[Carry_Okie]

I was under the impression that forest fires are Mother Nature's way of cleaning up forests?

Not after 90 years of fire suppression, successive clearcuts, and suppression of browsing species. Such a fire doesn't clean, it sterilizes. Weeds usually follow first and are often capable of completely dominating the landscape, permanently. After that kind of treatment, we may never see a native forest again.

[Egregious Philbin]

Are you advocating a middle ground, or do you think environmentalists really have most of it wrong? They don't really advocate controlled burns and firebreaks? I've often thought that environmentalists have done their cause a disservice by not considering partnerships with hunting and fishing groups, or with a responsibly run logging industry, but that their cause was still good. Are arguing that the logging industry is more responsible than the environmentalists? Certainly, reading some environmental literature, you'd think that loggers would never even consider a selective harvest, it's clear cut or nothing...