Professional input on the forest management side of things here:
The pulp markets that dominated much of the 1900's are gone. Actual usage is down and you're fighting against south American plantations that have three huge advantages:
1) tree rotation cycles of 7-10 years instead of 70-100.
2) very cheap labour compared to North America/Europe
3) many have their own docks so shipping finished product is a breeze.
On the lumber front producers are doing okay but you also run into a couple of big issues:
- generally as you move north into the boreal the tree size reduces making it tougher to get sawlogs suitable for larger lumber. You don't need much of a tree to make a poor quality 2x4 but if you want to make a 2x6 it's something very different.
- building mills further away from markets just increases your cost. You could make the crown stumpage free and building a mill in a place like Moose Factory ONT will still face losses due to transport costs when compared to a mill in the SE states
- Canada, despite the mill closures around the country, still produces way more wood than it consumes.
- Much of the world doesn't build with wood. Concreate is more common
- Top end prime lumber has a market worldwide....but you have lots more of poorer quality lumber. Home Depot lumber is not top end product but that's what we're used to as most have never seen a J-grade or #1 board.
On the wildfire front:
- huge fires are major resource sinks.
- prescribed burns can be effective...but doing large scale ones can be extremely challenging. Ambition is a good thing until you start a prescribe burn and it "over achieves"
- Wildland Urban Interface fires are much more common in part due to population expansion but also areas that haven't burn. Much more needs to be done on building code, zoning and insurance.
- While I can train a rookie firefighter into a useful member in a few weeks....the supervision and higher command roles are much tougher. It's the difference between a bunch of Private recruits and Senior Officers...but there's no shortcuts. Just experience and time to develop.
- Water bombers are sexy for images but are often useless without ground support
- Heavy equipment can be a huge multiplier...but needs to access before it can create fire access. And much of the north doesn't have it.
- Even if you can detect a new start immediately it takes time to have the responding force arrive. And many don't realize how far away/how long it takes to travel 100km or more to a new start. This problem is even greater in the north with fewer communities and bases to work out of
Will try to think over solutions and positive direction changes in the next few days depending on fire situation.
can do when it's thrown at a problem.
en.wikipedia.org
