George Wuerthner and Monica Bond published in The New York Times Letters to the Editors regarding his commentary on the 7/29/15 article entitled:MORE LOGGING WON'T STOP WILDFIRES----

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/opinion/logging-and-fires.html?_r=0

The Opinion Pages | LETTERS

Logging and Fires

To the Editor:

Re “More Logging
 Won’t Stop Wildfires,” by 

Chad T. Hanson
 and Dominick A. Dellasala 

(Op-Ed, July 23):

Much of the rising cost of
 firefighting in the

 West is due to efforts to
protect structures 

that are built in fire-prone
 landscapes.

The federal government 
is spending hundreds

 of millions of dollars on
 fuel reductions

 (logging) far from and
 through fuel

 reductions, making
them ineffective.

A far wiser policy
would be to zone

 homes out of the
 “fire plain,” just as

 we zone homes out
of river flood plains.

For those homes
already in these fire 

plains, local building
codes should 

require construction
with fire-resistant 

materials like metal
roofs, and the

 reduction of flammable
 materials

 around the home site.

GEORGE WUERTHNER

Bend, Ore.

The writer is the author of 

“Wildfire: A Century of Failed 

Forest Policy.”

--------------------------------------

To the Editor:

The article is right on target.

 Large forest fires are perfectly 

natural, and create excellent
wildlife 

habitats. These kinds of fires
 have

 occurred in North American
 forests 

for millenniums, and many
plants 

and animals have evolved
to thrive

 in post-fire conditions.

It is time for forest
management to

 catch up with the science.
 Logging

 to stop fires and logging
 after fires

 should be stopped
immediately, 

as this is the true threat
 to healthy forests.

MONICA BOND

Armonk, N.Y.

The writer is principal
 scientist at the Wild Nature 
Institute.