That article covers much of what I was told a couple decades ago and adds a lot of information. I heard a firefighter say that "In the old days..." they used to cut one mile firebreaks to interrupt the spread of fires, but due to environmental regulations, most areas are limited to 1/4 mile firebreaks now, which wildfires can easily jump. We are going through something similar here. It is a cyclic die-off of white spruce trees here. It is a natural cycle that has occurred every 100 years or so through bio-historical records. There will be fires sometime, but we could forestall it, at least in inhabited areas, by cutting the dead trees out. It is not allowed for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest is the environmentalist lobby that will sue to block any logging, even of dead trees, for some of the reasons mentioned in the article. Alaska has millions of acres of uninhabited land, and cutting down and removing the dead trees in areas where people live will not endanger any species, or even cause a decrease in population, as most of the wildlife chooses to breed in the wild areas (except Anchorage where they are protected). I have to have my water pumps ready and evacuation plans in place every spring, as we never know when the catastrophe will occur.
Wildlife depends on young vegetation for food, and young vegetation is hard to come by where trees are never cut. Even setting the economics aside, clearing sections of a forest will make for a healthier forest.
Yes, Ken, Before I had my own land I would go into the forest every year to pick blackberries. They grow in areas that had been cut.