If we had been taking care of our public lands, there would still be fire-resistant ancient ponderosa pine forests, clear running streams, abundant and diverse wildlife and meadows waist high with native grasses. Instead less than five percent of the giant 'grandfather trees' remain, mountain streams are eroded and polluted with livestock waste and there are enough logging roads to encircle the planet 15 times. Now we have a choice. Follow Mr. Parmelee's paranoid line of reasoning which blames environmentalists, the Democratic Party and bureaucrats in Washington DC for the Los Alamos fire. Or end commercial logging and grazing on public lands and redirect billions of tax dollars to close unneeded roads, replant trampled streamsides, conduct prescribed burns and reintroduce wolves, river otters and native trout to their rightful habitats.
Ecological restoration puts people to work.
Finger pointing fuels special interest politics but accomplishes nothing.