I know the answer is never, but why?
I’m not one to pull a punch against the enviros, but this argument is a bit strange. Logging targets mature trees, not brush, whereas brush buildup is precisely what fuels the worst wildfires. Not sure how logging would help — in fact, you could argue that logging would make wildfires worse by opening the canopy for more young growth and brush.
While I have no great love for environmentalists, radical or otherwise, they do not write laws or set policy.
It seems to me that the elected “leaders” who caved to the demands of the radical environmentalists are the ones truly at fault.
They don't care. They think humans are just parasites on 'Mother earth' and it would be better for the planet if we were just exterminated.
Sorry, but that statement simply is not true
I don’t understand why building homes in a forest makes forest fires move faster. Other than that, good article.
At the same time any of the other myriad of communist groups pat themselves on the back for achieving their goals in the US.
In the past four years there have been major wildland fires in Arizona and New Mexico that either may not have occurred or the area burned would have been greatly minimized if it were not for environmental rules prohibiting logging or brush clearing. The Yarnell Hill fire is not one of them.
As in California coastal regions, heavy brush, commonly called chaparral, covered hillsides and small valleys. It has no economic value except maybe as forage and cover for deer and semi-arid mammals and birds. Traditionally it has been consumed by lightning caused fires - this area had not burned previously for over 40 years. During that time humans have built homes in an among the brush and huge boulders that make up the landscape here. Protecting these structures were the main purpose for deployment of the hotshots.
Unlike the implication in the article that over-zealous environmental policies were at fault here and led to the deaths of the firefighters, it is not the case. As is the case in the Colorado Springs fire earlier this summer, these were lands where humans had made homes in areas that traditionally burned from natural causes. Though environmental policies are to blame for many forest conflagrations, the main villains here are likely to be poor decision making by the firefighters exacerbated by prolonged drought and extreme heat
Simply because they are SOOOOOOOO much smarter than our dumb butts apparently. As long as no one is allowed to kill and clear the dead trees (yup, dead trees are already dead) and clear the fuel load, these clowns are fine with it. If it costs a few firefighters their lives, to them, it was worth it. Yeah, I know. It’s not really THE answer. But close.
It’s about money. The environmental wackos really, really hate private businesses, but they hate loggers even more. The loggers could fix this by thinning the forests (they have the tools and the expertise), but the wackos won’t hear of it because the loggers would make a buck. We can’t have that.
That might come as news to Zane Grey.