You knew it was coming, and it came--from "Searchlight Harry" Reid.
What an idiot.
I have to ask: are Democrats genuinely happy with the Majority Leader in either House? I don't think they could have chosen two more ineffective people, or two dumber ones.
A member of the forestry service has said that the stonewalling of environmental groups regarding removal of dead trees, old trees and damaged trees, as well as the aversion they have to cut down low quality trees such as pines that can erupt in flames due to their resins and oils, has created a situation where the forests across the nation are tinderboxes. Any scout could tell you that pine needles and twigs are great ways to start a fire. Heck, they have fines around Lake Arrowhead for residents that refuse to clean up pine needles. But it's hard to combat that when you have treehuggers who don't want ANY tree removed, ever. Combine that with lack of water due to similar concerns that restrict the building of new reservoirs and you have a recipe for reducing the livable space in the California mountain resort areas. They couldn't have done better had they planned. One concern, however, I have heard that arson is suspected in at least one fire. There were similar reports of arson in the devastating fires in Athens this summer. And there, they were concerned it wasn't just arson, but terrorism. I wonder if anyone has even bothered to consider that this would be effective and that possibly, this isn't just another fire season run amok.
ReplyDeleteWith all due disdain to the enviro-wackos, this is a problem that pre-dates Rachel Carson and her ilk. The Forest Service made it policy back in the 1920's that you fight them all, put them all out, no exceptions.
ReplyDeleteThe evidence of the shortcomings of that policy were piling up, along with the dead wood, until in the 1970's the calls started for controlled burns. Then the enviro-wackos took over from the Forest Service bureaucrats to prevent controlled burning so the problem was exacerbated for another couple of decades.
It's only been in about the last five or six years that science has beaten the enviros into submission and the technology and policy of controlled burning has started to develop.
I only hope the religion du jour, anthropogenic global warming, doesn't put another decade-long stop to controlled burning. Many areas are in desperate need of dead fall reduction and if we don't do it on our schedule Mother Nature will do it on hers.