Article from today's news paper. Note the comments about the envionrmentalists (bad term....that should really be anti-recreationists....because I am an environmentalist!)
by Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
June 24, 2002 12:00:00
The fires ravaging northeast Arizona are incinerating the world's largest contiguous area of ponderosa pine, Gov. Jane Hull said Sunday. But it didn't have to be this way.
That's because for the past century, the United States has let its forests grow thick with underbrush, creating lush, rustic landscapes that, with the right conditions, can turn into potent tinderboxes.
But turning that policy around has ignited a firestorm of its own, pitting politicians against environmentalists and forest dwellers against forest managers.
As the "Rodeo-Chediski" fire roared through Arizona's high country, governors from Western states meeting in Phoenix this week launched a broadside against environmentalists, who the governors and others say have opposed controlled burns that would reduce fire-prone undergrowth.
U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., joined the chorus, saying that environmentalists have pressured Congress not to spend money on the burns. In an interview Sunday with KTAR-AM (620), he said the Forest Service spends 40 percent of its annual budget defending itself against environmental groups.
Hull criticized the lawsuits and layers of administrative process that she said have prevented more aggressive efforts to clear the nation's forests of dense underbrush.
"We've got to clean up these forests," Hull said. "Mother Nature is telling us to do so."
Spreading the message is one thing; practicing it can be quite another.