Blame Uncle Sam for US megafires that turn money and jobs into ashes

Since 1944, Smokey, a cartoon bear in a ranger hat, has told generations of Americans that “Only you can prevent forest fires.”But that’s not entirely true.Because Smokey Bear, like the rest of us, has overlooked the biggest villain behind today’s wildfires.In fact, the greatest threat to America’s forests isn’t the family around a campfire.

For decades, it’s been a federal system waging war on logging, turning public forests into tinderboxes one blocked timber sale and lawsuit at a time.This year alone, over 7 million acres have burned nationwide across more than 49,000 wildfires, 68% more than the 10-year average.Fires have already destroyed over 1,000 homes and structures, displacing families and stretching firefighting resources across the West.Oregon alone has seen more than 2.3 million acres burned this year, breaking the state record set two years ago.The damage doesn’t stop at the fire line: Smoke has blanketed the West, with Prineville, Ore., hitting an Air Quality Index reading of 670 (under 50 is considered “good”) on Aug.5 — so extreme it’s barely measurable on the standard scale.Tens of millions of Americans have been exposed to unhealthy air, and cities have repeatedly had the worst air quality on Earth.“Climate change” has become the ultimate scapegoat, the explanation that lets everyone off the hook.If the fires are climate’s fault, no one answers for the lawsuits or the delayed logging permits.But here’s the number that blows that excuse apart: A wildfire on federal land is, on average, five times the size of one on nonfederal land nearby, per the Congressional Budget Office.Same drought.

Same heat.Same lightning.

Weather doesn’t stop at a property line, but federal land burns five times bigger.Bureaucracy has consequences.Here’s what else you probably don’t know: Your tax dollars have funded the war on logging for decades.It started with the 1980 Equal Access to Justice Act, which was meant to help small bu...