First, Put Out the Fire!and Restore Our Forests with Traditional Practices

By Jim Petersen
November 20, 2024
Transcript .pdf

First, Put Out the Fire!

and Restore Our Forests with Traditional Practices

We are up to our eyeballs in an undeclared national emergency. More than half of

the nation's Federal forest estate is dying, dead, or burnt to a crisp -- about 156,250

square miles, an area larger than all but two States, Alaska and California.

Here's hoping that the Trump Administration will declare a National Wildfire

Emergency on Inauguration Day, January 20th. Westerners have been dealing

with the root causes of this natural tragedy for decades.

First, our Federal forests hold too many trees for the carrying capacity of the land.

Trees are dying annually by the millions. Mortality now exceeds growth in most of

the National Forests in the 11 Western States.

Preservationists who oppose all forms of forest management routinely use,

routinely block, the efforts of the few brave souls in the Forest Service that are still

trying to rescue dying forests and threatened communities. These people have

held Congress hostage for decades. Their weapon of choice has been the Equal

Access to Justice Act -- a well-meaning law that these groups have been corrupting

for decades. Until Congress revises the act, Federal agencies, no matter who they

are or who works for them, will be hamstrung.

There are hundreds of peer reviewed papers, research papers, many written 20 and

30 years ago, that underscore the necessity of reversing course in our National

Forests in the West before it's too late. Countless essays on our website, and many

others by the way, echo the warnings of foresters, forest ecologists, wildfire

experts, botanists, fish and wildlife biologists, zoologists, and herpetologists. And

the list goes on.

Our federal lands are a national treasure. Our cultural, spiritual, historic, and

economic roots are buried deep in the soil. When we leave these forests to nature,

as so many people today seem to want to do, we get whatever nature serves up --

NWA Jim Petersen 20241120 2

which can be pretty devastating at times. But with forestry we have options and a

degree of predictability not found in nature.

The easiest science-based fix necessitates managing our forests and marineland in

a way that looks quite similar to the way the Indian tribes that own land manage

their land. To understand what this might look like, consider the wisdom of

Oshkosh, Chief of the Menominee Tribe from 1827 to 1858. Here's what you

said:

"Start with the rising sun and work toward the setting sun. Take only the mature

trees, the sick trees, and the trees that have fallen. When you reach the end of the

reservation, turn and cut from the setting sun to the rising sun, and the trees will last

forever."

Thank you.