My grandfather loved the forest, and during World War II, he worked for the National Guard and the forest service, living in a treehouse with his wife and watching for enemy planes. He taught me to love Washington’s gorgeous forests. We’re proud of our forests! They are part of what makes our region the beautiful place that it is—and we must balance the needs of healthy forest management with protecting the amazing ecosystem it is part of. The reasons we must keep our forests healthy are almost endless.
It’s crucial that we remove dying trees and remove underbrush in order to protect against devastating wildfires that pollute our air and threaten our forests. Doing so will save lives and prevent devastating and expensive property damage during our dry season. Unfortunately, much of the U.S. Forest Service budget has been diverted to simply fighting massive fires, with much less funding left for restoration.
Thinning the forests reduces risk of fire, insect infestation, and disease. Healthy forests provide wildlife habitat and healthy watersheds, which are necessary for clean water.
Washington had a robust timber economy until the spotted owl and other extreme environmental policies shut most of those jobs down. Replanting and harvesting on well managed, privately owned lands has been successful and provided much needed jobs in the timber industry.
Consider the difference in wildfire devastation between properly managed private forests owned by companies like Weyerhaeuser vs our mismanaged state and federal lands. We must do things differently.
I will lead the charge to improve the health of Washington’s federal forest lands and put our rural families back to work in the timber industry on the lands they love and live on.
Original source can be found here.
