Only in California

Here’s a longer quote of Rep. McClintock (R-CA) from his speech on the House floor on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 concerning the Resilient Federal Forests Act:

The wildfire crisis facing our forests across the West comes down to a simple adage. Excess timber comes out of the forest one way or the other. It is either carried out, or it burns out. But it comes out. When we carried out our excess timber, we had healthy, resilient forests and we had thriving prosperous communities. Excess timber sales from federal lands not only generated revenues for our mountain communities, but created thousands of jobs.
But in the 1970s, we adopted laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act that have resulted in endlessly time consuming and cost-prohibitive restrictions and requirements that have made the scientific management of our forests virtually impossible. Timber sales from the federal lands have dropped 80% in the intervening years, with a concomitant increase in forest fires. In California alone, the number of saw mills has dropped from 149 in 1981 to just 27 today.
Timber that once had room to grow healthy and strong now fights for its life against other trees trying to occupy the same ground. Average tree density in the Sierra Nevada is three to four times the density the land can support. In this weakened condition, trees lose their natural defenses to drought, disease, pestilence, and ultimately succumb to catastrophic wildfire.
After 45 years of experience with these environmental laws – all passed with the promise they would improve the forest environment – I think we are entitled to ask, “How is the forest environment doing?” All around us, the answer is damning. These laws have not only failed to improve our forest environment – they are literally killing our forests.
Throughout our vast forests, it is often very easy to visually identify the property lines between well managed private forests and the neglected federal lands – I’ve seen it myself on aerial inspections.  The managed forests are green, healthy and thriving.  The neglected federal forests are densely overcrowded and often scarred by fire because we can’t even salvage the fire-killed timber while it still has value.  How clever of the climate to know exactly what is the boundary between private and government lands!
This is not complicated.  Our forests are catastrophically overgrown.  Drought is a catalyst – it is not a cause.  In overgrown forests, much snow evaporates in dense canopies and cannot reach the ground.  The transpiration volume in an overgrown forest is a problem in normal years – in a drought it becomes lethal.
Pestilence is a catalyst – it is not a cause.  Healthy trees can naturally resist bark beetles – stressed trees can’t.  A properly managed forest matches the tree density to the ability of the land to support it.   But we cannot properly manage our forests because of the laws now in place.

California environmentalists are philosophers, not scientists.  We can blame Jerry for the deaths, he should know better.