Okay, We Tried It Your Way

Dear Tree Huggers,

     We tried it your way. Decades of your lawsuits claiming the best way to protect the forests and their inhabitants is to neglect them, have brought us our current season of rampant forest fires throughout the West. High temperatures and drought may be the sparks that started the blaze, but you supplied the fuel. Decades of neglect have left our forests unhealthy infernos waiting to happen. You have protected the trees and animals you claim to love to death. It is like protecting a child from abuse by burning down his house--with him in it. And, to add insult to injury, at the end of an August of historic forest fires, another lawsuit was filed to "protect" another Montana forest from the evils of logging. Your concerns about environmental impact seem to only go one way.
     And this destruction of millions of acres is largely ignored by national news because it is not politically correct to show the inevitable result of decades of anti-logging lawsuits. Even those who blame global warming must realize that the 1 - 2 degree temperature change that might be man caused would make little difference when lightning strikes a forest full of unhealthy trees and deadfall. Leaving the forests in this unsafe condition is arson, no matter who supplies the match.
    We are sick of seeing the land we love go up in smoke. We are sick of seeing much needed lumber go to waste. You even sue to prevent the burned, but salvageable, trees from being harvested. And those falling trees have been killing the firefighters who risk their lives fixing your handiwork. And some of us are just plain sick. I count myself lucky to only get nauseating migraines from the smoke, though I have had to stay inside for weeks or it would be much worse. I am angry that my three month old granddaughter has to try to breathe this sludge. People are losing their health, homes, livelihoods and lives to these fires. Put that in your environmental impact statement. Post a bond for damages. Take responsibility. 
     I am no longer praying for rain. I want the fires to linger long enough that when activists sue to protect the forests from efforts that would mitigate the risk, this firestorm will be fresh in our national consciousness. The smell of smoke that used to bring to mind relaxing around a campfire, now symbolizes sickness and sorrow and loss.  Leave managing the forests to the service created for that purpose and the people who live by them or there won't be any trees left for you to hug. We tried it your way. It not only didn't work--it went up in smoke.