That's Andy Groseta, incoming president of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, providing a solution to the monster wildfires that have plagued his state, culminating this season in the Willow Fire, the largest in Arizona's history.
Damn right: allow cattle to mosey through public lands and they'll devour the undergrowth that fuels fires. Of course, they'll also erode the shit out of the land, causing floods, exacerbating habitat destruction, and intensifying global warming, but they'll chew up a lot of nasty grass. Then couple the cattle with chainsaws: not only will clear-cutting provide more space for cows, and they need a lot, but there won't be any trees to burn! Brilliant! A two-fer!
Groseta testified today at an Arizona legislative committee hearing on the state's forests that was chaired by Republican Brenda Burton, a rural real estate agent who said the "state's commercial timber industry needs to be resurrected to deal with thousands of acres of 'badly overgrown' forests." You can see where this circle jerk is heading.
To provide important federal oomph, Burton invited Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, a millionaire dentist who apparently is also an expert on wilderness ecology. Gosar represents CD1, the largest district in the nation that's not a complete state, the district where many of the largest forest fires have occurred. I don't know how many times he uttered the phrase "radical environmentalists," but you probably don't have enough fingers to keep count.
The first meeting of a House panel on forest health Tuesday turned into a forum for lashing out at "radical environmentalists'' -- and, to an extent, the federal government -- as the cause of the size of the recent fires. East Valley Tribune
When the oil pipeline burst in Montana's Yellowstone River, sending suffocating sludge miles downstream, we didn't hear Gosar and other Republicans blame "radical oil companies" for causing the environmental nightmare. And I can tell you exactly who this criminal is (it's called Exxon) -- unlike Gosar, who did not name a single person or organization. Except that they're "radical."
In Gosar's world, when fires erupt in Arizona's forests, which is what happens in forests from time to time, they're caused by "radical environmentalists," who he never names, nor does he say which of the policies these "radicals" support caused the flames. Tucson legislator Bruce Wheeler called Gosar on his flimsy rhetoric:
"With all due respect to the congressman, however, to come here and hear attacks against certain interests without having any backup, to me is counterproductive to what we're trying to do... To say 'extremist environmental groups,' excuse me, but I have no idea of what you're talking about or who you're talking about." East Valley Tribune
Gosar blamed "bureaucratic red tape [from] preventing the private sector from participating in the stewardship of our public lands." Got that? If the Forest Service and environmental groups would just get out of the way, and allow corporations to "participat[e] in the stewardship" of wilderness, then everything would be hunky dory. Because, as we've seen in so many instances, corporations are such ethical stewards of the land. Shit, let's turn over the National Parks to Gosar's "responsible" private sector, so the parks can be managed like the commercial blobs on steroids just outside their boundaries. Ah, Gatlinburg, now there's stewardship!
The monster fires, Gosar suggested, are caused by enviros who protest tree cutting, thereby preventing forests from being thinned, and leading to "badly overgrown" forests. Bull. Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club pointed out that her group and others only seek to protect old growth forests from the chainsaw, while "95 percent of all trees are 12 inch diameter or less, trees Bahr said should be trimmed." Simply put: Gosar and his commercial timber pals don't want any restrictions, because clear-cutting is easier and cheaper than selective thinning.
Robin Silver of Arizona's Center for Biological Diversity says, "we have never been opposed to the sale of small trees." In fact, wrote E.J. Montini last month, Silver and his group have worked with business and the public to craft a 2,000,000-acre restoration project that even Governor Jan Brewer called "a national-caliber model collaborative effort to accelerate forest restoration across northern Arizona with strong social, industry, and science support" (Arizona Republic). But the "model" project hasn't gone anywhere because it's easier for Gosar and other corporate suck-ups to blame vague "radical environmentalists" for Mother Nature's fires.
Gosar also said he supports legislation that limits the fees litigants can collect when they sue for violating land-use regulations. As the Tucson Citizen wrote, Republicans here are keen on "the rule of law," except when it applies to their corporate supplicants:
Interesting how the "illegal is illegal" right-wing always bends over backwards for corporations.... [D]o the crime do the time, if you are an immigrant, but if you got money, then Paul Gosar wants to limit how much you get fined... Tucson Citizen
And here I thought it was those darn immigrants who caused the fires.