State Owned Forest Burns to The Ground. Could Have Been Avoided If Privately Managed?

[AGRP]

Two cousins who allegedly left a campfire unattended have been charged with starting Arizona's largest ever wildfire that torched more than 800 square miles of wilderness before it was contained. prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Caleb Joshua Malboeuf, 26, and David Wayne Malboeuf, 24, were charged with starting the so-called Wallow Fire on May 29, in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a news release.

The blaze raged for more than a month, scorching three dozen homes and businesses and displacing up to 10,000 people at its peak, while roaring through 840 square miles of ponderosa pine forests in eastern Arizona and into New Mexico.

"Our national forests are among our most precious resources and we all have a responsibility to care for them when we visit," Dennis K. Burke, U.S. Attorney of the District of Arizona said in a statement.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/24/us-wildfire-arizona-arrests-idUSTRE77N6VX2011082

[fisharmor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppice


In the days of charcoal iron production in England, most woods in ironmaking regions were managed as coppices, usually being cut on a cycle of about 16 years. In this way, fuel could be provided for that industry, in principle, forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_hunting


By the 16th century, areas of land reserved for breeding and hunting of game were of three kinds, according to their degree of enclosure and being subject to Forest Laws: Forests, large unenclosed areas of wilderness, Chases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_%28land%29), which normally belonged to nobles, rather than the crown, and Parks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_deer_park), which were enclosed, and not subject to Forest Laws.

Forests used to have economic value.
They were managed quite well and as noted above some were intentionally left as wilderness.
True, they were private property of aristocrats, but I don't believe that a forest owned by an aristocrat is less likely to burn to the ground than one owned by a commoner.

If we can come up with examples of thousands of hectares burning to the ground before government ownership of forests, I'm all ears... but it seems to me that these things only happen in history after the state completely took over their management.

[silverhandorder]

Coal the alternative energy? :D