There was a fire recently in Oregon whereby part of the assessment stated there were more dead trees than live ones. That is a complicated subject unless you are someone like Trump trying to be a hero to those that are facing complete devastation. He would pin "the blame" on the dead trees. That is not the reason the fire occurred. The fire occurred because of an illegal campsite, otherwise, there would have been no fire.
The real assessment should have read, "There was a lot of dead and decaying trees (soon to become soil) within the forest, but, the dry conditions allowed the fire to ignite and spread regardless of the advanced work of firefighters. See, the illegal campfire was noticed very early on by a forest official, but, regardless of the immediate notice and attempts to extinguish the fire, it spread in no time and was completely out of control and growing in minutes.
There is a reason why some campsite fires are illegal. So, don't blame the officials taking care of the forest if someone in the public is not respectful of the rules.
A forest floor is supposed to be moist, humid and easy to breathe. The reason is the canopy. A full canopy will ensure the floor will be moist to maintain the life of the forest and an abundance of food supply for those that call it home. Why the canopy, because while the leaves are soaking up the sun, the trees are transpiring (sweating) the water off their leaves to the air and land below it as it comes from the roots with nutrition to feed the trees. The "transpiration" of a tree when it is in a forest of trees creates a moist environment by it's own metabolism.
