00:00In the late 1800s, the gold rush would bring an enormous non-native population to the west
00:08and a desperate demand for lumber to build new towns and homes.
00:12The big old trees were the first to go.
00:15The forest began to change dramatically.
00:21They started logging trees and putting in sawmills from the very beginning to build
00:25homes and that type of thing.
00:29As American infrastructure grew, so did the demand for lumber.
00:33In the late 1800s, you had enormous forestry operations moving east to west.
00:40They settled the land using the same approach they knew from back east.
00:45Cut trees, plant more, and repeat the cycle.
00:49But in the dry and mountainous west, this type of land management was setting the stage
00:53for a disaster.
00:57In general, fires take out the small trees and leave behind the big trees.
01:05Logging does the opposite.
01:06It takes out the big trees and leaves all the little trees and all the dead limbs and
01:12needles and increases the wildfire potential and increases their severity.
01:18In the late 1800s, settlements, planting, and livestock grazing were quickly erasing
01:24the forests.
01:26By focusing on the most valuable lumber, they were also removing the most fire-resistant
01:31trees.
01:32The type of plants started changing, the forest started expanding, and most of the Indians
01:36were gone.
01:37And so what you saw is that what were fire-resilient forests that had larger trees, very little
01:44understory, that those were gone.
01:46Now over decades, fire could have helped to thin out that forest, thin out those weak
01:53trees, and restart a state of resilience.
01:56But forest fires were the last thing lumber companies wanted.
02:00And this would spark the central conflict between the U.S. government and fire during
02:04the push westward.
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