They said managing national forests is getting more difficult because of excessive litigation and regulations. That is contributing to an increased risk of catastrophic wildfires, they added.
Veneman said many timber sales that could thin forests have been stopped by lawsuits filed by environmental groups.
She reported 73 million acres of forest are at moderate to high risk from wildfire.
"Management by doing nothing is not an option," she said.
Not once does the idea of privatizing forest land (like it used to be) come up. Can't have those eeeevil capitalists taking care of natural resources.
Ijits.
HT, Nah. The bureaucrats couldn't ask for MORE money that way. But, they ARE encouraging a bit of "privatizing". The National Conservancy is on their list of privateers {once{?} known as government sponsored pirates}. Peace and love, George.