A combination of past logging practices, decades of fire suppression, and current reductions in harvest activity on public forestlands have resulted in dense forests of small diameter trees in many areas of the inland west. These forests have become overstocked and drought stressed. The incidence of insect infestation and forest fire are on the rise. Contrast the healthy forest pictured below…

(Photo courtesy of Yakima Indian Nation)

…with this forest where thousands of acres of trees have been killed by a spruce budworm infestation…

(Photo courtesy of Yakima Indian Nation)

…or this forest, overcrowded with historically unprecedented fuel loads and dangerous ladder fuels…

(Photo courtesy of Yakima Indian Nation)

…where even a small, seemingly benign, surface fire could easily explode into a highly destructive crown fire…

(Photo courtesy of Yakima Indian Nation)

…that spreads rapidly and uncontrollably through the forest canopy, devastating large areas of forest habitat.

(Photo courtesy of Yakima Indian Nation)

Properly designed fuel reduction activities that target the smaller diameter trees and the dead, dying, and diseased trees for removal from a forest such as the one pictured below…

(Photo courtesy of Yakima Indian Nation)

…could result in a healthier forest that mimics the savanna-like conditions present in many of these areas 100 years ago.

(Photo courtesy of Yakima Indian Nation)

The selective thinning and utilization of small diameter logs removed from the forest to reduce overstocking…

(Photo courtesy of USFS PNW Research Station)

…could provide employment opportunities for economically distressed rural communities...

(Photo courtesy of USFS PNW Research Station)

…while providing a raw material and employment for rural
craft workers.

(Photo courtesy of USFS PNW Research Station)	(Photo courtesy ofRocky Mountain Log Furnitue Co.)
(Photo courtesy of Rocky Mountain Log Furnitue Co.)	(Photo courtesy of Keith Blatner)