Opposing view: We need commonsense forest policies

Wildfires will occur. The question becomes what can we do to minimize the size and effect. Recent fires have become exponentially more destructive. Fires of this size and intensity are an incredibly serious threat to our lives, property and environment, and should not be accepted as the new normal.

Several factors might be at play, but improper forest fuel management is a clear problem.

There is now a nearly limitless supply of fuel — dead trees, dry brush and vegetation — making our forests combustible as ever. There are 129 million dead trees in California. A healthy forest should have an inventory of 60 to 80 trees per acre; ours have several hundred per acre.

Commonsense forest policies that will treat overgrown lands and prevent a manageable wildfire from turning into a catastrophic inferno are long overdue. We need a streamlined process to responsibly thin forests, especially public lands. Our forestry professionals need to be out in the forests, assessing and doing their work, not spending half their time filling out paperwork, responding to activist-funded environmental litigation.

We also need to reverse the loss of forest product infrastructure critical to restoration efforts, including timber harvest, hazardous fuel reduction, salvage logging, prescribed burning and the mill capacity to handle it. Trees are going to leave the forest one way or another. We can remove them responsibly ourselves, or they’ll become fuel for the next catastrophic wildfire.

Forest waste can become the renewable fuel that powers the electric grid and provides the wood and paper products that we use daily. These jobs should be right in our backyard.

It’s time to reassert our ability to limit the impact wildfires have on our communities. These fires have caused unthinkable yet, unfortunately, predictable tragedies. Allow us to be good stewards of our land once again — it will save lives.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican, represents California’s 1st Congressional District, encompassing the fire-ravaged city of Paradise.