Political Quotes

“I have not heard anybody say they disagree with this thinning and prescribed burning management technique, but they want it done in an area called the urban/wildland interface; that is to say, where the forest meets communities--summer homes, small towns, so on. We will thin an area a quarter of a mile, maybe half a mile, around these communities and structures and, therefore, save them from catastrophic wildfire; that ought to do the trick. That will not do the trick. In the first place, it is a nice sentiment to try to save small communities and buildings, but that is only part of what we are about here. We are literally about saving the forests themselves, the entire ecosystem, the place where all the flora and fauna live and survive, where the endangered species live. Most of the endanger species do not live right on the edge of the communities. Why would we not want to create a healthy environment for the endangered species and for the other flora and fauna in the forests? Why would we not want to treat in the middle of the forest rather than just along the roads, by the homes or small communities? Of course, we want to save them from catastrophic wildfires, but the best way to do that is to treat the entire forest so the fires do not get a big momentum to roll into the communities.”