to this ruling because I haven't even read it and don't know the specifics of it.

I'll just offer my opinion as someone who lives out west in high fire zone areas.

We absolutely need more pre-emptive fire management. Roads (which will be seldom used by the general public in these areas) are a great fire break which can help quarantine the spread of fires. They also provide real access for crews to mobilize and actually fight the fires. Growing up in the Midwest, I had no idea what a smokejumper was. Here, you quickly understand that that is the primary way to get firefighters into these areas because there is no other access. It's an insanely dangerous and marginally effective way to combat fires. Last, I'd much rather have a seldom used road going through the pristine forest, along with some areas of selective logging than have the entire forest burned to a crisp because we chose to do nothing to manage it.

Forest fires are a major threat out here. I've got a lake house in the middle of Washington and my house in North Idaho....four hours apart. Both have been surrounded by smoke and fires for the past 2 months. Billions of dollars of damage has been done to homes and other structures this summer just in my area.

Something needs to be done or its all going to be burned out. Just this summer and last approx. a half million acres around my lake house have burned....just an insane amount of forest.

And regarding the human element, I know of 1 fire that was accidentally started by a person. It was done on the outskirts of Omak, Wa and spread quickly due to high winds that day and went into national forest lands and Canada. The others are all due to either lightening strikes or are set on purpose by arsonists....and the latter is the reason for most of them. The Spokane fire a couple of weeks back was an arsonist and he admitted he had started 25 others in the past. There was also a fire in CDA that week and people have very clear photos of what appears to be a tranny starting them. That person hasn't been caught yet...but all this to say that selective logging and some access roads won't be the issue of more fires starting, but they might be the reason they are contained and put out easier.