Industry with financial interest in thinning forests: thinning forests is tremendously important in reducing global warming

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The good news from Tom Parton’s point of view is that familiar faces remain in Congress. Parton, president of the American Forest Resources Council, said his timber industry organization has spent the past two years working with a Democratic majority in Congress. Key Democrats on important committees — Washington Rep. Norm Dicks on appropriations and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who heads the interior and environment subcommittee — understand the West’s natural resources, Parton said.

He worries that Obama may lack a clear understanding of federal forest issues. But the president-elect’s concern about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions makes him sensitive to the need to thin federal forests to keep the tremendous impact of wildfire-caused carbon emissions at bay, Parton said.

“He does want to reduce wildfire and manage sustainably. Those are the good parts of his platform, and we’d like to be part of those solutions,” Parton said.