From The Hill:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is partially blaming “radical environmentalists” for the dozens of wildfires burning in California and elsewhere in the West.
I won't give credence to the diatribe that Zinke has been spewing about the fires in the West, you can go to The Hill to read the article.
Here is the main fact about the fires in the west - relentless drought. Regardless of what the cause of this drought is, it IS the main factor.
Should we have more prescribed burns, maybe. Should we clear more brush and deadwood, maybe. Should we reduce density of some forest land, probably.
But here is the thing, none of those preventative activities are going to stop the type of fires we are seeing in the West. In California for example, try having a prescribed burn in dense Chaparral and you are looking at a real possibility of a run away fire. Clear some dead wood; has Zinke even heard of the bark beetle and seen the devastation that it has caused in the forest? Do you really think that the understaffed and under funded BLM and NFS are going to have any impact on removing brush. Increase logging, well many of these burn areas are not logging timber. They are scrub, chaparral, scrub oak. And the conifers are mixed in with all the other growth. Much of this is not timber country.
Add on top of this, is the fact that the urban areas have pushed deeper and deeper into the wilderness. There are houses, people and yes arsonists in the zones that burn so fiercely.
Zinke would rather vilify environmentalists rather than trying to find solutions. If there is anyone agency and one person to blame for fires he should look in the mirror. He guts the Interiror Department, he underfunds the agencies that could help with fire fighting. He denies any connection to climate change and fires. He pushes for more extraction industry activity on Public Lands (Yes, dozer blades do cause fires, as does welding, as do high power lines)
Hey Zinke, how about funding some more air tankers, more helicopters? How about modernizing the logistics of firefighting? How about partnering with the High Tech companies to develop technical solutions of satellite mapping. Where are the drones that could spot dry conditions and potential danger areas? Have you talked with the environmentalists and asked for volunteers to help prevent fires? Have you added manpower to the BLM and NFS. Have you raised wages and improved benefits for your employees? Etc, etc.
Zinke, you are a troll. You spend your days in the boardrooms of the Extraction Industry. You gut the BLM and NFS. You push for more drill baby drill, dig baby dig.
And when YOUR lands start burning to the ground, you absolve any responsibility and try to blame others. Typical from this administration.
We need to vote these rascals out of office in November.
Cheers,
Mark
Ye Shall Be Free To Roam.....
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is partially blaming “radical environmentalists” for the dozens of wildfires burning in California and elsewhere in the West.
I won't give credence to the diatribe that Zinke has been spewing about the fires in the West, you can go to The Hill to read the article.
Here is the main fact about the fires in the west - relentless drought. Regardless of what the cause of this drought is, it IS the main factor.
Should we have more prescribed burns, maybe. Should we clear more brush and deadwood, maybe. Should we reduce density of some forest land, probably.
But here is the thing, none of those preventative activities are going to stop the type of fires we are seeing in the West. In California for example, try having a prescribed burn in dense Chaparral and you are looking at a real possibility of a run away fire. Clear some dead wood; has Zinke even heard of the bark beetle and seen the devastation that it has caused in the forest? Do you really think that the understaffed and under funded BLM and NFS are going to have any impact on removing brush. Increase logging, well many of these burn areas are not logging timber. They are scrub, chaparral, scrub oak. And the conifers are mixed in with all the other growth. Much of this is not timber country.
Add on top of this, is the fact that the urban areas have pushed deeper and deeper into the wilderness. There are houses, people and yes arsonists in the zones that burn so fiercely.
Zinke would rather vilify environmentalists rather than trying to find solutions. If there is anyone agency and one person to blame for fires he should look in the mirror. He guts the Interiror Department, he underfunds the agencies that could help with fire fighting. He denies any connection to climate change and fires. He pushes for more extraction industry activity on Public Lands (Yes, dozer blades do cause fires, as does welding, as do high power lines)
Hey Zinke, how about funding some more air tankers, more helicopters? How about modernizing the logistics of firefighting? How about partnering with the High Tech companies to develop technical solutions of satellite mapping. Where are the drones that could spot dry conditions and potential danger areas? Have you talked with the environmentalists and asked for volunteers to help prevent fires? Have you added manpower to the BLM and NFS. Have you raised wages and improved benefits for your employees? Etc, etc.
Zinke, you are a troll. You spend your days in the boardrooms of the Extraction Industry. You gut the BLM and NFS. You push for more drill baby drill, dig baby dig.
And when YOUR lands start burning to the ground, you absolve any responsibility and try to blame others. Typical from this administration.
We need to vote these rascals out of office in November.
Cheers,
Mark
Ye Shall Be Free To Roam.....
