Save the Earth, punch a greenie

So here's this Wall Street Journal editorial on the fires consuming the west, which lays the blame squarely at the feet of the environmental extremists, which more and more is coming to mean all environmental groups.

[T]here's the "science" the groups continue to ply on their Web sites to justify opposition to forest management. The Sierra Club says that "the only real environmental damage associated with forest fires comes from human attempts to extinguish and prevent them." The Center for Biological Diversity and the National Forest Protection Alliance inform us, counter-intuitively to say the least, that logging is responsible for the fires. And the National Wildlife Federation says that "In fact, many animals and plants not only survive, but thrive, after fire." They don't manage to explain how thinning "destroys habitat," while burning it down in its entirety makes animals "thrive."

...

Even worse are the continuing appeals and litigation. Environmental groups swamp the Forest Service and other agencies with appeals and lawsuits each year, in an attempt to block even modest cleanup efforts. Readers can visit the Forest Service site (http://www.fs.fed.us/forests) to see for themselves.

Which put in mind of a front page story I saw in the New York Times several days ago, titled Away From the TV Cameras, Fire Consumes Apache Land, and which reads in part:

The tribal economy is devastated. This is the time when the trees are supposed to be harvested but that will not happen. More than $300 million worth of timber has been turned to ash. The sawmills have shut down and 300 people are out of work.

...

Tim Rash, a white man and a firefighter with the Bureau of Land Management, was clearing underbrush near the Apache crew as trees exploded like popcorn kernels. He does the job for thrills. "I saw a fire like this once in 1988 in Yosemite," Mr. Rash said. "You know what we did? We let it burn until the snows came."

Although the Yosemite decision proved wise, as the national park is green and thriving again, letting their forests burn is not an option for the Apache people. To let the forest burn will mean economic ruin. The Hon Dah Resort and Casino, the second-largest employer in the White Mountain region after the county government, brings in more than $130 million a year, and is now closed for what is normally its busiest season.

The tribe also operates Sun Rise Ski Resort. "We sell our beautiful lakes and streams to tourists," Roger Leslie, the general manager of the resort, said. "We don't know what we'll have until the smoke clears."

Other potential losses of income come from the damage to wildlife. The tribe sold about 65 permits to hunt elk on the reservation last year at an average price of $15,000. There are also bear and mountain lion hunts. The hunting grounds are in the area of the Chediski fire, along with a sacred lake, burial grounds and archeological sites.

Light jabs at the white man and industry aside, the article makes the (unintentional?) point that "East Coast" environmental policies put western people out of work, destroying community economies, personal livelihoods, etc. The irony here is that those being so effected are the Native Americans that greenies like the parade around as being "truly one with nature."

And they are loggers!

I also question the quote that Yosemite is now green and thriving. Last time I was there (last month) the areas devastated by that 1988 fire still look devastated. Oh, some trees are beginning to think about growing, and there's a tinge of green, but nothing like it was. The Los Alamos fires (damn, just last year?) were even harsher. They burned so hot that even bacteria was killed; the ground was literally sterilized.