Tester wants science to stay in forest discussions

Earth haters in Montana are blaming environmental litigation for the past summer's wildfires on public lands.

Senator Jon Tester is defending Montana fire experts and calling on the U.S. Forest Service to allow them to present their research at a national wildfire conference. Tester is demanding that Missoula Fire Lab scientists be allowed to travel to the International Fire Ecology and Management Congress Conference later this month. The Forest Service is reportedly denying requests for Montana fire scientists to attend the conference where critical research will be shared after a catastrophic wildfire season. [press release]

After the showdown with the Bundys in Nevada with the Bureau of Land Management and seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon Crook County Commissioners are driving what they say would increase local control of decisions on federal lands.

At the heart of this debate is an issue that’s been simmering in rural Oregon and much of the American West for decades: Do local residents have a right to greater say in what happens with the federal lands near their communities? [Oregon Public Broadcasting.]

County commissions are infamous for rubber-stamping new homebuilding in the wildland-urban interface and like Kristi Noem's donors they are among the first blaming environmentalists for bringing science-based decision-making to forest policy.

B/t drought & pine beetles, much of the Black Hills has turned into a tinder box. Proud to support new tools to help https://t.co/UOYOVJFNbd

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) November 7, 2017