Political Quotes

“There have been catastrophic fires in South Dakota, but there was even more importantly a recognition that there were vast areas, not just the so-called beauty strips immediately around communities, but vast areas of the Black Hills National Forest that were at risk of catastrophic wildfire. We are not talking about the wildfire that burns along the ground and gets rid of the brush and things out of the area and leaves the larger trees; but we are talking about fires that, because of the buildup of fuel density, the trees continuing to grow, the fires being suppressed over a long period of time, when they finally do occur, they stair-step up from the brush into the smaller trees, into the larger trees, into the overstory of all of the trees in an area and devastate the whole area. Then when it comes up to a community, no small narrow band of treated area will keep that kind of massive fire that can sometimes leap over long distances because of the enormous height that the flames reach and the burning pieces.”