by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel

Folk singer Don McLean ended “Vincent,” his classic 1972 tribute to Van Gogh, with the line, “They would not listen, they’re not listening still — perhaps they never will.”

The song was about the post-impressionist painter, but that line is often used in political debates. It resonates when one watches Congress continue to play political games while the national forests die, collapse and burn.

In 2020 there were 58,950 wildfires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Over 10 million acres burned, more than double the damage of the previous year, and almost 6 million more acres have burned so far in 2021. More than half of those acres are on national forests, lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Congress is anxious, not to prevent the fires and restore healthy forests, but to create the illusion of such action.