Global warming, forest management are non-political issues
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Editor,
Led by unscrupulous politicians, too many of us are thinking along partisan lines when we try to address the complex problems of global warming and forest management. These are pragmatic - not partisan - issues. If we make choices that do not conserve our amazing forests for a variety of uses over many generations – all of us will lose, regardless of party affiliation.
In the case of increasingly severe wildfires, the choice is not between timber sales and catastrophic wildfire. Montana’s eastern fires, in land that is sparsely timbered, should make that clear. The situation is far more complicated. Our forests evolved with fire and are dependent on fire, but wildfires have been increasing in frequency and duration over the past 30 years, as the planet warms. Drought is increasing; snowpack is decreasing; trees are weakened, and more susceptible to beetle attack. Timber harvests alone will not address the level and type of fuel reduction needed to preserve the system that all of us depend on. We must follow the science, funding prescribed burns and fire prevention in urban-forest interfaces (fire wise requirements, zoning and transportation planning). We have too much to lose if we politicize this effort.
Gail Trenfield
St. Ignatius
