Good observation. After the wildfires in San Diego were brought under control, a special ceremony was arranged to thank the firefighters. It was poorly attended.
I have no gratitude for an organization that has destroyed forest health by caving in to a corrupt ideology. As far as I am concerned we could do a better of forest management without National Forests.
I live in a forest. I don't want or need firefighters here. If there is a fire here, I'll sit and watch. I thin my forest, something the USFS won't allow. I have little more than contrmpt for a forest management organization that spends 40% of its budget on lawsuits in which they are as complicit as the NGOs and staffed with a gang of greenies who've done more to rob landowners than anything else.
Did you read the account of the Winter Fire? I stand by the comment. It's become a circus. The local CDF batallion chief here does more work for his union than anything else. He could be working with the greenies teaching them how important it is to thin.
Upon the observation that this was directed at me, I'm also going to add a response to this comment of yours:
Unfortunately, their is a class of people in this country who haven't slung a hoe or worked a blister on their pinky who look down on rescue personnel... of all things... but, they have money, and little brains, easy sheep... helps the economy go round.
I climb. I top. I drag piles and burn by hand. I spent $10,000 on drainage this year stacking over sixty tons of rock by hand and packing seventy yards of material with a shovel and a Wacker on a 100% slope. I spent 500 hours this year just weeding. Do you do work like that? My property is a model of biodiversity and forest management with over 260 species of plants alone.
The Forest Service that gave us Smokey the Bear is long gone, but in large part responsible for this mess. They overplanted in anticipation of fat budgets for precommercial thinning and when that didn't materialize left it to burn without educating the public on what must be done. Most of those who knew better chose retirement instead of risking their jobs in a political battle. They allowed decent forests to become dead wastelands of twigs and you know what happens after it burns. However arduous and dangerous has been the job of firefitghing over the years, it's not what it was. Firefighting has become a gravy train for those who have had their livelihoods in the forest robbed by a gang of ideological thugs and financial interests. Yes I'm bitter about it, because it's so unnecessary and stupid, but the Forest Service is just as responsible as the greens for the 190 million acres now at risk.