Republicans in Congress think the Biden administration is up to some funny business in its efforts to protect forests from wildfires and they intend to get to the bottom of it.
In the past few months, Republicans have confronted the chief of the Forest Service at a hearing and have formally requested an explanation from the agency via an appropriations bill.
At issue is the Forest Service’s push to change how it measures success in preparing forests for wildfire.
Agency Chief Randy Moore has told lawmakers he doesn’t think thinning more acreage, by cutting vegetation or lighting prescribed fires or both, is necessarily the best way to show the Forest Service’s progress on that front. What works better in Moore’s view is treating the right acres in the right places, which may not mean much more land area.
