Environmentalists might be to blame for the severity of California fires.
I’d like to think that environmentalists are kicking themselves right now.
California is being consumed by wildfires fed by the fuel environmentalists fought to keep on the forest floors.
Unfortunately, I’m sure no one thought of how their misguided efforts in “protecting” the environment have actually made it more endangered. Rather than acknowledging their share in the blame, they will find a way to blame President Bush or perhaps even the convenient myth of global warming.
In 2002, President Bush introduced the Healthy Forest Initiative decried by tree huggers to be a backdoor initiative to allow logging on federal land. In reality, the initiative called for the thinning of forests choked full of dead brush and small trees that can lead to conflagrations.
This undergrowth provides a natural tinderbox needing only a spark to ignite.
Forestry officials have long called for the use of controlled fires to burn off dry brush and create burn lines that might stop wildfires from spreading. They also cite the need for building access roads for emergency vehicles during fires.
As usual, the environmentalists disregarded common sense in favor of pushing for cumbersome regulations that prevent true forest conservation.
Access roads are not allowed, because they would ruin the unspoiled roadless areas of the forests. Notwithstanding the obvious value of controlled burns, such burns are often blocked by federal Clean Air regulations.
Policies calling for the harvesting of old growth timber and controlled burns have been fought tooth and nail by conservationists who want to “protect” the forests at all costs — resulting in overpopulated forests whose floors are piled high with underbrush and dead trees serving as wildfire fuel.
The agendas supported by environmental groups have endangered and cost lives, not to mention more than an estimated $1 billion in damages and losses to the people involved — whether by the homeowners, insurance companies or the government.
The environmentalists are blind to these practical and reasonable measures that must be taken to prevent wildfires. Instead of allowing us to be proactive in saving our forests and communities, they would rather tie up government tree-thinning efforts in litigation and undermine the efficient management of federal lands.
The cycle of wildfires in California is a natural and necessary part of native land ecology, but that doesn’t mean that we should not manage forest land in an effort to protect our homes, neighborhoods and businesses.
Environmentalists are in favor of “letting nature take its course,” but it is not natural for any living being to sit back and not take preventative steps to save its habitat when it is threatened.
These fires — whether started naturally or by arsons — are charring the beautiful forests of California and are being fueled by the dry underbrush and dead trees left intentionally on the forest floor in the so-called name of conservation.
True conservation needs to be implemented. Forests need overgrown areas to be thinned of dead and dying trees and cleared of any dry brush. Access roads must be built to provide emergency vehicles the advantage of maneuvering around the fires as quickly as possible.
Obviously, these fires are being spurred by high temperatures and the fierce Santa Ana winds. However, had these preventative measures been taken, perhaps our forests, wildlife and communities would have been spared from the degree of widespread devastation that has occurred.
