At a briefing at the Lolo Peak Incident Command in Missoula, Zinke and the others spoke of the importance of getting ahead of wildfires by better managing forests, as well as the threat they say certain environmentalists pose to that effort.
Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) said forest fires in Montana have become all too common and that better management will result in healthier forest, more wildlife and hunting, and less frequent and intense fires.
Asked Thursday if climate change has anything to do with the intensity of fires in recent years, Perdue said there have also been major fires in the eastern part of the country at certain periods of time.
“There obviously is climate change, temperature change, weather change. And we have to deal, we have to adapt to it. And we have to manage the forest,” he said.
In an apparent attempt to dismiss the role of climate change, Daines pointed to the Great Fire of 1910, which “burned three million acres [in Montana and Idaho] and killed enough timber to fill a freight train 2,400 miles long,” according to the Department of Agriculture.