The starting assumption about wildfire that dominates public policy is that “fire suppression” has created abnormal “fuel build up” in forests, leading to large, uncontrollable blazes.

Recently, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz told a House hearing that the nation’s forests are in a state of crisis, driven by a precipitous decline in logging that’s increased the risk of bigger and more dangerous wildfires. The solution Schultz proposed is to do more logging and prescribed burns on public lands to reduce “fuel.”

During the same hearing, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) suggested: “An untended forest is no different than an untended garden.” It’s going to grow and grow until it chokes itself to death, and then it’s going to fall victim to disease, pestilence, drought, and ultimately catastrophic fire.

The solution promoted by logging advocates to cure what they perceive as sick forests is “chainsaw medicine.” Photo by George Wuerthner

Logging proponents support the euphemistically named Fix Our Forest Act. Of course, one must wonder how forests survived for millions of years before humans were around to “save” our forests from these alleged blights, including Indians who colonized North America only in the last 15,000 or 16,000 years.

Proponents of active forest management frequently........

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