This Administration's environmental policies are driven by a preservationist elite who are dogmatically and irrationally opposed to active forest management of public lands, even for the purpose of reducing fire risks. Logging is considered to be profane, and making a profit from logging is a sin. They believe that fire is the only righteous way to treat these high risk forests, and they would rather see the forests burn catastrophically than to be managed. In essence, they believe that it is necessary to destroy the forest in order to save it. It doesn't have to be this way.
Many people know what needs to be done to remedy the problem.
The Forest Service has written a series of interesting and promising plans - but plans are worthless if they are never implemented 'on the ground'. Today, federal land management agencies are not making any progress at all on the back 40. Today we will hear more about these failures and problems, but we will also hear some success stories from managers who are making progress 'on the back forty'. They are demonstrating that we have the science and the ability to fix this problem of hazardous forest fuels and to protect lives and property. In some cases they are even finding that the value of the products which are removed in the process can help pay for the cost of the treatment.