About 75 folks at the University of California, Berkeley disrobed over the weekend and mounted eucalyptus trees.
All part of a protest directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- they say the trees pose a fire hazard and need to come down.
“This is a war on trees,” wildlife activist Jack Gescheidt told Campus Reform.
The demonstration was organized by a group Gescheidt founded -- The Tree Spirit Project. Their mission is “to raise awareness of the critical role trees play in our lives, both globally and personally.”
The state of California is trying to remove a grove of Eucalyptus trees. If you're not familiar with that particular species, here's the run down - native to Australia and parts of Asia, so it's not an American tree. The leaves and wood contain a high amount of oil which is rather flammable. I guarantee you've smelled Eucalyptus oil before; it's used in a number of homeopathic products.
The Eucalyptus tree will shed a steady amount of leaves all year long. Before too long, you have a thick carpet of dead Eucalyptus leaves spread on the ground, all of them containing a decent amount of oil. Any spark, any loser tossing a cigarette butt on the ground, and it goes up. This is part of the Eucalyptus tree's method of ensuring that its species survives. The tree itself can withstand the flames and recover from fire damage, but other trees who don't have the ability to deal with fire die out, thus giving the Eucalyptus open space for it's seeds to grow.
Again - it's an invasive, non-native species that presents a fire hazard where ever it grows.
That region was devastated by a deadly fire in 1991. Twenty-five people were killed, 150 injured and more than 3,300 homes were incinerated.
But Gescheidt doesn’t believe trees cause forest fires.
“The claim about trees being flammable is nonsense,” he told Campus Reform. “All living trees and forests are fire resistant.”
Hippies. Dirty, stinking, LSD soaked hippies, so removed from reality that they think wood doesn't burn. I've seen forests burn. I don't care how alive those trees are, if it's hot enough they'll go up like.. well... like firewood. And if those trees just happen to be loaded with oil or pitch?
I hate hippies. I really do.
He's got a point. Trees by themselves don't cause forest fires any more than charcoal or propane by itself cooks your food. It needs a spark or lit match to CAUSE the fire.
ReplyDeleteHowever, once started, trees are no more "fire resistant" than that pile of charcoal, and even less so, given that they have been shedding their own kindling all over the forest floor (leaves, needles, twigs, etc.) that enables the flame to spread easily from tree to tree.
Look at the old fire triangle - fuel, heat, oxygen. Trees are the fuel, and they produce the oxygen, but they still need that heat. Fortunately, Mother Nature, ever red of tooth and claw, is able to deliver that in the form of lightning whenever she gets around to it.
Yep. And again, the Eucalyptus tree is a non-native, invasive species that drops leaves loaded with oil. They need to be ripped up, and native trees planted in their place. But hippies gonna hippy.
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