You would think commercial logging and taking trees out of the forest would decrease the possibility of forest fires, right? Well, when commercial loggers take trees out of the forest, they actually take the least flammable portion of the tree, the trunk. They leave behind tree limbs, leaves and needles, which are the most flammable part of the tree. Commercial logging reduces the the size of the tree canopy, which will change the climate in the forest. Without a tree canopy, the forest floor is exposed to more sunlight and wind, which causes the surface temperature to rise and the air to become dryer. This causes the natural surface fuels to be hotter and dryer, resulting in a bigger, hotter forest fire.
Citations: http://www.chattoogariver.org/Articles/2000SF/Fire.htm
