There is responsible forest management and irresponsible forest management. But nobody can tell me that 820 million acres of forest floors can be "raked" or kept clean in any manner. It is a physical impossibility.
There's hardly any rakes involved in systematic forest management. All my roommates in college (for some damn reason) were forest management. I visited them on the job in Idaho, Oregon, and Cali for years.. The main issue is ACCESS.. Leftist tree huggers wanted ZERO HUMAN FOOTPRINT in federal/state managed forests.. No fire trails -- no fire breaks -- no bridges over streams/rivers/gorges -- no removal of massive DIE OFF of vegetation/trees.. No disease mitigation, no "multi-use" partnerships for infrastructure. This is INSANE... And the building at the edges of parks and wilderness is way past "advice from experts"...
Here's an example of irresponsible forest management in Oregon. Companies like Weyerhaeuser who were responsible for clearcutting have - Partly due to environmental legislation - Seen then the wisdom of replanting many of these areas. And they do a pretty good job of thinning, with the planting of several seedlings in the empty spot left after taking out a tree.
Convenient photo.. Much like those tearful pics of mining operations BEFORE restoration.. Mt Saint Helens killed EVERYTHING on the downslope.. Filled lakes, ponds, valleys with unimaginable amounts of unremovable debris.. Ten years on -- Mother Nature was well on the way to "fixing that"..
If Weyerhauser OWNS the land -- it WILL be replanted. It's what you call "renewable" in the truer sense of the word. And sustainable..
For ME -- I trust folks like the Nature Conservancy that BUY the land and contract out the appropriate mgt or make deals with land owners to PRESERVE it themselves..
Much more effective then the Forestry and BLM auctioning off timber cuts.. In fact, in most polls, MORE people TRUST the Nature Conservancy far more for land mgt than the govt..
I have some forestry grad friends too. Humboldt State for two of 'em. I concur with most of your analysis, but believe that we
are actually building roads and fire breaks. But they'd have been of little use in the fire we're still fighting near me. That baby jumped Highway 18 driven by 60-70 MPH winds and would have jumped 101 had the weather not changed.
But yes, my Dad was a card carrying Nature Conservancy member and leader down in SoCal. One of my favorite non-profits. They bought Santa Cruz Island (Channel Islands off coast of SoCal) which was a GREAT get. Some developer wanted to put a big fat amusement park there with frequent commercial boat stops and a little town there with tourist crap similar to Avalon on Catalina Island and that would have ruined it.
They do allow day visitors and have guided hiking tours with a National Park Ranger. Beyond that, it remains pretty much uncommercialized and pristine with an amazing array of wildlife. The Island Fox found here is unique to this island. No one really knows how it got there.
The largest of all eight Channel Islands, Santa Cruz Island is graced with a nearly unimaginable 60-mile stretch of virtually untouched California coastline.
www.nature.org
Amazing what you can do when you WORK WITH landowners/stakeholders instead of THREATENING THEM with laws, capricious enforcement and fines...

Nature Conservancy is in my will even tho they believe all of Antarctica is gonna melt from a couple degC change in GLOBAL surface temperature..
Or you could just live in a WELL managed -- not DEAD BROKE state/county/city.. My county has over 15% of land in protection/trust.. With parks/open space and trails connected for 15 mile radius in Hillbilly Hollywood..
They're SMART here.. In Cali -- the tops of hills are all built out.. In the rainy season, I've seen down in Southern Socialist Republic of Cali -- folks at the top of the hills TARPING their yards. Forcing the 3 layers of folks below to tarp theirs as well.. HERE -- you cannot build out the tops of hilly lands. And nobody's griping -- especially the wildlife...
Can't allow human density to settle at the edges of fire prone (or even CENTERS) of fire prone areas if you're NOT GONNA thin, do controlled burns and manage the wild -- urban interface.. Not with a season that is this dry and winds prevailing at tropical storm levels.. Not with a BANKRUPT PGE that is FORCED to waste money on solar/wind and neglect their grid..
Just heard that at one of these fire epicenters -- there were over 300 trees per acre on ground that is fire safe at only about 100 per acre... WORSE if most of those trees are dead and down..
West coast govts are broke. Wanna deflect blame from themselves.. And what's more convenient than HIDING BEHIND GWarming? I'm an AVID conservationist.. But I know that every tree/shrub/insect/weather problem is NOT wholly due to a 1DegC change in annual GLOBAL temperature in my lifetime..
In fact, the lattitudes of US contribute MUCH LESS to the Global Warming temperature anomaly than the polar and sub polar regions, That 1DegC change is NOWHERE NEAR UNIFORM on the globe..