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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444165804578008211129317482\nWe Are Loving Our Natural Forest Resources to Death\nSept. 24, 2012 5:24 pm ET\nTerry L. Anderson's \"Environmental Protection Up in Smoke\" (op-ed, Sept. 18) describes a serious problem. Foresters have long warned about wildfires, insect infestations and disease problems in the poorly managed national forests. Starting in the 1960s and '70s, environmental pressure caused the Forest Service to move away from active forest management and timber harvesting. Before this, the national forests actually returned a profit to the government and even contributed 25% of timber-harvesting receipts to local county governments (in lieu of property taxes). Currently there is not enough timber harvesting to support local communities, so the federal taxpayers make up the difference.\nThe Forest Service contributed to the wildfire problem with its fire-exclusion policies on national forests (not to let small forest fires burn and reduce undergrowth), but the big contributor is the reduction in sustainable timber harvesting that would reduce the amount of material that contributes to a wildfire. Teddy Roosevelt, who personally reserved much of today's national forest, defined its original purpose as \"to protect ourselves and our children against the wasteful development of our natural resources, whether that waste is caused by the actual destruction of such resources or by making them impossible of development hereafter.\" The national forests could easily be financially self-sustaining and wildfire potential greatly reduced with proper forest management. Yes, that involves some timber harvesting and would involve limiting environmentalist power to make these resources \"impossible of development.\"\nProf. Thomas J. Straka\nFaculty of Forestry\nClemson, S.C.\nThe threat of over protected undermanaged forest lands also extends to the largest state park east of the Mississippi River.\nThe Adirondack Park in upstate New York consists of over six million acres of public and private lands, most of which is managed by the state. The forests are classified as wild forest and forever wild as per state constitutional mandate and cannot be cut or logged, which creates mature forest subject to disease and dead zones. Recently an additional 69,000 acres of previously well-managed timber lands were acquired by the state and will be added to wild-forest status. This will increase the conditions highlighted in Mr. Anderson's article and add to the threats of wild fire in the region. Environmental protectionism loves our resources to death as demonstrated by the wildfires that rage in protected areas.\nCharles De Young\nBolton Landing, N.Y.\nWhat we need is a Civilian Conservation Corps program (as in the Great Depression) to clean up the forests.\nW.L. Carpenter\nHighlands, N.C.\nCopyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8\nWSJ opens select articles to reader conversation to promote thoughtful dialogue. See the 'Join the Conversation' area to the rightbelow for stories open to conversation. For more information, please reference our community guidelines. Email feedback and questions to moderator@wsj.com.\nHouse Passes Motion Blocking Bid to Impeach Trump\nHouse Votes to Hold Ross, Barr in Contempt Over Citizenship Question on Census\nElon Musk’s Neuralink Shows Off Advances to Brain-Computer Interface\nLocals Try Helping a Troubled Neighbor—a Bear With a Trash Lid Stuck Around Its Neck\nAmazon Faces Probe in Europe Over Use of Merchant Data\nCopyright © 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved"