Most of the people commenting save the trees have no idea what there talking about. After seeing 1st hand( living in yosemite for 20+ yrs) forest management is nessesary. Indians uses to burn forest for management . Disease and overgrowth damage a healthy forest and threaten surrounding communities. As long as work is properly managed ( the right mixture of growth , species and age )and removed the area will continue flourish . Just like humans , if too many are put into small area , the whole will be less healthy with more chances to catch disease and fight for food. 25  -50 years a pine can grow 50+ feet.  When a forest is too dense it chokes itself and surrounding wildlife. When trees choke themselves off they remain standing dead( great fuel for forest fires) look at the mountain ranges in California, they lost over 50percent of soft woods due to disease( bark beetle). Most of the dead are standing, this means your chances of wildfire have increased in the healthy area also, dumbas