"Protecting old-growth forests from wildfire risks is a worthy cause, but simply spending more money on existing bureaucratic processes will not solve the problem."
"The focus on active restoration instead of strict preservation will go a long way to confront the wildfire crisis, but only if red tape and regulatory challenges don’t interfere."
There’s no way around it: you simply cannot claim to support addressing climate change on the one hand while opposing proven and practical forest management to help reduce the risk of massive forest fires on the other.
Money alone will not solve the problem if lawsuits continue to hold up on-the-ground projects. Reforming litigation will improve the ability to effectively put resources to work in our forests.
Over just a few years, Montana has proven a capable leader in conducting forest restoration work on federal lands under a Good Neighbor Authority agreement.
We still hear a lot of criticism about active forest management from environmental commentators, who say we can “never log our way out of a baking climate.” These critics fail to see the forest for the trees