Thanks to one of our valued readers for passing along this article on how the environmentalists are killing the forests. The great treasures of the West are burning, and we’re still tangled in decades-old arguments about thinning, logging and managing our forests. Right now, the Telegraph fire is consuming large chunks of Mariposa County — and continuing a California fire season that has seen nearly 13,000 firefighters called into action and more than 1 million acres burned.

You’d think that the experts would’ve figured out how to reduce fire danger by now. Instead we remain trapped in the paralyzing undergrowth of competing claims and agendas reports the Fresno Bee.

Anyone who had paid attention to the problem surely recognizes what occurs after every big wildfire. Fire-science experts say that overgrown forests must be thinned. Environmentalists say that thinning is really an excuse to engage in destructive logging. And then everybody heads to court.

Meanwhile, despite advances in firefighting tactics and technologies, the catastrophic wildfires rage on — taking lives, destroying habitat and consuming billions of taxpayer dollars.

Adding to the challenge: global warming is turning our forests into tinderboxes while more people head to the foothills and mountains to live.

What’s the answer?

Let’s start with this: There are no simple solutions.

Several studies, for example, indicate that thinning forests without also burning brush and deadwood may fan fires instead of encouraging them to peter out.

Then let’s admit this: Messing with nature has severe consequences.

In our attempt to save the forests by quickly putting out fires, we’ve created something dangerously unnatural — large stands of big trees that have gone as long as 100 years without a major fire. In these instances, there are many more trees competing for the same amount of water, making them susceptible to pests and disease. When lightning strikes or someone leaves a campfire burning, what would’ve been a small fire a century ago turns into a firestorm.

Read more here: Wildfires show need to thin forests