Doug, you're spouting the same nonsense I keep hearing on the "liberal media" --to wit:
• Environmentalists don't want any timber cut
• Republicans would, if given the chance, allow "salvage logging" and "thinning" to reduce the danger of forest fires and restore/maintain forest health
• The conditions that have fostered the recent disastrous fires are all the fault of recent decisions/policies of Democrats/liberals/environmentalists
• Devastating forest fires are more likely to occur in roadless areas than in roaded areas
• A forest fire left to burn itself out will level the forest and is very bad for forest health.

What you seldom hear on the major media, although a lot of forestry scientists agree on it, is that:
• Fires in heavily forested, roadless areas tend to thin the forest, remove underbrush, and regenerate forest growth.  In such areas, fires CAN be allowed to burn themselves out, thus removing diseased trees and underbrush.  In roaded areas with homes and recreational sites, we are pressured to stop the fire to save the buildings and people, and not let the fire do its job.
•  The "no burn" policy that allowed so much tinder to build up was in effect for about 100 years, due to scientific misunderstanding of the role fire plays in forest health.
•  Very large old trees --e.g., old oaks, redwoods -- are usually NOT destroyed by forest fires.
[And, again, what the media seldom tell you is that when timber companies have been allowed to "thin" the "underbrush" or "salvage log," they have routinely removed a lot of large, old, HEALTHY trees -- the very ones that need to stay, to minimize the destructiveness of the fires that do sweep through the forest
• Many environmentalists approve of thinning the undergrowth in roaded areas--or would approve, if that were really what the timber companies were doing.  Moreover, there are no environmental groups that are opposed to all logging or use of wood products.

If we're going to debate forest management issues, let's at least represent  the various sides' viewpoints fairly and accurately.  It's probably too much to ask, but I wish the media would do their homework first and then try to bring science and a fair historical account to bear on the problem, instead of trying to make political hay of the situation via blame, distortion, and the creation of straw men.
 

Genie