Let-it-burn forestry management hurts Kings Canyon Park

Growing up in Fresno in the 1950s, my mom would often say on a Saturday morning, “Let’s pack a picnic and go to Yosemite” or “the big trees” or any of the numerous other places five generations of my family have gone to enjoy the beauty and serenity of our local mountains. So I was saddened by the photo in the September 8 Bee of the road through Kings Canyon surrounded by burned-over moonscape hillsides caused by the Rough Fire.

That photo exemplifies the Rough fire’s now 105,000 acre (160-plus square miles) swath of destruction that includes the Kings Canyon Lodge and the impending damage to Cedar Grove. It wouldn’t be that way were it not for the U.S. Forest Service’s failed “hands off let it burn” forestry-management policies that have repeatedly lead directly to catastrophic wildfires, like the Rough fire, from which our forests take many decades, centuries even, to recover.

I’m fortunate to have spent countless days in the majesty of the Sierra. Unfortunately, no one alive today who hasn’t already experienced that splendor will ever be able to do so because of the destruction Forest Service policies are causing.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Let-it-burn forestry management hurts Kings Canyon Park."