The immediate need is to rebuild the forestry side of the Forest Service. This means that Republicans and Democrats in the next Congress need to find an extra $5 billion in Fiscal 2021. Funds must be specifically allocated for forestry staffing and forest management – not wildfire.
Jim Hurst epitomized all that was good and decent and honorable about a vanishing breed of men who owned and operated small sawmills in hundreds of remote western towns.
Public concern always peaks in September – the worst fire month of the year – and it vanishes the moment the smoke gives way to sunny fall skies. Lost lives, homes, and towns are forgotten.
Fixing the environmental crisis that has unfolded in the West over the last 30 years should not be a partisan issue.
“The time has come for society to consider alternatives to fires so large that they escape suppression efforts, often with deadly consequences. If we don’t like the fire trajectory we are on – and I don’t – shouldn’t we try something different?
“What do you want from your forest?” The first question Wes always asked when posed with a forestry question.
What Ken Brauner did was to put people and forestry back into the environmental equation, so we can all see what is possible.
Congress hasn’t gotten it right where the U.S. Forest Service budget is concerned – for more than 30 years. It shorts our nation’s largest forest landowners by $2 billion to $3 billion every year.
Rebuilding the Forest Service’s once preeminent Forestry Culture will take time and may cost as much as $2 billion taxpayer dollars annually for three to five years. Chump change when compared to the horrific wildfire losses we are suffering.
During the nastiest days of the spotted owl war, Oregon’s environmentalists frequently reminded their rural brethren that “tourism is the future.” I was living in …
