Excessive summer irrigation of oak and madrone trees may promote fungal diseases such as the oak root fungus (aka armillaria root disease) and crown rot.
Burning the slash left behind after a logging operation isn't the only method for getting rid of it. Among the alternatives are piling but not burning, "forestry mulching," creating biochar and doing nothing.
The OSU Dry Farming Project continues as the go-to resource for dry farming and model for participatory climate adaptation research as growers throughout the West continue to feel the impacts of drought and seek alternatives to unreliable summer irrigation.