I can only speak for my local area and a vast majority of FS/BLM are boogie men! My great uncle was a park superintendent at several large national parks for many years and discussed the problems that regional and national administrators foisted on him whilst not understanding how the local area works -one size fits all. Disagree? Feel free. How much land is federal in west vs lets say ANY eastern seaboard state?
Again, as someone who has first hand knowledge of practices, and oh yeah, I deal with the FS/BLM on a regular basis, I think I can provide a valid observation doc! Now, am I sooooo ignorant that I will state that all these folks are on rotation from other locations or that they are all bad folks. Methinks not. However, in the rural areas I work and vacation in, job rotation is not uncommon after 3 years or less! Especially when the employee cannot bother to become part of the community. Heck, even the transient highway work crews do better. I have only met three FS and BLM employees who grew up within a few hours of their area.
One last policy thing. Search On google or bing for Wallow Fire. Specifically look at the post fire pictures from space. To the west side of the fire, use your mighty powers of observation, really look at the terminus of the fire line, and you will notice that it is nearly strait. Lemme give you a hint. The western edge was against White Mountain and San Carlos Apache tribes land- hmmm, could that be a tribal boundary??? You see, the Apache believes in managing their Forrest in a healthy manner, through the practice of thinning. Whereas the practice along the Coronado Trail/Apache Sitgreaves Forrest was and still is to not manage. I will let you discover how many thousands of acres were burned due to a policy from DC, transmitted through the local office. Incidentally, this anti thinning policy cost my friend his retirement cabin with barn and other structures because he was not allowed to thin at the tree line!
Yup, boogie men don't exist except in our thick browed, sloping forehead skulls! Now leave me be while I struggle to understand how to open a band-aid wrapper to cover my skinned knuckles. ;-)
