Idaho’s Jim Risch has Advice for Battling Eastern Wildfires

Jim Risch has some advice for the folks back east.  Many are choking on smoke from wildfires burning north of the border in Quebec.  The U.S. Senator from Idaho may be the only person serving on Capitol Hill who ever fought a wildfire.  He offered some thoughts during a Senate hearing about how we can better knock out wildfires before they become a threat to public and environmental health.

I was unaware of the situation in the East until I got a telephone call from my sister earlier this week.  Her mother-in-law has been hospitalized and I snapped up the phone believing it was a condition update.  Instead, it was a smoke update.  My sister explained it looked as bad as some of the pictures I’ve sent her from Idaho over the course of several fire seasons.  Breathing is difficult for the healthy.  My sister is asthmatic.  The woman is going to and from work wearing a mask.  She’s a schoolteacher.  By Wednesday, she could smell the smoke inside the building.

The tree-hugging left would have us believe humans are to blame for the disaster.  Two thoughts on rebuttal.  First, Risch suggests we restore sensible forest management practices.  Second, fires from the north have a history of darkening the United States, or what became the United States.  Was human activity behind the smoke-filled skies of 1780?

In any case, if you clear the fuel from the forest floor, you can greatly reduce growth.  You can also cut down some trees and cart them away.  They can be used in building or you liberals could take them in and hug them from the comfort of home!  But solutions would prevent crises where the liberals could place more restrictions on your liberties.  They would rather watch the burning and suck in the nasty air.

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