The president’s right’: Interior chief pushes thinning forests to cut fire risk

WHISKEYTOWN NATIONAL RECREATION AREA: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, touring neighborhoods devastated by the Carr Fire, stepped up the Trump administration’s push Sunday to remove more trees from national forests as a means of tamping down fire risks.

The Trump administration wants to thin out the country's
forests in a bid to end wildfires and so avoid scenes like
this - removing trees only worsens climate change (trees
 are a natural carbon sink) and the world needs more
trees, rather than fewer.

“We need to manage our forests, we need to reduce the fuels,” Zinke said as he overlooked Whiskeytown Lake in the vicinity where the Carr Fire began July 23.

Starting a two-day tour of the Redding area, Zinke also took a shot at environmental groups that he said are standing in the way of aggressive forest management. In some cases, environmental groups have successfully used litigation to block or curtail logging operations on public lands.

Read the story by Dale Kasler from The Sacramento Bee - “‘The president’s right’: Interior chief pushes thinning forests to cut fire risk.”