Cut That Out

California's largest timber company, Sierra Pacific Industries, will shift its logging practices from selective thinning to clear-cutting on 70 percent of the 1.5 million acres it owns in the state. Company representatives say the clear-cutting will take place along ridgelines or roads, allowing firefighters better access to control wildfires. But environmentalists say clear-cutting actually increases fire danger, because younger trees are less fire-resistant than older ones and may be allowed to grow back too densely. More than 293,700 acres of California wilderness burned this year.