[BOBTHENAILER]

With 3.1 million acres burned so far this summer, calls for more thinning and for streamlining the appeals process are growing louder.

Yup, I'll believe the GAO, uh, huh.

With 3.1 million so far this summer, some 3 million last summer, that's over ten per cent of that pristine, untouched 60 million acres the greenie's used to brag about.

[B4Ranch]

This year isn't over, yet!

[aruanan]

With 3.1 million so far this summer, some 3 million last summer, that's over ten per cent of that pristine, untouched 60 million acres the greenie's used to brag about.

Well, as of the mid-1980's the amount of forested land in the U.S. was well over 600 million acres. When you figure in vastly increased fuel loads compared to what the land used to support in the earlier part of the century, the effective forested land is vastly in excess of 600 million acres.

[RightWhale]

I'll believe the GAO

They have a lot of good info, and are a cold analytical unit like engineers. Being responsible to both the White House and Congress, all political tints, they can't get far out of line. Of course they can look only at what they asked to look at, so the right questions must be asked. Ask your congresscritter and he might ask the GAO.