Yeah, the Jackson Pine. Big deal. Controlled burns CAN be an aid to the overall health of forests in general, I agree...HOWEVER when the fuel outweighs the living flora it is nothing but a recipe for ecological and economical disaster.
The probelm with the environazis is that they are so totally brainwashed that they are able to see the "forest" - which is a microcosm - that they cannot see the "trees" - each individual of which is important to the continuing functioning of that particular microcosm.
We have gone from one extreme - the farming of the macrocosm - to the other - being so centered upon the macricosm that we fail to see the individuals which comprise it. Human beings, like it or not, no matter what end of the ideological scale you are on, are an integral PART of that macrocosm. We are neither "husbands" of the earth, nor it's "shepards". We're every bit as much a part of the food chain as everything else on this planet, and I'm tired of being told we don't have as much right to be here as everynody else. Walk out into the woods and meet a cougar or a bear. Puts things into perspective IMMEDIATELY.
Wolves, BTW are different. They are social animals more like us...which is why our ancestors were able to turn them into the ancestors of the modern dog.
BULLSHIT