My grandfather was an Oregon logger back in the day. I grew up hearing stories about how environmentalists had ruined everything, mostly because of the spotted owl.

He would show us a diseased forest with dying trees and lament that they were no longer allowed to go in and clean up those areas.

I don’t know anything about forest management or forest fire prevention. It’s possible that more aggressive thinning throughout the years could have helped. I’ve also only ever heard this point from industrialists like my grandfather or HS educated ppl trying to score points

If environmentalists/scientists look at the situation and say, look, we were wrong not to thin and we should be pursuing it, I think most on the left would be willing to follow the science.