{"id":126181,"date":"2021-08-04T20:22:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T03:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=126181"},"modified":"2021-08-04T20:22:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T03:22:01","slug":"sorry-forest-service-fire-is-not-our-friend-by-congressman-tom-mcclintock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=126181","title":{"rendered":"Sorry, Forest Service: Fire is Not Our Friend  By Congressman Tom McClintock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/07\/23\/us\/california-tamarack-fire-burn\/index.html\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/07\/23\/us\/california-tamarack-fire-burn\/index.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGYuaKdENzaL0MRVrT3zimlNRzqPQ\">On July 4th<\/a>, lightning struck a tree in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Alpine County, California, igniting a small fire that smoldered for days in a quarter acre of rugged terrain.\u00a0 According to Sheriff Rick Stephens, California\u2019s fire-fighting agency, CalFire, dispatched a crew to put it out.\u00a0 But they were told to \u201cstand down\u201d by the U.S. Forest Service, which proceeded to \u201cmonitor\u201d the fire instead.\u00a0 That is to say, they did precisely nothing.\u00a0 Twelve days later, the \u201cTamarack Fire\u201d exploded out of control,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/inciweb.nwcg.gov\/incident\/7674\/\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/inciweb.nwcg.gov\/incident\/7674\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGxF20YiiBwEr4eUdGlHYQOLLDQUw\">consuming nearly 70,000 acres<\/a>\u00a0as of this writing.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Uoq1ngQjZ2I\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>One of the towns in its path was Woodfords, California.\u00a0 In 1987, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1987-08-05-mn-816-story.html\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1987-08-05-mn-816-story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEpxXbDzAinE8Sx7ug2P6gxqPVO5g\">Woodfords Fire Department<\/a>\u00a0responded to a report of fire on Forest Service land near their town.\u00a0 They, too were turned away.\u00a0 Federal officials threatened Woodfords residents with arrest for even trying to extinguish the small blaze.\u00a0 Hours later, the fire exploded to 6,500 acres, costing 25 families their homes.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, the Forest Service has learned nothing in 34 years.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201clet burn\u201d policy of federal land managers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1988-09-14-mn-1924-story.html\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1988-09-14-mn-1924-story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFkcTzBviScX2lsqeqHJpZ9HmAQsw\">began in 1972<\/a>, during the height of the radical environmental movement.\u00a0 Essentially, it holds that \u201cfire is our friend.\u201d\u00a0 It stems from the premise that fire is nature\u2019s way of cleaning up forests, and that active suppression of fires leads to a build-up of excess fuels.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s right, as far as it goes.\u00a0 An untended forest is like an untended garden: it will grow and grow until it chokes itself to death and is ultimately consumed by catastrophic fire.\u00a0 That is how nature gardens.\u00a0 The U.S. Forest Service was formed to remove excess growth before it can burn and to preserve our forests in a healthy condition from generation to generation.\u00a0 Or more simply, to do a little gardening.<\/p>\n<p>In California, active land management reduced acreage annually lost to wildfire from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2020\/08\/23\/california-fires-state-feds-agree-to-thin-millions-of-acres-of-forests\/\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2020\/08\/23\/california-fires-state-feds-agree-to-thin-millions-of-acres-of-forests\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF3wkSsq5Lgy9IVqMvfyeot3SPP6A\">more than four million acres<\/a>\u00a0in pre-Columbian times to just a quarter million acres during the 20th\u00a0century.\u00a0 Federal foresters suppressed brush growth and auctioned off excess timber to logging companies that paid for the harvesting rights.\u00a0 Those revenues funded local governments and the Forest Service.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental laws adopted in the 1970\u2019s now require <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/environmental-practice\/article\/abs\/research-article-how-long-does-it-take-to-prepare-an-environmental-impact-statement\/C1B14ECB03EBB159A2CE6B3A43CB5FAB\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/environmental-practice\/article\/abs\/research-article-how-long-does-it-take-to-prepare-an-environmental-impact-statement\/C1B14ECB03EBB159A2CE6B3A43CB5FAB&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHNTr-mxd85xQzerNsXT97k_mMAXA\">years of environmental studies<\/a>\u00a0at a cost of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-14-369.pdf#:~:text=to%20CEQ%E2%80%94the%20only%20available%20source%20of%20governmentwide%20cost,than%20EISs%2C%20according%20to%20CEQ%20and%20federal%20agencies.\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-14-369.pdf%23:~:text%3Dto%2520CEQ%25E2%2580%2594the%2520only%2520available%2520source%2520of%2520governmentwide%2520cost,than%2520EISs%252C%2520according%2520to%2520CEQ%2520and%2520federal%2520agencies.&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHr45_ZA8y67gEjs1-7Y9aYioZCgw\">millions of dollars<\/a>\u00a0before forest thinning can be undertaken.\u00a0 That essentially brought the era of active land management to an end.\u00a0 The result? California\u2019s wildfire damage has returned to its pre-historic level:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fire.ca.gov\/incidents\/2020\/\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.fire.ca.gov\/incidents\/2020\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHxDB2SOs6_8fUBTpxuFqooYgOPjQ\">more than four million acres<\/a>\u00a0burned last year.\u00a0 Nature is a lousy gardener.<\/p>\n<p>In 1988, when the federal \u201clet burn\u201d policy produced the disastrous Yellowstone Fires,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1988-09-14-mn-1924-story.html\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1988-09-14-mn-1924-story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFkcTzBviScX2lsqeqHJpZ9HmAQsw\">President Reagan reversed it.<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cI did not even know (the policy) existed\u2026The minute that this happened out there and Don Hodel went out, he made it plain that, no, we were withdrawing from that policy,\u201d President Reagan said.<\/p>\n<p>Reagan left.\u00a0 The policy returned.\u00a0 And the devastation it has caused since then is tragic, avoidable and incalculable.<\/p>\n<p>Especially given the hazardous condition of today\u2019s forests, sensible policy would give top priority to extinguishing small fires before they can explode out of control.<\/p>\n<p>Scrambling to explain their obvious dereliction of duty,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/topstories\/the-tamarack-fire-started-as-one-smoldering-tree-on-july-4-what-went-wrong\/ar-AAMn7wf\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/topstories\/the-tamarack-fire-started-as-one-smoldering-tree-on-july-4-what-went-wrong\/ar-AAMn7wf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHFgc5lBuMf1eEyPp7CVA1N0b7LKw\">Deputy Forest Supervisor Jon Stansfield complained<\/a>\u00a0that the Forest Service just didn\u2019t have the resources to put out the small fire when a single water drop by helicopter could have stopped it cold.\u00a0 Yet they had the resources to photograph it by helicopter, had the resources to do countless air drops after they allowed it to explode, and apparently even blocked a Calfire crew from putting it out.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/article53922925.html\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/article53922925.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628219018011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHKIUfk6GMV1J4Wl5kQvmmryRc8bQ\">owns 96 percent<\/a>\u00a0of Alpine County, leaving it with virtually no tax base and entirely dependent on tourism attracted by the national forest.\u00a0 The fire has not only taken people\u2019s homes and destroyed their businesses, but it has severely damaged the forest resource that the entire economy depends upon for tourism.<\/p>\n<p>It is dangerous nonsense to \u201cmonitor\u201d incipient fires in today\u2019s forest tinderbox, even if they seem to pose no immediate danger.\u00a0 No person in his right mind would \u201cmonitor\u201d a rattlesnake curled up in his bedroom because it isn\u2019t doing much of anything.\u00a0 He would kill it before it does.<\/p>\n<p>In our national forests, only the Forest Service can prevent small blazes from becoming forest fires.\u00a0 Its time they did.<\/p>\n<p>Congressman Tom McClintock represents California\u2019s 4th\u00a0Congressional District.<\/p>\n<p># # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;\u00a0On July 4th, lightning struck a tree in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Alpine County, California, igniting a small fire that smoldered for days in a quarter acre of rugged terrain.\u00a0 According to Sheriff Rick Stephens, California\u2019s fire-fighting agency, CalFire, dispatched a crew to put it out.\u00a0 But they were told to \u201cstand down\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","category-traffic-fire","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Fullscreen-capture-7302021-34828-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/126009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}