John Block Reports from Washington

Listen to these words of Ken Evans, President ofthe Arizona Farm Bureau Federation: "Here in Arizona, above the searing, bond-dry desert valley floors, in one of the harshest environments, stood the largest stand of majestic Ponderosa Pines to be found anywhere on Earth. These trees survived the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and the westward march of Europeans across the continent. Farmers and ranchers came to live and work in their long shadows. Five generations of ranchers learned to balance the forest's needs while harvesting the bounties of this great land. It was the westward march of bureaucrats and "do-gooders" from the East who wanted to substitute their book learning for the timeless wisdom of the caring cowboys who had called these forests home for generations. Bureaucrats and extreme environmental groups wrested control away from us. They now deserve the credit for the tragedy of the forest. Where a mighty forest once stood, there are only the eerie, ashen monotone gray remains of what was. Where the deer, squirrel, badger, coyote and mountain lion roamed, and the eagle and hawk and owl soared, there is an eerie silence and a sterile and ominous moonscape."

The trees, the animals, the birds are dead. What happened? I say this -- the greens got what they asked for. They stopped 80% of the timber harvest, left the forests choking with dead wood, infected trees and brush -- ready for the killing fire to rage across the West with no end in sight. It didn't have to end this way

It's time to manage our forests as we would manage our ranches and our farms. Until next week, I am John Block from Washington.