They have complained that efforts on public lands to nip naturally occurring minor forest and brush fires in the bud has allowed the accumulation of dry fuel which allows big fires to be much more widespread and destructive when they do occur. For years they have been lecturing us on how stupid the government land stewards are, usually because they are city-slicker pansy tree-hugging environmentalists.

This "raking" meme is something new; in the past, they used anti-fire efforts as a way of pointing out that conservationists were going overboard trying to save endangered species and habitats and were only making the problem worse, especially in places with a natural fire ecology (like Florida and California). There may even be some truth to this. Many of our habitats here in FL actually require the occasional fire to keep the range healthy and productive.

But what the Republicans fail to mention is that the push to prevent ANY fires (beneficial or otherwise) comes from the logging industry and their lobbyists who voraciously and profitably mine timber on public lands. "Free enterprise" would much rather clear-cut national forests than manage their own tree farms. Carrying out expensive, and perhaps ill-considered, forest management practices is something they would much rather have the tax payer do, provided the loggers dictate the specs to maximize their own returns. For example, if a clear-cut causes erosion that pollutes a stream, ruining a Native fishing enterprise or a sportsman's wilderness guide or outfitter, they don't care. Other people's businesses are not their problem. And if a forest burns down, well, there are plenty more of them out there. The gummint practically gives the resource away.

There's also a lot of infrastructure that benefits the loggers indirectly, (fire towers, fire fighters, erosion abatement, logging roads, insect pest control, etc), that they get the government to pay for so they won't have to.

This whole "private ownership of public lands" controversy (ref the Bundy welfare cowboy episode in Nevada) is a smokescreen to turn over public property to private interests for exploitation. Whether its forests or range lands, the private users don't want to nurture and maintain the land in sustainable ways, they want to mine it and rape it repeatedly, and they expect us to help pay their bill.

As usual, if you look deep enough into any social problem, you eventually turn up some greedy capitalist and their Conservative front men who are taking advantage of it, if not deliberately causing it.