Then about ten years ago I had some British in-laws over for a visit and a tour of the west. They were stunned at how many trees there are in America compared to Britain. And having been to Britain I didn't notice a severe shortage of trees.
See, now this is just the same thing as what I did to those swamp boys about their gators.
I don't know where y'all are from, but the logging industry here in the Rockies is all but gone... Regulated out of business. And it was those loggers and their equipment that was the bulwark against forest fires - the industry worked alongside of the Forest Service in a partnership in that regard. Forest Service has air-power, smoke jumpers, and front-line firefighters, but they can't possibly front the sheer manpower and machinery the logging industry has in the field as a natural part of typical operations.
If you want a firebreak, the difference between what firefighters alone can do, when compared to those firefighters assisted by a couple D9/D8 cats, a handful of D6 cats, a half dozen skidders, 20 sawyers, and as many knot-bumpers and diggers as you care to have - All specifically trained to do those exact jobs as part of their every day lives and familial/cultural tradition - There really is no comparison at all.
And the scope of things... I don't think folks have any idea how big it is out here... We routinely lose two-hundred and fifty-thousand acres to fire every summer. That's a quarter million acres, now... And you can't really even tell it even happened unless you get up close and personal. Logging, by comparison, is a pittance.
Furthermore, I don't think folks know how quickly it all comes back - I worked road building for a big cut thirty years ago. If you were to go up through that land today, I would defy you to even find evidence at all that it had ever been cut... In fact, it is more than ready to be logged again, and judging by the thick brush up in there, if it isn't logged soon, it'll all burn down anyway.
But it's all gated off now - can't hardy get off the main road. The big cats are all but gone, logging trucks have been decimated. trying to find public land where you can take a four-wheeler or a snow machine is getting very scarce. and yes, it is liberal policies regulating it all.
But it's dumbasses like me that gave them that power. What I did to the Cajuns with those gators, someone else is doing to me. Between locked-out logging, griz protection, wolf protection, eagle flyways, wetland protection and etcetera-ad-infinitum, the king's land is no longer legal for me to use, and it's only getting worse. Soon enough they'll find a reason to ban horses, and even walking in.
What it comes down to is staying out of other people's business - as is always the best course toward liberty - but more on a regional basis... staying out of all y'all's business. That's the beauty of state sovereignty. Me and mine ain't got any business messin with the Big Swamp, rightly so... Folks that live in the swamp know better than we do... And the same thing the other way around.
