Ongoing Wildfires and Prevention Efforts

Ongoing Wildfires and Prevention Efforts

Many of us across the West are experiencing the smoky skies of the region’s numerous ongoing wildfires. The Soda fire that has burned nearly 300,000 acres across Southern Oregon’s Jordan Valley and Idaho’s Owyhee County is now 95 percent contained. Another fire in Central Washington the Cougar Creek fire is at 23,000 acres but is only 20 percent contained and is burning in timberlands surrounding Mount Adams. Public Lands Council Executive Director Dustin VanLiew shares more details
VanLiew: “As we have seen over the recent past, these fires have gotten larger and more expansive and more catastrophic in the way that they burned and damaged the range and properties across the West. We believe it is really a lack of active management by these federal agencies that are tasked by Congress to manage these lands for multiple uses. Things like livestock grazing and managing the forest through timber management would reduce the overgrown forests and reduce the fine fuel loads along the rangelands that lead to these catastrophic events. So we believe they should be streamlining the regulations and applying more multiple use management across the West. So these fires are not as catastrophic. It both saves the range and wildlife and also taxpayers’ dollars.”
VanLiew says that ranchers can call their U.S. Senators and encourage them to vote yes on Senate Bill 1691 — The National Forest Ecosystem Improvement Act.
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