[ridesthemiles]

The infected trees should have been allowed to be logged or cut for free for firewood by the people that use wood to heat their homes, like me.

There is about a 1 year window that the infested tree is usable by the log mills. After that, it is too deteriorated for them to salvage.
The enviros have blocked this salvage logging, stating that there were other insects and creatures that would make use of the tree. The tree becomes a massive fuel load for the fires you are seeing now.
Meanwhile, the bark beetle has spread expotentially. I ride alot on various trails in this area, mostly Tahoe Nat'l Forest. You can see one bad tree, then within 9 months or so, there are 3-6 trees gone bad, then, etc,etc,etc. Now there are whole stands of infested trees in the Castle Peak/Grouse Ridge area north of Interstate 80, near Donner Lake. Sen Boxer is trying her damndest to make thousands of acres there "wilderness". That restricts recreation usage, and prevents any mechanized unit from going into the area. Fires would be the next natural step in the destruction of the forest decimated by the bark beetle.
This massive fire loss has to be a catalyst to put an end to the actions of the enviros for the past 30 years. While most city dwellers don't get what the ranchers and rural dwellers have been worried about for years, perhaps this will make everyone take up the cause and we can have a class action lawsuit and cut these groups off once and for all.

[nicmarlo]

perhaps this will make everyone take up the cause and we can have a class action lawsuit and cut these groups off once and for all.

We can only hope!

[azGOPgal]

Is there any way to stop the bark beetles? Say for instance a pesticide or would the enviros say that it would kill too many other insects?

I'm jsut curious.

[cookcounty]

SO the objection that it isn't possible to log this forest is not accurate? I have no idea, but that's what I heard.

[viaveritasvita]

This massive fire loss has to be a catalyst to put an end to the actions of the enviros for the past 30 years. While most city dwellers don't get what the ranchers and rural dwellers have been worried about for years, perhaps this will make everyone take up the cause and we can have a class action lawsuit and cut these groups off once and for all.

I pray it is so!

Your post was very rational and reasonably stated -- I just sent an IM to a friend stating basically the same thing you did, but I used the "f" word twice and CAPITALIZED half the post and used !!!!!!!!! to REALLY make my F***IN' point!!!!!

<><

[meyer]

While most city dwellers don't get what the ranchers and rural dwellers have been worried about for years, perhaps this will make everyone take up the cause and we can have a class action lawsuit and cut these groups off once and for all.

That is so true. I grew up in old suburban Cleveland - as a city dweller. Fires, to us, were when a building burned down. The fire was almost always put out on the same day it started. Very rarely did it take more than a day. That is what makes this situation so important.