NAFSR's Position Paper on Forest Health and Fire

By: Jim Petersen

The National Association of Forest Service Retirees recently released a position paper in which it describes – exquisitely we think – why its members remain strong supporters of active management of our country’s national forests, despite the fact that the Forest Service had drifted far from its congressionally mandated – and publicly supported mission.

We share NAFSR’s concern for the deplorable condition of America’s national forests, and we are as dismayed as NAFSR’s members are about the seeming inability – some might say unwillingness – of Forest Service leadership to speak publicly and candidly about what must be done to pull our dying national forests back from the brink of ecological collapse.

To the extent that it has failed to give the Forest Service clear and concise direction, Congress is playing a role in the ecological collapse we are witnessing. Moreover, we believe House and Senate members who represent urban and metropolitan voters take their marching orders from environmental groups that incorrectly claim that the death of America’s publicly-owned forests is a natural event. Hence, their opposition to forest thinning programs that could slow the spread of insects and diseases, and reduce the risk of inevitable wildfire.

Click here to read the NAFSR's Position Paper on Evergreen Magazine's website.

Jim Petersen is a co-founder of the non-profit Evergreen Foundation, and publisher of Evergreen, the Foundation’s periodic journal. The Foundation was established in 1986 to help advance public understanding and support for science based forestry and forest policy. Jim is a member of the Society of American Foresters, the Forest History Society, the Intermountain Logging Conference and the Pacific Logging Congress [President, 2007].