During Saturday’s Republican Weekly Address, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) argued that better forest management that clears certain risky areas can not only prevent fires that cause massive CO2 emissions, but would also create jobs and prevent the U.S. from having to import large amounts of wood products.
LaMalfa said, “What we do need is positive forest management. That means simple things, like clearing along roadways so there [are] trees that won’t catch fire from vehicle traffic, clearing around power lines. [The Dixie fire] started because a green, healthy, tree fell into a power line amidst an overcrowded forest full of dry trees and dry brush. Why aren’t we clearing around our communities so that they have a better chance of being fire safe, so our firefighters, who are working 18, 20 hours a day here right now putting themselves in harm’s way have an easier, better chance of trying to stop a fire that might be coming from the forest into a town?”
He added that “regulators” and “lawsuits that come from environmental organizations,” block such policies.
LaMalfa also cited a study that California’s fires in 2020 emitted more carbon than the state’s fossil fuel use and stated, “Year after year, we have these giant fires, yet the United States is the number two importer of wood products of any country in the world. Why are we doing that? We could be taking just a little bit of this timber out of here and utilizing it for our needs for Americans and helping to put people back to work here in these boarded-up towns and making the community, making the forest fire safe and healthy.”
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