My PhD is in the study of catastrophic wildfires. Before returning to school I was a reforestation contractor whose crews successfully reforested more than 80,000 acres of wildfire burns, clearcuts, and old logging units that had gone to weeds. Those experiences — coupled with my race and sex — have made me unemployable to the USFS and NPS for more than 20 years. Still, I write extensively on the topics and do what I can to bring public awareness to the very problems cited by Chairman McClintock.

He is right — our forests have become a terrible and dangerous mess due to out-of-control EPA regulations and ESA bureaucracy. An incredible amount of work needs to be done, and it can be accomplished at a profit by creating tax-paying jobs needed to restore our forests and rural communities. We don’t need to bring jobs back from China and Mexico, as Trump keeps claiming — we need to bring them back from Washington, DC. This should have never been allowed to happen.