Letters: Fix Our Forests disguises logging as fire safety

"The Fix Our Forests Act isn't about environmental safety; rather, it is a blatant attempt at expanding the logging industry under the cover of wildfire prevention. Congress is rushing to pass a bill that dramatically expands backcountry logging while weakening environmental review and public input, allowing projects up to 15 square miles to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act. Decades of research shows that logging can actually increase fire severity by leaving behind flammable debris and drying forest microclimates."

"Meanwhile, the bill ignores the strategies proven to save lives - home hardening, defensible space and evacuation planning - in favor of remote timber projects far from communities. Worse, it reduces scientific and judicial oversight at a moment when accountability matters most, while risking harm to watersheds, wildlife habitat and recreation. Congress should stop branding logging as wildfire protection and invest in tried-and-tested solutions that actually keep communities safe."

"Chad Hanson suggests that implementing the federal Fix Our Forests Act will increase the threat of wildfire to communities. In reality, this act will reduce wildfire threat to communities by facilitating forest thinning and strategic deployment of prescribed fire. Over a century of successful fire suppression across the landscape has allowed far too much vegetation (trees, brush) to accumulate. These overcrowded conditions represent an extreme wildfire threat. The act seeks to accelerate the treatment of unnaturally dense forests."

Fix Our Forests Act dramatically expands backcountry logging while weakening environmental review and public input, allowing projects up to 15 square miles to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act. Decades of research shows that logging can increase fire severity by leaving behind flammable debris and drying forest microclimates. The bill sidelines proven community protections such as home hardening, defensible space and evacuation planning in favor of remote timber projects. The legislation reduces scientific and judicial oversight, risking harm to watersheds, wildlife habitat and recreation. Proponents contend the act will reduce wildfire threat by accelerating thinning and prescribed fire to treat unnaturally dense forests.

Read at The Mercury News