How close would wildfires have to come to homes and businesses to change anti-logging minds?

When smoke clouds the skies and the fires that burn the west every summer have begun again, a little reminder might be invoked.

Fires need fuel and that fuel, the forests that burn now, used to be the source of money to build roads and support schools. Money that now is deficient and short because mills all over Montana are closed and much of the wood we use is imported. Ask youself where all the paper that America still uses is coming from.

Since the environmental side of the ledger resonsible for this situation advocated no logging or thinning — only letting timber hit the ground and decay, I have often wondered how close the fire would have to come to their cabins or place of business to have them change their minds?

One member of that side said in an interview that he didn’t support logging, but his cutting down trees on his land was called “thinning the wood lot.”

Too bad our wood lots and more are burning needlessly. It helps to remember why.

Clare Hafferman,

Kalispell