Forest Fires

Why the nation’s forests are burning so hot
By M. David Stirling
Published: Aug 3 2008

Since June 20, roughly 2,000 lightning-sparked wildfires in Northern California have consumed some 900,000 acres of forests, woodlands and brush, destroyed more than 240 homes and other structures, and caused thousands of evacuations. More than 22,000 federal and state firefighters, together with 2,000 California National Guardsmen and 2,500 state prison inmates, battled the blazes. The estimated firefighting costs alone exceed $320 million.

And now a major fire is threatening one of our nation’s treasures, Yosemite National Park.
In order to understand how we became so vulnerable to such devastating wildfires, it is helpful to exam the government’s historical approach to managing federal forest lands, including the fighting of wildfires. Read More

With the fire season being very active again this year in our nation’s forests, we have witnessed how the mismanagement of our natural resources in our forests have cost us. Not only have we lost the revenue of using these products, but we have also spent a lot of money trying to stop these fires. Timber is a great renewable resource that we unfortunately have been forced to import from other countries, due to our irresponsible policies.