Opinion: Tree losses with logging and wildfire

One of the justifications often given for thinning the forest through various legislative efforts, such as the Fix Our Forest Act or the repeal of the Roadless Rule, as well as others, is the assumption that logging the forest will reduce the overall mortality of trees resulting from wildfires.

A new study, Cumulative Severity of Thinned and Unthinned Forests in a Large California Wildfire, published in the journal Land, questions that assumption. The main problem with the idea that logging in the forest saves trees is that it overlooks the mortality from chainsaws.