THE PROBLEM
Government-caused fires are destroying increasing amounts of public property, private property and rural American society. What began in the 1970’s with the steady increase and accumulation of fire fuel on public land resulting from mandated federal reductions of public land management and associated rural land uses has become annual conflagrations of growing intensity and destruction.

Recently, Americans have been told that these fires are “caused” by arsonists, untended fires, global warming, catalytic converters, and even sparks from bullets striking rocks. Other Great Fires have been attributed to such things, for instance:

- The London Fire of 1666 was “caused” by a fire in a bakery.
- The Chicago Fire (1871) was “caused” by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.
- The San Francisco Fire (1906) was “caused” by an earthquake.
- The Peshtigo (No. WI) Forest Fire (the same day as the Chisago Fire) was “caused” by sparks blown in the wind.

In truth, all of these Great Fires were caused by an abundance of fuel (wooden homes, trees, brush, tree limb piles, firewood piles, dry grass) and some ignition (sparks, lightning, flammable matter plus heat, fire being used for other purposes, etc.) contacting the fuel often in the presence (like the Chicago and Peshtigo Fires) of high winds.

The major “wild” fires seen more and more often in The Lower 48 States, while burning both public and private land, are almost exclusively begun on public land. The “real” cause of the size and destruction of these government-caused fires is not the [fuel + ignition = fire] equation of all great fires. I submit that these fires have more in common with the Burning of Rome in 64 AD. While attributed by historians to either an accident or to Nero, we do know that Nero quickly blamed the Christians and began a persecution of them that killed thousands by crucifixion and burning as human torches for illumination. Nero was then said to begin rebuilding Rome as he wanted, which many believe was the real cause of the fire.

Since the 1960’s and the advent of environmental extremism, public lands have gone from publicly managed and publicly used renewable natural resources for the benefit of all (like Rome before it burned) to inaccessible, unmanaged and unused natural resources (like the Rome envisioned by Nero to reflect his own “greatness”). I am saying that, just as Nero had a perverse goal of controlling everything and bending everyone else to his will by any means, so too do the environmental extremists, animal rightists, federal agencies, and pandering politicians envision the destruction and remaking of the public lands and steady acquisition and control of all American private property, especially real estate. As with Nero, fire, has been found to be a weapon of choice for these modern fire-starters since the “cause” is always someone or something else and can always be blamed on campers, shooters, rural residents or other scapegoats you want to be rid of.

A review of “Great” American Wildfires gives a few clues as to what is taking place today. The last half of the 1800’s shows roughly 10 large fires (2 were over a million Acres each) in The Lower 48 States. The first half of the 20th century shows roughly 18 large fires mainly in The Northwestern and Great Lakes” states: this was followed by an almost complete absence of large wildfires from the mid 1950’s to 1970. From 1970 to 2000 there were another 10 “great” Wildfires with larger burned areas from most of those earlier fires. From 2000 to the present (12 years) 37 Fires have been listed as “Great” “Wild” Fires in The Lower 48 States. What is happening?

BACKGROUND
Lower 48 State woodlands and grazing lands began coming under outright federal ownership and federal management stewardship responsibilities beginning in the early 20th century. After a previous century of expansion, settlement and (as judged today) reckless use (the “best” known practices of those days such as leaving limbs and brush everywhere in large piles, grazing rangelands such that oily and fire-prone bushy plants proliferated, etc.), the federal woodlands and grass/brush lands of the West especially began to “recover” under increasingly “scientific” government management. Everyone understood that such ownership and management by federal agencies was intended ultimately to benefit local communities and the Nation. Both renewable (timber, forage, fish, and wildlife) and non-renewable (oil, gas, coal, minerals) resources were “managed” by trained professionals answerable to federal politicians concerned with the National Welfare. Suppression of fire was integral to public purposes in this context and was intended to minimize the destruction of publicly owned renewable natural resources for both continued human uses and revenue generation for federal management and local communities. Federal land owners, while not paying taxes to local governments, were expected to protect the public resources, maintain revenue generating uses and be responsible for any destruction (such as fire) that they wreaked on neighboring homes, families and communities.

Consider for a moment, all the various factors encountered when managing the American public lands and fire:
Wet climates v. Dry climates. - Wet years v. Dry years. - Eastern forests v. Western forests and grazing lands. - Northern forests v. Southern forests. - Deciduous forests v. Coniferous forests. - Forests with thick understories v. Open forests. - Forests of valuable species of trees v. Forests of relatively worthless tree species. - Forests with soil varieties and depths of almost limitless imagination. – Flat ground v. Steep Slopes. – Watershed, water replenishment and water runoff issues. – Land near human habitations, roads and communities v. Isolated mountains, valleys and islands. – Lands capable of sustained and renewable forage and timber production v. Land with little capabilities in that regard. – Lands that support sustained and renewable hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, firewood gathering v. Lands that either support little or no such human activities or are near communities where such uses conflict with Local lifestyles.
Generalizing about public lands and fire is a fool’s errand. When bureaucrats tell you today that “fire is good for (fill-in-the-blank)”, nine times out of ten they are lying or simply ignoramuses parroting what their employers tell them to say. When radical activists tell you “fire is necessary and natural” shake your head and walk away.

There are “cold” fires that sweep through certain habitats quickly with minimal impacts and “hot” fires that burn long and hot and deep destroying not only all plant and animal life but even soils that took eons to create. Each can be characterized as “good” or “bad” depending on your ultimate goal and basic VALUES.

As woodlands and grass/brush lands began to recover from the hard uses of the 19th century, fire fuel changed on federal lands. Brush and slash piles disappeared and timber and grazing began reducing accumulations of fire-prone trees and brush/grasses in certain areas. While forest and range management by limited personnel and dollars did these things, much of the vast federal estate began the inexorable natural regeneration of grass to brush to dense young growth that under certain conditions like dryness, wind, and the necessary and common use by rural folks of fire for so many purposes in those days, caused the “Great” Wildfires of the first half of the last century. Federal firefighting practices, firefighting vehicles, and passable roads were also in short supply in those days as were available firefighters. The almost total disappearance of any large wildfires from the mid 1950’s to 1970 is largely a testimony to the cumulative effects of these forest management and range management practices on federal lands begun earlier in the century

THE GULLING OF AMERICA
So what, you might ask accounted for the gradual increase in wildfires in the last 1/3 of the 20th century and the current explosion in this century of ever-larger, deadly and destructive wildfires?

The steady increase in fire fuel on all federal lands began in the 1960’s with the advent of “wilderness” as something real, environmental manias of all sorts, animal rights campaigns, public fixations about species’ extinctions, and a general trend toward “majority” rule in the US wherein the rights of American minorities like rural residents could be no more than the majority of the moment (through the grace of “their” elected representatives) grants them.

Consider the following items and then imagine the fire fuel accumulation impacts that no one ever mentions or recognizes:

- Wilderness Area Declarations close millions of Acres to all use and to any access.
- Millions of Acres of private land under Federal Easements prohibit “burning” or “grazing” or even tree harvest.
- Millions of Acres of private property under private “Conservation” Easements supported and underwritten by federal dollars may not be grazed or trees cut.
- Expanding National Park Units are closed to all resource use or management.
- “Endangered” spotted owls destroy Oregon timberlands, sawmills and jobs throughout one of the richest timber areas on the continent.
- “Endangered” warblers “take” private property brush land use to make the land worthless and brushy.
- Habitat claims for Lynx and Wolverines (never abundant) close thousands of public Acres to any use or management.
- “Endangered” (it makes me sick to say that lie) wolves make ranching and rural life and rural pursuits and safety more problematic thereby reducing human activities like grazing and human rural presence in half The Lower 48 as I write.
- “Endangered” (??) grizzly bears are further stressing ranchers and rural land uses like wood cutting in vast areas of rural Montana and Idaho.
- Federal threats to “List” sage grouse are intended to further reduce grazing as well as utility corridors over vast areas of the West.
- “Endangered” ground squirrels in Southern California deny property owners (a taking without compensation) the right to clear highly combustible brush around homes and roads.
- Millions of Acres of dead trees killed by insects or blown down in storms that create fire fuel accumulations that made Historic Wildfire fuel accumulations like Peshtigo, Wisconsin or Hinckley, Minnesota over a century ago look like child’s play.
- Thousands of Acres of public fire hazards like Southern California hills where the absence of any government management or use endangers lives and property of immense proportions.
- Roadless Area Declarations by federal Agency fiat cover more and more of the National Forest Maps as logging and grazing are eliminated.
- Timber management and grazing on federal lands is steadily disappearing.
- Federal land “Closures” for all sorts of contrived purposes from imaginary recovery “needs” and locked trail gates to “management of various uses” are declared simply by local federal employees on both temporary and permanent bases.
- Federal grazing allotment rules are made more and more onerous to grazers who are then forced to sell their rights to federally underwritten radical groups that close them to any future use.
- “Viewshed” claims by federal agencies to block land uses on adjacent or nearby private lands are increasingly resulting in growing areas of no or little use near federal ownerships.
- Billionaire landowners, widows, movie stars, and other “high”-principled landowners are cooperating with federal agencies and radical (i.e. “Conservation”) organizations to “save” their trees and their grasslands (i.e. accumulate fire-fuel).
- UN Declarations of “Important” US habitats, Agenda 21 principles concerning increasing inviolate (i.e. “unused”) lands, and “Wildlands” philosophies like Y2Y (Yukon to Yellowstone or Yukon to Yucatan, take your pick) imbue federal planning and federal funding proposals to close more and more federal lands and control or buy more and more private property.

Adult urban Americans, children in public schools, and suburban working families (all of whom are neither affected by nor aware of the cost to them nationally) have actually come to believe that:

- “Native” species and an imaginary “Native Ecosystem” belong everywhere.
- All animals must be protected and never killed for any reason.
- Ranchers and loggers “live off” public resources and should be controlled or shut down.
- Federal power should trump State power and authority.
- Local governments no longer have a place in America.
- Trees and grasses should be protected and not used.
- Persons killed or harmed by wild animals are at fault.
- Rural persons should keep quiet or move into the city.
- Wild animals harming human interests indicate that humans are out of place.
- Plastic will replace wood and granola/tofu will replace meat.
- Hunters are child molesters and trappers are psychopaths.

THE ORIGIN OF THE FANTASIES
Over the past 40+ years the federal bureaucracies, the Universities, the schools, and the federal and state political establishments of both parties have been taken over by radical environmental and animal rights organizations worth Billions of dollars. While trading on modern American unfamiliarity with plants and animals they have generated all but unlimited funding to “save” (fill-in-the-blank). While lobbying politicians they have demonstrated how their support will generate both money and media support for re-election. While engaging the federal land agencies they utilized recently instituted Sex and Race preferences to replace federal employees engaged in the management and use of federal lands. Once in control of federal agencies and with the passage of open-ended (regarding regulatory potential to expand power exponentially) Draconian laws like the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Forestry Acts of various stripes to “restore” species and make resource management and use secondary purposes worthy of only passing reference were instituted. New alliances were formed with international groups like the World Wildlife Fund, political entities like the European Union bureaucrats, and UN bureaucrats: all of whom (like UN Gun Control Advocates) never have and never will have the best interests of the US at hand.

Simultaneous with this radical grip tightening on US politicians, bureaucracies, and government power; Universities saw a surge in government dollars available for “research”. The new bureaucrats and the pandering politicians made it clear that land management and human uses were passé. The money was for, and subsequent funding would be for:

- “Restoring” Native and Endangered Species.
- “Saving” (by closing) “The Environment”.
- Justifying solutions that call for total federal powers.
- Showing why State and Local governments as envisioned in The Constitution were inadequate.
- Explaining why timber or grass can’t be managed or used.
- Explaining why hunting et al is bad.
- Explaining why wolves, bears, and cougars are good.
- Explaining why no animal should be used of managed.
- Explaining why fire fuel accumulation on all lands is the only way to go.

This resulted not only in reams of “papers” bought and paid for by radicals issuing radical contracts. While the professors were only too eager (pay raises, more grad students, quicker tenure, bonuses, emoluments, “recognition”, etc.) to generate the products, two other things changed dramatically:

1. Curriculums did a 180. Land management for all the things mentioned earlier was replaced by land closure and “study”. Practices for human benefit and rural American health were buried under the shifting sands much like Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace.
2. As a result of all the foregoing, college graduates no longer even knew about the practices and results of the first half of the last century. Indeed those things were erased from curriculums like Washington’s Birthday and the Founding Fathers. Though they can blame global warming, American citizens and capitalism like Nero blamed Christians; the new government land managers are every bit as much committed to remaking America in their own imaginings as Nero was with Rome; and fire from the fuel accumulating on federal lands and on private lands due to government fiat is their preferred tool. Between their biased educations, their rewards as government employees for cooperation, and their naive notions of the “need” to force these changes on their fellow Americans at any cost; dialogue and rational discussion are pointless.

Today, as fire-fuel accumulates on federal land and as wildfires proliferate in frequency, destruction, and cost; Local communities and their government near federal lands experience:
- Dwindling Payments-in Lieu of Taxes to Local governments from federal land owners.
- Disappearing economies as businesses from sawmills lockers to livestock and guiding decline.
- Disappearing access to “public” lands and “public” resource uses.
- FIRES that are impossible to contain, demand ever more-costly government expenditures, destroy both public resources on public land AND adjoining private property, homes, and communities.

HIDDEN RESULTS
Government caused fires have many beneficial results. The trouble is that they only benefit radicals, bureaucrats, and politicians. These rampant and increasingly destructive fires:
- Destroy timber resources thereby eliminating calls for either cutting timber or managing the forests.
- Destroy grazing forage thereby increasing pressure on grazers to abandon their pursuit and sell their grazing allotments or ranch headquarters inholdings to non-resource-use purchasers or government realtors.
- Destroy fish game habitat and therefore hunting, fishing and trapping opportunity for more of the public temporarily thus further discouraging such pursuits. Additionally it provides an opening to call for replacing non-game animal and sport fish with unusable “Native” species per some “study” and “focus group” recommendation.
- Destroy any expectation of any revenue generation for federal management purposes or Local governments.
- Provides tons of justification for “more” federal firefighters, more equipment like airplane tankers, boats, patrol planes, etc. All this of course is Mother’s Milk to bureaucracies. The facts of Trillions in National Debt, federal spending binges, vacant malls, half the country on the government dole, and unemployment of intolerable proportions has absolutely nothing to do with this fact.
- Provides justification for further “Closures” that bureaucrats know will never be rescinded.
- Destroys “inholdings” like cabins, ranches, residences, access roads, and other private holdings that the bureaucrats and radicals have targeted for elimination for years.
- Destroys surrounding and nearby businesses like gas stations, stores, shops, motels, and other blemishes on what should be undisturbed (whatever you want to call it).
- Makes adjacent private properties that are not destroyed, less valuable. Insurance rates and stress soar such that buyers are harder to find and future living conditions are greatly diminished.
- Makes adjacent properties more susceptible to government acquisition offers or to various easement payments for future land use prohibitions.
- Eliminates nuisance publics like firewood gatherers, mushroom hunters, campers, horseback riders, dog owners, and other resource users from the bureaucrat’s radar overnight and for a long period. It may even do this forever since the public soon forgets these things in these days of texting and Disneyesque biology.

THE SOLUTIONS
- If you do not think the foregoing government benefits are “good”.
- If you do not think fire is “good”.
- If you value private property and state government responsibility to nurture your Local government.
- If you do not wish to see your Local government, disappear.
- If you do not wish to, in these days of fiscal insanity, buy more tankers and hire more government employees.
- If you treasure strong rural economies and sound rural families.
- If you understand that Millions of Acres of dead trees, accumulated brush, and dense dead grass is a threat to all Americans.
- If you hunt or fish or do many other things your forefathers did with renewable natural resources and are appalled that government increasingly restricts those things and your use.
- If you live anywhere near federal properties and you look on your home not only as your best investment but as your family’s refuge and a place you want your kids and grandkids to not only visit but even live themselves someday.
If any of the above and more describe you: you may think there is a PROBLEM. You might even be so bold as to ask if there is a SOLUTION.

There is no sense beating around the bush at this point. The federal government has totally disregarded the basic and very important Preamble to the US Constitution. To wit,
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility… promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”

Federal land management and the resulting fires and fire threat are neither Just nor do they “insure domestic Tranquility”. They do not “promote the general Welfare” in anyway and they certainly destroy rather than “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”.

Solution # 1. Is to do what Canada did 80 years ago. Turn over the vast majority of federal lands to the governments of the state in which they are located. The management would then be responsive to those citizens living with and near those lands as opposes the deadly daydreams of federal power mongers.

Solution # 2. Repeal or amend to modify federal animal/environmental laws of the past 45 years to accommodate Constitutional provisions and American citizen’s needs and desires as primary over animals and the environment.

Solution #3. Repeal the 17th Amendment. Restore US Senators as appointees of State Legislatures instead of the current representative of whatever voting majority they can cobble together every 6 years with the help of every radical, extremist, national and international cadre of supporters that they serve to guarantee their re-election. Things (government underwriting of easements, University subsidies, sellout to the UN, etc.) will not improve unless and until EACH STATE once again has a powerful representative (as Senators were rightly created to be) in Washington as opposed the dandies that US Senators have become with a plethora of hidden clienteles and hidden agendas.

Solution #4. Stop University subsidies for the anti-human, anti-Constitutional purposes presently being financed by government funding.

Solution #4. Begin hiring and promoting federal and state land managers that understand AND ARE COMMITTED TO the land management practices instituted and practiced in the first half of the last century.

Solution #5. Reorient laws and policies to make natural resource management and use the primary goal of all government land management. National Forest (or State Forest) management of fire-fuel reduction is very manageable and attainable with sensible timber and forage management that generates management funding and Local government revenue. Whether it is rotational tree harvests, managed sheep grazing on steep slopes, or timely removal of insect or storm-damaged trees; productive management controls fuel accumulation while generating revenue and public support. Road and trail construction in conjunction with timber management enables BOTH Fighting & Containing Wildfires. BLM, National Wildlife Refuges, and National Parks similarly should be brought under sensible land management use practices and regulations. Those that deny this are only expressing those agendas that all Americans should find repugnant.

What is happening and why it is happening is really quite simple. What needs to be done is not rocket science. Doing it may be tough but years of public neglect and political correctness, like long periods of exposing metals to salt water, cannot be changed either quickly or cheaply. Unintended fires are not “good” and recent history indicates that they are not getting any better by ignoring them.

Jim Beers
14 July 2012

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Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.

Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting. You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to: jimbeers7@comcast.net