Lake Tahoe eco-holocaust?

Over the past decade, fires of unprecedented intensity have denuded millions of acres of forestland, inflicting untold economic ruin, as well as tragic loss of human life, and often triggering catastrophic mudslides. Professor Tom Bonnicksen of Texas A&M University is one of several well-respected forestry scientists who have warned--to no avail --that locking up forests from logging made these holocausts possible by leaving them overstocked with old, decaying trees.

Addressing the 55th annual Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference in Reno, Bonnicksen warns that Lake Tahoe may be next to succumb to such eco-radical-abetted devastation. "Tahoe could burn and if it does, it will be virtually unstoppable," declared Bonnicksen. "I don't think people in the Tahoe basin fully appreciate how dangerous it is."

Confirming this dire forecast were Plumas County (California) Commissioner Bill Dennison, San Bernadino County fire marshall Peter Briety and Don Sterrenburg, president of a homeowners' association. "The men noted similarities in conditions at Tahoe and the ones that existed before fires destroyed more than 3,600 homes and killed two dozen people in Southern California last year," reported the Associated Press. "They urged more intensive logging and thinning of forests miles away from residential areas."