By putting their eye on the hole in the tank, they could see how full it was. Then came automobiles, and with them came gasoline tanks. It has been very successful. Every time there has been a small brush fire, we have worked hard to get it under control. The fires we had out West last summer that destroyed so much, even part of Yellowstone National Park, were caused only in part by nature.
Preservation is a noble cause.
Unintended consequences are not. In his final days in office, President Clinton by executive order made 53 million acres of forest land off limits to the people who own that land, the citizens of the United States. No motorized vehicles, no roads built or maintained, no harvesting of timber, no fire breaks. Our national forests are a wonderful asset. We need to manage that asset.