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A recent contributor to “My Turn” quoted a George Wuerthner as saying,”Wilderness protection reduces wildfires,” claiming that is better than active forest management. This is difficult to understand, unless you know that Mr. Wuerthner is known as a radical environmentalist, who makes his money writing books on the subject, over 30 published so far. But then, favoring wildfires, he is on record referring to a recent horrifying wildfire season, similar to 2017, as “the best fire season ever.” Go figure.

Global warming, or climate change if you prefer, will be with us for the foreseeable future. Megafires are becoming ever more destructive. It is very difficult to get firefighters and necessary equipment into roadless areas, so in most cases, the fires will be left to burn with the hope they won’t get out of control. Too often they do, with disastrous results.

There are already over 109 million acres in the U.S. permanently classified by the federal government as wilderness, and almost 10 million acres of that is in Idaho. The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C. needs to be reigned in. To best protect the Scotchman Peaks Area for future generations, we need more and better active forest management, not more wilderness.

For those who have never seen up close what an out-of-control wildfire can do, please go see “Only The Brave”, based on a true story, opening in theaters on Oct. 20.

DAVE REYNOLDS

Hope