Keep fire wild
Ring reveals the deep contradictions in our present national forest plan, which on the surface seems to accept the need for fire to maintain healthy forest, yet in reality spends millions to tame fire and to keep it out of any place that newcomers choose to build a house. This is an old pain, rooted in the side of our culture which seeks to create a tame and safe West for whatever we wish to do.
We have to keep asking, as Ring has, how much of the West we want to be wild, how much tame? Fire, it seems, is more like drought and volcanoes than like grizzlies and beetles. We cannot fully control fire, drought or volcanoes. Sooner or later, we are going to have to settle into the West and create a sensible fire plan that will help us avoid a futile effort to tame the whole place.
Bill Baker
Laramie, Wyoming
