A small collection of litigants, however, continues to derail forest management efforts with lawsuits—jeopardizing the environment they claim to be protecting.
"While the federal and state government oversee many wildfire prevention and suppression efforts, private businesses are also emerging as much-needed leaders in the space."
"Fixing our forests will ultimately require cutting through the environmental red tape that prevents many forest-restoration projects from getting off the ground or stalls them until they go up in flames."
"Fixing America’s Forests will require a variety of tools, but Montana has a substantial opportunity to expand the use of prescribed fire on private lands."
"Expanding partnership opportunities for private groups to accelerate approval and implementation of forest restoration projects is a needed step to fix America’s forests."
"Prescribed burns, especially done in conjunction with mechanical treatments, proved their value as a proactive tool in controlling wildfires in Montana this summer."
"The Cottonwood decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015 emphasizes how litigious groups have weaponized the Endangered Species Act to prevent forest management projects."
"Forests across the west are facing similar threats as California’s giant sequoias. By actively working to restore forest ecosystems and reducing fuel buildups, we can preserve our nation's cherished forests."
"Even when public land managers, officials and researchers agree that this mitigation work is needed on a landscape, the tools that reduce wildfire severity face a long, bureaucratic process of approvals and delays."
"Policymakers must ask whether the minuscule risk of an escaped prescribed burn is worth doing nothing, allowing fuels to build up and putting the forest at a higher risk of an all-consuming destructive wildfire."
"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."