Jim Furnish

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.- Lawmakers from Arkansas to Oregon are pushing for Federal Forest Management changes that they say are designed to prevent wildfires. …Other lawmakers are against these changes as they say the legislation is a give away to the timber industry.  Supporters of the legislation say raging wildfires and the destruction they cause are a direct result of mismanaged federal land. …The legislation …passed another committee this week. However,  getting it through the Senate will be more difficult as some worry about about the impact. “I don’t think we can log our way out of the problems that we do have today,” said Jim Furnish, a former Deputy Director of the US Forestry Service.  Furnish says he blames climate change for the increase in wildfires and says the proposed legislation is a gift to logging business.  “This is a return to …when the timber industry had heavy sway,” Furnish said.