Scientists studying forest density in the Sierra Nevada have found that trees there were scarcer but physically larger in 1911 than in 2011, meaning that “resilient” forests could be remarkably thin by today’s standards. “Our findings suggest forests need to be treated more intensively than is often done when just reducing fuels, particularly greater reductions in density,” said Malcolm North, a professor at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study, in an email to The Epoch Times. He added that the findings could be applicable to many forests across the western United States. The study, published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, comes at a time when environmental “resilience” has become a hot topic, including among lawmakers. The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in November 2021 allocated billions of taxpayer dollars to various forms of “resilience” and “resiliency” efforts, including a reported $50 billion for climate …