In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton introduced a plan that would work twofold to save the majestic spotted owl AND ancient trees: Restricting logging in the old-growth forests. Bob Zybach knew that was a mistake.
A forester by trade, Zybach knew how ecosystems thrive, flourish, die and are reborn. With no human management, any forester knows, Mother Nature will do the pruning herself. Instead of forestry saws and burn lines, nature likes things dramatic.
“We knew exactly what would happen if we just walked away,” Zybach told The Daily Caller. Years of mismanagement have served to turn the forests into a ticking time bomb. This has not always been the case, however.
Zybach said that Native Americans practiced human management of forests, starting controlled burns to clear pastureland and undergrowth for hunting. Shortly after they were driven out and their practices stopped, the West Coast’s first rash of wildfires happened.
Now these states are repeating the same mistakes their settler ancestors made.
“You take away logging, grazing and maintenance, and you get firebombs,” Zybach said. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is partially blaming “radical environmentalists” for the dozens of wildfires burning in California and elsewhere in the West.
In a USA Today opinion piece published Wednesday, Zinke said “active forest management” — including logging, prescribed burns and clearing brush — is the way to minimize wildfires on federal land.
But green groups sue the federal government to stop such management practices, Zinke charged, exacerbating the problem.
“Every year we watch our forests burn, and every year there is a call for action,” he wrote.
“Yet, when action comes, and we try to thin forests of dead and dying timber, or we try to sustainably harvest timber from dense and fire-prone areas, we are attacked with frivolous litigation from radical environmentalists who would rather see forests and communities burn than see a logger in the woods.” – READ MORE
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