It is these lawsuits that have allowed the western forests to become massively overgrown.

It is these lawsuits that have allowed the pine beetle to run unchecked.

It is these lawsuits that have decommissioned the roads that would have allowed forest managers and firefighters into the back country to reduce the fuel load and fight the fires.

Western forests had been burned regularly by the Native Americans since the close of the last ice age. That created an ecology of fire-tolerant and fire dependent species, but those species needed the fire to come through every few years to maintain the landscape and reduce the fuel load. Through most of the 20th century, fire was suppressed, and logging took up the slack for fuel reductions.

In the latter part of the 20th century up to the present time, logging has also been suppressed, and the fuel load has grown unchecked. It is absolutely no surprise to those of us who grow trees that we are in this situation.

It would be very gratifying if the environmental community would step up and admit their role in this travesty, but I am not holding my breath.