Fireproofing The Forests

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No one questions the value of thinning for fire control around houses and other structures. What is much harder to weigh is the balance of risks and benefits of thinning that has ecological goals. Also troubling is the fact that thinning has come to the fore at a time when neither the White House nor Congress seems inclined to take environmental protection seriously. Indeed, unless great care is exercised, thinning could degenerate into a form of irresponsible surgery that injures the very forests it is supposed to heal.

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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