Wallow Fire Damage, Visible from Greer

Ever notice how there are never any major forest fires east of the Mississippi--where the federal government owns almost none of the forest land? Seeing the damage from the Wallow Fire drives home a point that free-market environmentalists have been making for decades now: our national resources should be privately managed, by private owners who have incentives to be good stewards of those resources.

Short of privatizing federal forest lands in the West, we need to unleash private enterprise--the timber industry and cattle growers--to thin out the undergrowth in our forests, so that they do not become the kind of tinderbox that fueled the Wallow Fire disaster. Thanks to Senator Sylvia Allen and Reps. Brenda Barton, Chester Crandell, and John Fillmore for working with local grassroots activists to push back against federal mismanagement of our forests. Thanks also to those legislators for participating in AFP-Arizona's Feet to the Fire town halls in Gila, Apache, and Graham Counties.

For Liberty, Tom

Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
www.aztaxpayers.org
tjenney@afphq.org
(602) 478-0146