I'm not so sure that national forests should be utilized. We need some forests that are simply left alone. We kid ourselves if we think we know enough to manage a wild forest. Planted or managed forests are a different story. Instead of thinning them, how about pruning them as we do in New Zealand. Virtually all our forests are planted and the farmers put 'lifts' on them. That is to say, they prune the branches off the lower third of the tree and they do this three times as the tree grows. The result is 'clear' wood which is much more valuable than knotty wood. The pruned branches could be a by-product for energy generation as suggested. A forest with a pruned trunk and with the branches taken away is almost immune to forest fires.