November’s tragic California wildfires brought a Twitter war between President Trump, who argued the fires were due to forest mismanagement, and Leonardo DiCaprio who asserted (big surprise) climate change is to blame. I cannot speak to the specifics of these fires and any proximity to national forests, which have been so terribly mismanaged (as pointed out in by Chuck DeVore and more recently by Matthew Vadum). I can provide, however, a view from the Rocky Mountains.

It is an oft-repeated truth in the West to call the federal government the “world’s worst neighbor,” and nowhere is that more true than the U.S. Forest Service’s mismanagement of national forests. Beginning with President Jimmy Carter’s War on the West, which continued under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the ability to engage in prudent forest management is under attack.