In his article, Gabriel Popkin, "Invasive Insects and Diseases are Killing Our Forests," New York Times, Feb. 6, 2021, Mr. Popkin effectively drives home that there is an insect infestation of our forests. These secret invaders from other environs treat the trees on our continent as new opportunities for foraging. In the process, they make the weakened trees targets for other perils including wildfires.
Couple insect infestation with clear-cutting and you have a recipe for disaster. Clear-cutting at its bare minimum involves cutting large swaths of forest clear to the ground and replacing all the different trees that have been logged, with acres of one type of tree.
It is a sure bet that logging operations engaged in clear-cutting pay little attention to the susceptibility of their replacement tree species to insect infestation. In this way, clear-cutting adds another layer to the risk of wildfires among trees too weak to resist.
The solution is both to control insect deforestation, as Mr. Popkin clearly points out, and to control human clear-cutting as well.
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