by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
The 19th century French historian Chateaubriand once wrote that forests precede civilizations, and deserts follow them. Looking out today at smoke that covers half the country, and mudslides that bury major highways, we should wonder if we really want that to be the legacy of this generation of Americans. It doesn’t have to be. We know how to manage forests to sustain their yield, their beauty, and their health, forever. We are failing miserably.
For 25 years, Americans have stood by and watched more than 100 million acres of national forests burn to the ground, including the largest fires ever in California, Colorado, and several other states, bringing utter devastation to beloved places like Glacier and Rocky Mountain National Parks. The Forest Service says at least another 100 million acres are still “at risk” of catastrophic wildfire, such is their unhealthy and overgrown condition. We are doing almost nothing about it.
In fact, this generation has all but stopped the professional management of our public forests, and we are witnessing the disease, death, rotting, collapse, and burning of billions of trees covering millions of acres of previously healthy forest lands. Some of these iconic landscapes will not recover their former beauty in our lifetimes, and some will never again provide the same habitat for wildlife, or the same quality water supply they once did.
