As seen this year the magnitude of excess fuel load in the forests is over whelming. All of the western states have a common problem with dead and dying pine trees and forests that are long past due to be thinned for optimum growth. Add to that, in some areas Western Junipers have become an invasive species that ruins traditional grazing land because of its love for water. And this year will add more fuel because of the vast amount of fire killed trees.
What if:
The US Forest Service/BLM became serious about fuel load reduction in the western USA.
They would designate small selected acreages, say 5 to 10 acre plots and allow mobile sawmills to harvest selected trees such as standing dead, bug and fire killed or those needing thinned and saw them on site into boards, beams, or cants. USFS would either mark or designate trees based on size for harvest. Trees would cost the receiver the price of the thinning or zero cash to the mill
Two people set up on a sawing location with one sawmill, two small flatbed trucks and a flatbed trailer. Trailer would carry a small tracked or wheeled vehicle (small skider?) for dragging logs to the mill, moving waste and making skid roads and sawing areas.
Waste would be either piled for later burning, chipped and spread (chipper needed) as mulch or sold as paper pulp feed stock, make pellets or used as hog fuel depending on haul cost.
Sawn products could be used for building, decorative or landscaping uses as a low cost alternative to commodity wood.
Lots of details to thought out. I'm real open to suggestions and comments?
I can see hundreds if not thousands of such small endeavors because the problem is that big. I can see a means to reduce catastrophic fire danger, the establishment of many small businesses, a chance for increased small manufacturing plants (somebody has to build the saw mills).