"These provisions, included in the House version of the bill, could exempt an unlimited number of commercial logging projects up to 6,000 acres each in our national forests from environmental analysis and meaningful public comment. This would include logging of old-growth forests and clear-cutting of ecologically important post-fire habitat, upon which many imperiled wildlife species depend. Proposed changes would also essentially nullify the application of the Endangered Species Act to federal forests by eliminating the requirement to consult with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service over impacts to endangered species."
This isn't the first time that commercial logging efforts wound up in forest-thinning legislation. The Bush administration's so-called Healthy Forest Initiative passed in 2003 as the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. But well before that law was enacted, federal agencies already had plenty of authority to do what scientists know works best to protect human development from wildfires: clear small trees and underbrush from areas right around homes and commercial buildings.
Thinning forests far away from communities and homes is not only a waste of already-overstretched fire-prevention resources, it also increases the risk to wildlife, fish, water quality, and forest health. Moreover, a 2000 report by the U.S. Forest Service found that "timber harvest can sometimes elevate fire hazard by increasing dead-ground fuel, removing larger fire-resistant trees, and leaving an understory of ladder fuels."
While short-term methods matter, in the long term, the best thing governments can do to reduce the risk of wildfires is to take strong action to ameliorate the impacts of the climate crisis. Since 2010, Forest Service officials say, 129 million trees in California have died because of climate change, drought and insect infestations. But, top to bottom, the Trump regime is brimful of people who disbelieve climate scientists and have been adopting and trying to adopt policies that are guaranteed to make matters worse. And lying about it.
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