Our Forest and the Future

Editor’s note- Gaining new perspective is how we obtain new insight, helping others and building trust is how we grow as people. Over the next few weeks, I will be hosting different perspectives on the current state of our forest and views on the future.  I encourage readers to write in their commentary as well to entice further conversation.

How many times have you heard someone complain about the United States Forest Service (USFS) and how they manage our Public Lands?  I hear gripes all of the time about how the USFS is letting our forests burn, how they need to cut more trees (or cut no trees), how they need to build more trails, how they need to decommission roads or maintain more roads, how they need to do a better job.

Here is the thing.  The management of forest lands is hard work and navigating government bureaucracy can be a daunting task.  Across this nation you can find examples of failed management of our Federal lands and with recent droughts paired with millions of Federal forest acres that are out of balance, catastrophic wild fire is the current expression of how the USFS is failing at their job. 

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