlogging and forest mismanagement.
— Malcolm Cumming, Clinton, Washington
Renewable energy delays
Thanks for the op-ed by Brian Yablonski. Yablonski identifies the main problem for the fires choking our country as bureaucratic red tape and unnecessary litigation that delay needed forest projects by five to 10 years. He argues that fast-track permitting reform for forest management is needed in Congress to clear the backlog. He’s correct, but he’s addressing only a subordinate problem.
The main problem is climate change: Temperatures are hotter, soils are drier and now fire seasons are longer. Since the root cause of climate change is burning fossil fuels, the solution to both problems requires a speedy transition to renewable and low-carbon-emitting energy. To accomplish that transition, we have the same problem as Yablonski’s forest management conundrum. It takes five to 10 years to build multistate transmission lines to get clean solar and wind power to urban areas where it is needed.
Tell your U.S. representative that streamlining bureaucracy and reforming bipartisan permitting are necessary to solve both problems.
— Andrew Panelli, Homer Glen
Global burning of fossil fuels
As a denizen of Northern California where wildfires are a fact of life, I’m amazed at the depth that memes become embedded in people’s brains. In a commentary by Brian Yablonski, the premise that forests have become dangerously overgrown is put forth despite accounts by early explorers describing dark and impenetrable forests.
The canard of 10 million acres burning in a year being somehow extreme and unprecedented is belied by older data showing 50 million acres burned in 1929. The Great Fire of 1910 alone burned 3 million acres and was one of the largest forest fires in U.S. history — it was more than three times larger than the Dixie Fire of 2021 and happened prior to governmental fire suppression efforts creating overgrown forests.
I don’t disagree that forests need to be better managed. But it has become increasingly clear that heavily managed forests, otherwise known as tree plantations, burn at high intensity when ignited and spread that intensity into adjacent forest stands.
Many Canadian fires now burning are reported as raging in tree plantations. Current forestry practices are not creating forest conditions favorable for lower- and mixed-severity fires. However, all of the preceding completely ignores the effect of global warming in creating the increased occurrence of “red flag days” — hot, dry and windy days. Global warming is making more days hotter and drier. When a fire ignites during a red flag day, the wind fans the flames into an unstoppable conflagration, regardless of the degree of density in a forest. Wind and updrafts loft firebrands for miles over fire lines, endangering firefighters and starting more spot fires downwind.
If we really want to address wildfires, we need to get serious about confronting the interminable increases in global fossil fuel emissions and other carbon dioxide sources that are undeniably exacerbating and increasing the incidence of weather conditions conducive to driving uncontrollable wildfires — instead of foolishly blaming the trees.
— Frank Toriello, Montague, California
Media swarm Highland Park
The mass shooting in Highland Park one year ago was a tragic event in the extreme. No one deserves to be traumatized in such brutal fashion. The slaughter of parade viewers a year ago is now being rivaled by the onslaught of media coverage to “commemorate” the outrageous event.
While viewing some of the media coverage on the holiday, I wondered if a count of cameras and microphones would outnumber the mourners. During the lead-up to this anniversary, digital and print media, including this paper, have told and retold any human interest story they could find. I wonder if the reporters think that they are the only one covering this angle of the anniversary. I wonder if the reporters are thinking they are the only one asking this unique question.
Now, the good people of Highland Park have survived two great traumas: the onslaught of bullets in 2022 and the onslaught of silly questions in 2023. They didn’t ask for either, and they will survive both, but neither had to happen.
On Wednesday, the village went back to the hum of normal village life while the media look for the next tragedy. It shouldn’t happen this way.
— Gerald E. King, Merrionette Park
My hope for the future
Chicago Tribune Opinion
My brother asked me if I had any thoughts this July Fourth.
I replied, “I got nothing.”
I thought of all the hate — against gay people, trans kids, drag queens, books, women’s choice, racial equality, the “woke” agenda and immigrants. I worry, especially about gun violence.
Then I remembered my hope for the future. Thank God for grandchildren!
— Elizabeth Butler Marren, Chicago
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